Crushed

32 Crazy Love

When Emily pulled into her driveway, her mom was bent over in the front flower bed, spreading mulch. She brushed off her hands and smiled at Emily as she got out of the car. “Did you have fun at prom?”

Emily pretended to rub at an invisible stain on her dress. Fun wouldn’t quite describe it. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around what had happened. All this time, A had been right in front of them. At their parties. In their bedrooms—well, Aria’s, anyway. She couldn’t get the image of Noel’s body on top of Aria’s in the graveyard out of her mind, either. He’d looked so . . . desperate. Angry. And then he’d run off . . . to where? Ali? The police? Was it crazy that they’d given Aria six hours to find him?

Mrs. Fields pushed the wheelbarrow to the garage, breaking Emily from her thoughts. “Where’s Iris?”

“She went home,” Emily mumbled.

Mrs. Fields pulled off her gardening gloves. “It was nice having her here. I think she was good for you, too.”

Emily nodded. “She was,” she said distantly, realizing she meant it. In the end, Iris had been a good confidante. She was glad she’d shared Jordan’s secret with her. And she’d made the Noel connection in the nick of time. Emily felt bad for not seeing her off to The Preserve last night, but by the time she’d returned from the graveyard, Iris had been gone. It wasn’t like Iris had a cell phone, either—Emily couldn’t text her and make sure she got there okay. She headed toward the front door, suddenly dying to know.

She grabbed the cordless phone in the kitchen and dialed The Preserve’s front desk. “I want to check if a patient got in all right last night,” she said after a receptionist answered. “Her name is Iris Taylor?”

The receptionist typed something, then made an mm noise. “Yes, Miss Taylor returned safe and sound.”

“Okay, thanks.” Emily pressed the receiver closer to her ear. “Maybe I could set up a visit next week, then.”

After arranging to visit Iris next Wednesday, Emily hung up the phone and slumped into a kitchen chair. She felt good that Iris returned like she said she would. Maybe this time, she’d actually take her stay at The Preserve seriously.

Emily conjured an image of The Preserve with its Grecian columns and small terraces, then pictured Noel pulling his SUV up the drive to visit Ali, his secret girlfriend. Had he set appointments with “Courtney” like Emily just had with Iris? She still couldn’t quite wrap her brain around the fact that he and Ali had been working together for all these years. Watching Emily and her friends’ every move, plotting to bring them down.

She shivered, thinking of all the intimate moments Noel had spied on. How carefully had he watched Emily and Jordan on the cruise? Had he seen them on that glass-bottomed boat in Puerto Rico? Had he seen them kiss on the top deck? She’d known that A had been watching, but that A was someone they knew so intimately hurt even more. It had been Noel who’d called the FBI on Jordan. And it was because of Noel that Jordan had to swan-dive off the top deck, risk those treacherous seas, escape the country forever. Sure, maybe Ali had told him to do it, but Noel had actually done it. He hated them that much.

And he loved Ali that much.

Lost in her thoughts, Emily climbed the stairs and padded into her bedroom. She sat down on the bed and stared into the middle of the room, a memory suddenly coming to her. She’d been in the Rosewood Day locker room. The girl she’d thought was Courtney had sidled up next to her and acted devastated that Emily had been with her sister on the night she was killed. Emily had taken pity on Courtney, saying that if she ever needed anything, Emily was there for her.

Courtney’s face had lit up. Maybe we could get together after school tomorrow? she’d asked. If it’s not too weird, that is. With Ali, I mean. And Emily had said yes, of course, that would be fine, and when she’d looked up at Courtney again, the girl had a gleam in her eye, a twist of a smile on her lips. Is she flirting with me? Emily had thought, stunned. Courtney had winked, like she knew exactly what she was doing. And something resembling lust had rumbled in Emily’s chest. Those old feelings had started to stir. That old love.

But even if she was the one Ali wanted, she would have never done for Ali what Noel had. She would have never hurt innocent people, her friends.

She whirled around and kicked the bedpost so hard her toe ached. Maybe it was a bad idea that they hadn’t told Agent Fuji about A—both of them—immediately. Because if Ali and Noel were out there, they needed to find them. Now.