The blood drained from my face. “What wasn’t Aaron?” I asked. My voice, failing me, was barely a whisper. I could guess—it was obvious—but I needed Megan to say it.
For the first time since we had arrived, she looked up and her eyes bore into mine. They held absolutely no emotion. Her eyes were nothing but dark pools.
“I did it. I killed Courtney, Josh, and Pete. Aaron is as innocent as you. He confessed to cover for me, but he can’t handle it in there anymore. Now he’s going to tell the truth.”
My mouth fell open as she confirmed what I was trying to convince myself couldn’t be true. “But…why? What?” She did it. She let Aaron do that for her. My head spun so I had to hold my stomach to stop myself throwing up.
I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming.
“I can’t go to prison, Mackenzie. You know I’m not strong like the rest of you. I would die in there.”
I closed my eyes and held up my hand. “Wait. I don’t… How did Aaron know? Why and how?” Nothing made sense again.
Beside me, Blake was still, as if he was still processing what she had said and her words hadn’t caught up with him yet. He was usually quick to react with a stupid comment or a smirk, but right now he was stone.
I easily had over a million questions, and they all whizzed through my mind at lightning speed, too fast for me to pin down long enough to ask any of them. The whole situation was crazy. Megan and Aaron were crazy. I was angry, confused, and hurt.
Megan’s eyes filled with tears. She was still calm, calm, calm. I envied her that. She’d done this horrible, unforgivable thing, and I was the one who was bloody livid. “Do you have any idea what it’s like waking up in the hospital and being told the woman you love is dead?” she asked.
I shook my head. We were going back to Gigi. I wanted to yell, but I knew better than to do it. I needed the truth. Aaron needed the truth to come out. Oh God, Aaron! I had thought he was guilty and so did Josh’s and Courtney’s families.
“Megan, they didn’t kill Gigi. Nobody killed either of them. It was an accident.”
God, this is why Aaron’s confession seemed so rehearsed—it was. Those were Megan’s words, not his.
“It’s hell,” she said, ignoring what I’d said completely. “I couldn’t even grieve properly because no one knew about us. I missed her every second of every day. I felt like I was drowning, and there was no way out. There was nothing I could do to make myself feel better or to make someone pay for what had happened. Justice was never served, but they both deserved what they got.” She picked up the gun.
What is she doing?
“Megan,” Blake said calmly, smiling a warm smile like the ones police give someone about to jump off a building. I was freaking out inside, my heart pumping a hundred miles an hour. “It’s OK, Megan. It’s going to be fine, but I need you to hand me the gun.”
“No,” she replied, her knuckles turning white as she gripped hold of the handle. My eyes widened and time screeched to a halt. “The things Josh said ate away at me. He was glad it was them rather than him. How could you wish someone died over yourself?”
I didn’t get that either, but I wasn’t prepared to kill over it.
“I don’t know,” I replied, just in case it wasn’t a rhetorical question. My eyes flitted between Megan and the gun.
“I kept thinking about them both rotting in the ground while Josh walked around doing whatever he wanted and Courtney followed him. I couldn’t stand it. Because of them, Tilly and Gigi were dead. They didn’t even care. We all took responsibility and we felt some guilt, but not them. They. Didn’t. Care.”
“Courtney did,” I said, defending my friend who wasn’t able to defend herself. Whatever her flaws, she loved her friends. Megan was painting Court with the same brush as Josh, and it wasn’t right. She was guilty of letting Josh walk all over her, but she cared.
Megan shook her head slowly, her jaw tightening in anger. “I confronted her the night after Josh said he was glad it was them. Courtney admitted she was glad she didn’t die. Can you believe that?”
Well, yes. “That doesn’t mean she wanted it to be Tills and Gigi. It just meant she didn’t want to die.” I was glad I didn’t die, and I knew that was selfish, but I was. If I had a choice though, I would have swapped with them in a heartbeat.
“Maybe she didn’t want it to be them, but it was. She chose Josh over her friends, like she had done a thousand times over.”
“So that meant Courtney and Josh deserved to die?” Blake asked. His lip curled in disgust and I squeezed his hand to try and diffuse some of his anger. This wasn’t going to a repeat of what happened with Aaron. We absolutely had to stay calm. He had to stay calm. Megan had a gun.
“Yes,” Megan replied. “There was a link—a link between Tilly, Gigi, Courtney, and Josh.” She held her hand up, pointing at nothing with her index finger. She was gone. The girl I knew was somewhere else. “They were responsible for their deaths, and Tilly and Gigi would never get justice. I couldn’t stand that. Two beautiful people were dead, and no one was taking the blame. No one was being held accountable.”
“So you took it into your own hands? Megan, that’s not justice,” I said, tears burning in my eyes.
“You don’t understand, Mackenzie. Josh and Courtney caused Tilly’s and Gigi’s deaths. They had to pay.”
“What did you do? Talk me through everything. I need to know. You owe me that much.”
“When I had made my decision to take things into my own hands, everything became so clear. It was like the fog had lifted. I instantly felt better about their deaths because someone was going to pay. I knew that it wouldn’t bring them back, but there had to be justice. At first I was just going to go to Josh’s house when I knew they were there and Eloise was away. You know that wouldn’t have been hard because Josh would brag about having the place to himself.”
That sounded like Josh.
“When he mentioned going away to the cabin, everything changed. It was better, easier. I knew I was incriminating you guys too, but I thought it through carefully and knew none of you would be arrested. Blake coming along last minute threw me, but it didn’t really matter. I had enough Rohypnol.”
I laughed humorlessly. Well, thank God she had enough for all.
“Where did you get it?” The idea of Megan getting hold of Rohypnol was ridiculous.
“You remember stoner Richard from school?”
“Yeah,” I replied. Rich had been suspended from school countless times for smoking weed. He was good-looking and actually pretty smart, but his home life sucked and he used weed to make everything better.
“He moved on to harder stuff, doing quite well for himself actually.” She shrugged. “He can get pretty much anything, so he was boasting. Anyway, I planned to drug you all, only enough so you’d be out of it until morning. I didn’t want to hurt you. I put Rohypnol in the liquor and took a second bottle, which I hid in my suitcase, so I could swap them over.”
“Why?”
Blake snorted. “So when the police tested the bottles it’d be clear.”
Megan dipped her head in a nod. “Yes. And I had a change of clothes, matching. I bagged the clothes and bottle, weighted it down and ran up the river as far as I could go before I lost sight of the cabin. It’s all somewhere down there. After that, I had a shower, changed into my duplicate clothes, and went to bed.”
I wanted to stop listening.
“You missed the part where you stabbed our friends to death,” I hissed.
She bowed her head. “You know what happened.”
“Who did you kill first? How did you do it? Did they fight? Did they die quickly? Why did you stab them so many times?” I asked, fighting myself to remain calm. I wanted to hit her, scream at her, strangle her. How could she?
“Do you really want those answers, Mackenzie?”
“Yes,” I snapped.
She looked surprised, as if I’d just let her walk away without telling me what happened in those hours I lost to Rohypnol.
“I gave you, Blake, Aaron, and Kyle more of the liquor.” The spiked liquor she meant. “When you all started looking dopey eyed, I took half a shot myself and gave Josh and Courtney a few too. I needed them to be able to walk around after you four were out of it. I wanted them to know what was happening without being able to fight back. It worked. I waited in my room for an hour after I heard you and Blake go upstairs to be sure you were out of it. I knew you’d both crash pretty hard once you were asleep.”
She’d heard us go upstairs. Not once did she mention anything about Blake and me being together that night. My face heated, but the enormity of what she’d done made any embarrassment pale in comparison.
“When I went downstairs, Josh and Courtney were in the kitchen, cleaning up. I think they’d been at it a while, and even though Courtney said she was exhausted, Josh wanted them to do the washing up. I told them I got up to get a glass of water and offered to help too.”
Her eyes hollowed. “Courtney stumbled into the counter, laughing as she threw the enchilada boxes in the bin. She laughed as if she didn’t have a care in the world.”
I wanted to shake her. We had all laughed since Tilly and Gigi died. The world still turned and life still went on. That was just the way it was, and Tills and Gigi would never want us to be miserable forever.
“While Josh was putting the bottles that still had something in them in the cupboard, I…I stabbed Courtney. It was so easy. The knife just slid into her like she was made of butter. At first she didn’t make a sound. She looked like she was screaming, eyes wide and mouth open, but she didn’t make a sound. I managed to stab her once more before Josh turned around. By that time, they were both groggy, moving slowly and not fully aware of what was going on. I stabbed him too.”
“Then you stabbed them both some more for good measure?” I spat.
“Don’t say it like that, Mackenzie. I had to make sure they were dead. When they were on the floor, I felt the rage of what they had done to Gigi spilling out of me. I got…carried away.”
I threw my hands over my face, squeezing my eyes closed as if that would squeeze the image from my mind. Carried away stabbing our friends. It was too much. I saw red spots behind my eyelids and gasped for air as my lungs deflated.
Oh God.
“Pete?” Blake asked, his voice chillingly calm. “What did he do?”
“That wasn’t intentional. Pete found out. I saw him in town a few days later and he saw straight through me. He knew it was me; I’m sure he did. There was an argument, and he said he was going to Wright. I followed him home…”
She did it. Not only had she murdered Courtney and Josh, but she’d killed Pete too. And she’d drugged her friends, hiding behind us to cover her own back.
“How could you do that to us? I thought we were friends.”
“We are.”
“No. You framed us to get yourself out of trouble.”
“I planned it well, Mackenzie. No one was ever supposed to be arrested for it.”
“Then why plant their things in Blake’s room?”
“You wouldn’t stop believing in Blake. Blake had motive. He woke up. Your relationship with him almost ruined it for me. It gave him opportunity. It wouldn’t matter to us if he went down; it wouldn’t matter to anyone if he did.”
Blake’s hands fisted over the table. That was low, even for Megan.
I didn’t dwell on what she’d said because I had to keep a level head. “And what about Aaron?”
She shrugged. “It all got to be too much and I confided in him. I was a mess and he said he’d take the rap for me.”
Lie. Her voice was void of all feeling, like she was retelling a story she hated. It was rehearsed. To Aaron, she would’ve had to be hysterical and…suicidal. Maybe he knew she had a gun and was afraid she’d take her own life.
“How could you let him do that?”
“I can’t go to prison, Mackenzie.”
Blake raged. He was quickly losing his temper, and the last time that had happened, he had been stabbed. I shot him a look, pleading with him not to make the same mistake again. Blake gritted his teeth as he tried to calm himself down.
“Aaron was willing to take the fall and I let him. No one ever does the full time. I figured he’d be out in a few years.”
“He’ll be out a lot sooner than that,” I said. “You’re telling the truth.”
“Aaron stabbed Blake, or are you forgetting that?”
“I can never forget that.” Every single time I see his scar, it makes my heart ache. I came so close to losing him. “Aaron’s real crime isn’t murder, Megan. He won’t serve time for something you’ve done. Not anymore. But you, well, you’re going to prison for a very long time.”
She shook her head. “I won’t.”
“You’re insane, Megan,” Blake said.
She looked him square in the eye and her smile chilled me to the bone. “You haven’t even heard the best bit yet. I still have the hoodie.”
“What hoodie?”
“The one I killed them in. Coincidentally, it’s about Blake’s size…”
I felt the world tilt. “Megan… What’ve you done?”
“I told you I won’t be going to prison and I meant it. Aaron can’t be in prison anymore, and I don’t want my parents to know what I’ve done. The police are going to find a black hoodie soaked with Courtney’s and Josh’s blood in a shed at Blake’s dad’s house. Wright is also going to get a frantic voice mail telling him all about how Blake has been threatening me and how I can’t take it anymore. He’ll know that I’m too scared to tell you, Mackenzie, because Blake has threatened to hurt you if I did. I can’t see a way out.”
Blake and I listened on in horror at her disgusting plan.
“There are various threatening text messages from a burner phone to all of us.” She looked at me and smirked. “They’ll find that…somewhere with Blake’s belongings too. Oh, don’t look scared, Mackenzie. You, Aaron, and Kyle are going to be fine.”
Blake scoffed. “You’re not ever going to get away with this, Megan. You’re insane if you think you are. Aaron’s going to confess.”
She tilted her head to the side. “You have no idea what I’m capable of. He wanted to confess if I didn’t sort it, and I’ve sorted it. See, Aaron only confessed in the first place because you threatened to kill his family, Blake. Now we both have a way out. When the police find all the damning evidence against you, it won’t be hard for him to convince them of that too.”
“Stop it!” I hissed. “My God, Megan, what happened? You’ve never been cruel.”
“You’ll never understand what I’ve been through, so let’s not even go there. Can you imagine how people are going to think of me when they find out I lost the love of my life and was tortured for weeks by a killer? I was so hurt and damaged from losing the one person I truly loved and so desperate to be free of the pain and abuse that I took my own life. People will mourn, plant trees, name buildings after me. I’ll be loved, and Blake will be in prison.”
“Megan,” I breathed.
She stood up and the chair clattered to the floor.
“Don’t, Mackenzie! Don’t say a word.”
The gun shook in her hands as she turned it on me. Blake froze, his face falling. I lifted my hands, my heart flying in my chest.
“OK, I’m sorry. Megs, please put the gun down. We can figure out a plan, I swear. You don’t have to do this,” I said softly, trying to calm her. Megan was in constant need of comfort. She was timid and some part of that had to still be in her.
“I don’t have a choice,” she spat. Her eyes were wild and flicked between Blake and me. The gun stayed fixed on my head.
“You do. There is always a choice. Please, Megan. Please put down the gun and let me help you.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “No one can help me, not even you, Miss Fix It. And you won’t be able to help your boy either.”
She lowered the gun, holding it in a tight grip by her side, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Stay calm and show her there’s a way out of this. If anyone could get through to her it was me, and the pressure and responsibility of that gave me a headache.
Blake’s future was on the line, and I had to try.
“Mackenzie’s right, Megan, you can stop this, and we’ll find a way to help you,” Blake said, taking a subtle step closer to me. His eyes focused on the gun.
“Don’t be stupid,” Megan snapped. “There is no way I’ll avoid prison, and I already have a plan. I like my plan.”
Blake’s eyes slid up to hers. “Your plan won’t stand up.”
Her lip curled as she stared through him. “Oh, really? You touched the gun. Your fingerprints are on it. Leave it in my hand or not, but it’ll look like you planted it there. I’m sorry, Mackenzie.” She took the gun and held it to her mouth. Before my brain processed what was going on she pulled the trigger.
Bang. My ears rang and Megan’s lifeless body fell to the floor like a rag doll.
A scream ripped from my throat, but I couldn’t hear a thing. Blake grabbed me as my legs were about to give out, and I clung to his arm. I couldn’t take my eyes off Megan. Blood. More blood. I’d seen enough blood.
“Oh God, Megan. Megan. Blake, she’s dead. Megan’s dead!” I rambled. “She shot herself. Oh God, the blood is everywhere.” I looked down, but I was clean. The blood had splattered behind her.
“Mackenzie,” Blake muttered. His voice was cold and laced with fear. Gripping my upper arms, he forced me to look at him. “Mackenzie, I need you right now. Calm down, babe, please.”
No. He was right. He needed me because he would go down for the crimes Megan committed and Megan would be loved. That couldn’t happen. How could Megan and Aaron plan something like that?
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, gasping for the air I so desperately needed.
“It’s OK.” He let go of my arms, cupped my cheeks, and bent his head to kiss me. I couldn’t let anything happen to him. He’d stolen my heart, and as long as he was OK, I would be too. I’d do anything to help him.
There was only one way to prevent him from being locked up.
I pulled back and stared into pretty blue eyes I’d fallen in love with so fast and so hard. Blake meant everything to me. “Run,” I whispered.
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