This is WAR (11 page)

“Are you okay?” It was kind of a ridiculous question, but it was the best Lina could do.

Mari didn’t respond, just looked up at her with glassy eyes, her expression unreadable.

“Come on, let’s get you dressed.” Lina tried to grab Mari’s limp arms to pull her into a seated position, but her hands were slapped away.

“Get off me. I’m fine.” Mari sat up and threw her shirt on over her head.

“But Trip … he was just …”

“All over me? Yeah. That’s kind of the idea, Lina. What do you think I was trying to tell you? What happened on the Fourth, no one can know about it, okay? God, you’re worse than Rose.”

“Wait, Rose McCaan?”

Lina stood there with her mouth hanging open, phone in hand. Mari and Rose were friends? No wonder Rose had freaked out when Lina mentioned Mari’s role in their plan the other night.

Before she could respond, Mari snatched Lina’s phone out from her grasp. “Yup, Rose and I go way back.” She tossed the phone in her oversized purse and hurried out of the locker room.

Chapter 13

Lina sat on the curb outside of the Club for what felt like forever. Could have been minutes, could have been hours. She didn’t know. Didn’t really care. She was done fighting. Done walking off the pain. She was ready to wallow. She watched the early birds arrive, white-haired and stooped, helping each other out of their gigantic cars. The twenty-something happy hour crowd came next, the girls sporting spaghetti straps and full faces of makeup, some of the guys wearing suits straight from work. Their entrance was loud, full of life and possibility. Her heart pulled when she saw families arrive a bit later. A group of middle school girls trailed behind their parents with their arms linked. The girl in the middle looked directly at Lina and smiled at her exactly the way Willa used to smile at people who looked lonely.

As they walked into the Club, arms tight, Lina couldn’t help but think about how easily they’d break.
Red rover, red rover, let Lina come over
. If the War failed, it was those girls
who would suffer. Those girls who would eventually be hurt and taken advantage of by the Gregorys.

“Lina?”

Rose McCaan appeared at the curb. Her long hair was a mess of frizz, and she was wearing the most heinous pair of khaki shorts Lina had ever laid eyes on.

“It should be illegal to have that many pockets,” Lina mumbled. What did one put in all of those pockets? Drugs? Phones? Evidence? All of the things Lina was missing. All of the things that Mari had probably given to Rose. Her mind raced with the best way to confront Rose about Mari. She had to be careful. She needed that phone, and until she had it in her hands, she needed Rose, too.

“Nice to see you, too. I’ve been calling you.” Rose shifted her weight from foot to foot like she had to pee. Lina had never met anyone who was so consistently nervous. “Come on. We have to get ready. He’s meeting me here. Soon.” Rose scowled, waiting for a response. When Lina offered none, she rolled her eyes and started toward the doors. “Pool house in five. If you’re not there, I’ll just text Madge. She’s been looking for you, too, you know.”

Shit. Madge. Lina knew she’d want to know exactly what she’d learned about Trip after a long day of stalking. She’d want to see pictures; she’d ask why Lina hadn’t called her back. As much as Lina wanted to stay on that curb for the rest of her life, there was no way she was going to tell Madge that she’d messed up everything with Trip. That there was now a waitress walking around Hawthorne Lake reading all of her texts about the War and the Gregorys. Her best bet was to get her phone back and figure out exactly what Mari and Rose were planning together. She had to play along and let Rose screw up first.

Lina hurried after her toward the huge pool behind the Club. By this time, the sun was low in the sky. It couldn’t set fast enough, as far as Lina was concerned. A couple sat at the edge, dipping their feet. The rest of the deck was clear. Rose wandered aimlessly, staring at the couple and back to Lina. It would have gone on like that for hours if Lina hadn’t intervened.

“You want them to leave I take it?” Lina could feel Rose’s eyes examining the colorful tattoos that snaked up and down her arms. She felt like saying, “My eyes are up here,” but didn’t care enough to bother. She kind of liked being a freak show. Especially to the boring girls like Rose. “Ooh, I know, let’s go skinny dipping!” Lina exclaimed loudly. She started to take off her shirt while Rose watched in horror and the woman grabbed her husband by the arm and yanked him inside. “See? Works every time.”

“Right, well, it doesn’t work for me. I could get in a lot of trouble … my mom?” Rose’s voice cracked.

Lina felt like punching her. “What’s the big plan, so we can both get this over with?” she groaned.

“Plan?” Rose squeaked.

“Uh yeah, you know, how you’re planning on getting James naked. How’d you get him here anyway? Promise of a quickie in the locker room?” Lina waited for her to take the bait.

“Yeah … um … that.” Rose stared down at her phone. In a sudden burst of inspiration, Lina stole Mari’s move. She almost felt like she was watching someone else as she yanked the phone right out from Rose’s grasp. Perfect. She’d use Rose’s phone as collateral to get her own phone back. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it sooner.

“Hey!” Rose shrieked, lunging at Lina. “You can’t? Come on …”

But Lina was already three steps ahead of her and faster than Rose. Her sandals clattered on the flagstones as she flipped through the texts.
Oh, my God
. There wasn’t a single text from Mari. Instead the phone was full of messages from James. They went back to long before Willa had died. All
pleases
and
forgive mes
and
I need to see yous
.

“You like him.” Lina stopped dead in her tracks and whirled around. Her eyes bored into Rose’s. “You like him and you’re trying to protect him. That’s why you joined, isn’t it? You wanted to save your psycho killer boyfriend? Well, congratulations. Mission accomplished. For your information, I had everything we needed to get the Gregorys cut off. Everything. And I lost it. Your stupid little friend stole it.” Lina laughed bitterly. “So, knock yourself out. None of this even matters. Why don’t you go screw your boyfriend, and we can call it a day, ’kay?”

“You bitch.”

Lina blinked. It was the first time Lina had ever heard Rose raise her voice. “What did you—”

“You think you’re the only one hurting here?” Rose snapped. “I don’t see you risking a goddamned thing for Willa. All you had to do was pony up twenty-five thousand dollars. A drop in the bucket for you. I gave up everything for this. My parents. My friends. My …” Her voice trailed off and Lina could only guess that James’s name was going to come next. “Screw it, keep my phone. The camera is next to the couch if you change your mind.” Rose straightened her shoulders and walked back toward the chairs lining the pool deck. “And before you go around saying that none of this matters, remember that we’re talking about Willa here. Your best friend. Even I know she was too good a person to let her killer go free.”

Lina opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat. Rose vanished inside. The worst part about Rose’s little speech was that she was right. Her knees trembled as she lowered herself into one of the upholstered lounge chairs, her hands useless in her lap. Funny: this was where she first met Willa. This exact spot, on the first day of the Club’s summer camp. Dumping your annoying middle school-aged child off at day camp was a time-honored Hawthorne Lake tradition. Lina swore her mother actually swiped her hands together after closing the car door, like Lina were a bag of trash on garbage day. And she kind of was. Glasses, baby fat, braces, and the beginnings of boobs no one bothered to help fit for a bra. If it weren’t for the incessant name calling at her school, Lina would still stink to high heaven, but she’d at least learned to sneak her mom’s deodorant.

And then she had seen Willa. Beautiful, even at an age where nobody was. Willa, who didn’t have to suffer through braces or get made fun of for having a mustache or bad eyebrows or zits or any of the other requisite humiliations of puberty: always the girl everyone wished they could be. And when Willa saw her that was it: she chose Lina to be her friend. No strings attached. There wasn’t some glamorous makeover, a dramatic unveiling of contacts and a cut and color all thanks to the beautiful blonde taking pity on the ugly duckling. There was just friendship. And fun. It was the first time Lina ever remembered anyone really liking her for who she really was. Honestly, it might have been the last.

“What the hell have I done?” she whispered out loud.

She had been wrong about Rose. She wanted Rose to have an agenda so she’d have a reason to hate her. A reason that wasn’t based on petty jealousy.

Lina pushed herself to her feet. She didn’t head to the pool
house because she felt bad for misjudging Rose. She didn’t go to prove to herself that losing Willa hadn’t turned her into a jealous bitch. No, Lina went to the pool house because all those years ago Willa had picked her. And when she crouched beside a leather chair and balanced herself on the terracotta tiles, her fingers tight on the camera, she was determined to finally take a real risk in return.

Lina paced the small shadowy pool house. Dusk had now fully settled in. The pool lights clicked on, and the water glowed like turquoise glass against the dark stone of the deck. Soon, couples would begin to spill out from within the Club, second and third glasses of wine in hand. Lina chewed her lip. Time wasn’t on her and Rose’s side. But then she heard a shatter. Where James Gregory walked, the sound of breaking glass inevitably followed. He was good at breaking things.

Rose froze, and even in the dark Lina saw her eyes widen. She was scared. Lina never should have agreed to let Rose do the dirty work. There was just no way in hell Ms. Stick-Up-Her-Ass was ever going to have the balls to get James naked. In poured James like the alcohol he was so fond of. He practically fell into the pool area, stumbled over the threshold, barely able to right himself. Brown liquid sloshed over the rim of his glass, his sunglasses perched at the end of his nose even though the day was long over. His eyes landed on Rose above his sunglasses, and he straightened, lunging in her direction.

Rose’s first instinct seemed to be to take a step backward, but she quickly ducked around him and spun toward the pool, reversing places as if they were doing some sort of messed-up tango. Lina’s stomach clenched. She resisted the urge to scream at Rose to stop, that he was dangerous, that he was drunk, that it could happen again. But she was right
here this time. She was in control. She could save Rose if she needed saving.

“Hey.” Rose said the word softly, like an invitation,

“I’ve tried calling you so many times. You never pick up. Never. What are you, scared?” James lurched toward her again.

Warning bells sounded in Lina’s ears. This was not going to end well. But she stayed where she was with her camera trained on the two of them.

Rose paused and shook her head slowly. “Not scared. Not exactly.”

“Well, you should be. You need to stay the hell away from me. Everyone does.”

“But it was supposed to be me.” Rose said the words so quietly that Lina almost missed them. “I was supposed to be with you that night. Not Willa.”

James let out a short bark of laughter. “Oh! So you have a death wish? That’s why you’re talking to me all of the s-s-sudden.” He slurred his words. “It’s all coming together now.”

Rose spun and bolted.

Lina ducked down, fiddling with the camera to turn it off. Her hands trembled. Enough was enough. She had no desire to watch two attempted date rapes in one day. The red light of the camera finally blinked off. She started toward the pool house door. This tango was over. But by the time Lina made it out to the pool, James was collapsed at Rose’s feet. She scowled at Rose.

“He fell. Tripped over one of the chairs. And now he’s out.” Rose kneeled down and started unbuttoning his shirt while Lina stood there gaping at her. A pool umbrella lay beside James’s limp body. Either it had fallen from the table a good ten feet away or someone had grabbed
it. “Well? What are you waiting for? This is it. Get the camera.”

“Did you …?” She wanted to ask Rose if she’d hit James with the umbrella. She wanted to apologize for being such a bitch and questioning her loyalty to Willa. She wanted to thank her for being able to fix the mess Lina had made of this entire day, but instead, she obeyed Rose’s order without so much as a peep. It was the best Lina could do. Besides, these pictures? They were going to be worth way more than any of her words.

Chapter 14