Tuesday
February 13
Detective Alexander screeches to a halt outside the house. The police car parked out front is empty.
Oh God, no.
“What’s going on?” I ask, but the detectives are already out of the car and running to the front door, hands on weapons.
I can’t move. My body has seized up, muscles locked in place.
They’re all dead. I know it. I can’t go in and see that.
We had everything in place. This plan should have worked, but Jake was smarter, and now my friends are dead. I should never have gone to that club. I close my eyes and bend over, laying my chest on my legs.
I’ve lost everyone.
I wait for the searing pain to come, but there’s nothing but vast darkness, which leaves me hollow. If it wasn’t for Chace, Sonny, Isaac, Sienna, and Charlotte, I wouldn’t have gotten this far through school. They’ve been my family, and now they’re gone.
Someone hammers on the window. I don’t move. I don’t want to face reality. I want to stay huddled here forever.
“Lylah!”
Chace?
I sit up, gripping the door handle with one hand and the passenger seat’s headrest with the other. In the streetlight, perfect green eyes stare back at me through the window. He’s here. He’s okay.
Then where is Jake?
Frowning like he’s a bit scared of me, Chace opens the car door and crouches down. “Are you okay?”
Oh God, he’s alive!
I launch myself at him. Burying my head in his neck, I burst into tears. It’s like an overflowing river I can no longer control. I sob, clinging to him like he’s the only thing holding me together.
“Jesus, it’s okay, Lylah,” he says, wrapping his strong arms around me. He kisses the side of my head and stands us both up. “You’re okay.”
It’s not me I was worried about. “I thought… Chace, I was so scared,” I sob, pulling back so I can see him and make sure he’s definitely all right. I run my hands over his face, making sure he’s really here.
“Detective Lina told us what happened at the club. He won’t get you, Lylah, I promise.”
But I’m not so certain. He left a message. A message with a heart. A human heart from one of my friends. I avert my eyes, ashamed that I almost stepped on it.
Cops run from the house, and Detective Lina is behind them, on the phone.
“What’s happening?” I ask.
Chace steps to the side, now on high alert. “Have you found him?”
Detective Alexander stops in front of us. “Chace, do you know where Charlotte is?”
The color drains from his face. Chace turns white. “She was in her room.”
No.
“He’s got her, hasn’t he?” I ask out loud, trembling.
“What the hell!” Chace roars. “How is that possible with all officers around?”
“The back door was open,” the detective says.
If Jake had gone out the back with Charlotte, the only place that the police are unable to park right outside because of the pedestrian zone, he could have made her jump the wall where it’s not visible from the road where the police car was parked.
“We locked all the doors!” Chace snaps. “The locks have been changed! How is he doing this? How is he getting inside?”
“What if he messaged her?” I ask. “They’re friends on Facebook. Maybe she left voluntarily.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” Chace replies.
“I did. And she might have if she was blackmailed. Think about it, if he contacted her, she would know that tonight was a setup. This was the plan all along. He wanted to get to one of us, and he chose Charlotte.”
Chace frowns. “Then why not just message her? Why contact you?”
“It’s getting harder to get to us with the added security. But by diverting our attention…” I trail off. “He’s sick. He probably got pleasure leaving that heart and threat for me to find.”
I reach into the car and grab my phone from the floor of the car where it dropped.
“What are you two still doing out here?” Detective Lina says, shouting from the other side of the car. “You both need to get back inside. Now.”
I unlock my phone. “No. I need to message Jake and try to get Charlotte back.”
“No, you need to leave this to us.”
Because that’s been going brilliantly so far.
I ignore the detective and tap a message to Jake.
Don’t hurt her. What do we have do to make you stop?
“Lylah, stop. Don’t send that message,” Detective Alexander steps toward me, but Chace blocks him with his shoulder.
“Not happening, buddy,” Chace says.
“Lylah, Chace, inside now,” Detective Lina snaps. “I’m going to need to see the message you sent.”
I zip past the car and shove my phone into her hand, not stopping to see her reaction before I march into the house. She can read it all she wants. If Jake is willing to text me, we should be taking advantage of that. Nothing else has worked so far.
Detective Lina calls after me, her voice angry and disappointed, but I continue into the house. Unzipping my coat, I throw it on the sofa and rip off the Velcro on the bulletproof vest. I barge into the living room, dump the vest on the floor, and sit down in a huff. Sienna is alone on the chair, twirling her hair around her finger and staring into space.
Detective Lina follows us inside and folds her arms. Chace flies in behind her, pushing past her to sit beside me. Besides the two detectives, there is one other officer in this room. He stayed behind when the other three left to search for Jake and Charlotte.
“Say whatever you want, Detective, but someone has to do something.” I reach out for my phone, and she drops it in my open hand.
She shakes her head. “We’ll just have to deal with whatever happens next.”
She’s probably annoyed that I got in there and contacted him first. I don’t care anymore. We’ve played it how the police want this whole time. Now Charlotte is missing. Something has to change.
My phone beeps, and I drop it into my lap like it’s as hot as lava.
The room falls silent.
“It’s not going to explode, Lylah,” Chace says quietly. “Look at what it says.”
Charlotte’s already dead. You shouldn’t have turned me down.
“No,” I whisper, rereading the message again and again. I see the words, but they don’t seem real. Charlotte. He killed Charlotte. And he’s trying to justify it! Charlotte is dead. But what does he mean by turning him down? Is he referring to when I denied his kiss last year or the fact that I didn’t follow his orders to meet him alone tonight? I am numb. “When did Charlotte go to her room?” I ask my friends, passing the phone to Detective Lina, my voice breaking with emotion.
“What did it say, Lylah?” Chace asks.
“When?” I demand.
We’ve only been gone thirty minutes. Is that long enough to lure her out of the house, take her somewhere, and kill her? Maybe he’s baiting me.
“Right after you left. She didn’t want to wait up with us. We were tense, so she didn’t want to hang out with us here in the living room. She wanted to go to her room, to her own space,” Sienna explains. “Why? What did Jake say?”
Jake had thirty minutes. “He can’t be far. He must have gotten Char out of the house right after I left.” I pause, and Sienna looks at me expectantly. “Jake said she’s already dead.” My voice is hoarse, barely working as I stammer the words, still not believing them.
Sienna’s face pales. “No.”
“We don’t know that’s true. He’s never told us before. He likes planting the seed, threatening, and leaving his victim’s fate to be found,” Chace says.
“Charlotte got a text before she went to her room,” Sienna squeals. “Was that him? Could we have stopped this?”
Detective Lina shakes her head. “This is no one’s fault.”
Despite her insistence, I’m feeling pretty responsible right now. If I’d gone alone to the club like he asked, Charlotte…would probably still be with Jake. He never believed I would go alone, did he?
“Do we believe him?” I ask the detective.
She shrugs. “I want to say no. The timing is incredibly tight.”
“You want to say no, but you’re not actually saying it,” Chace points out. “There’s a difference.” He pauses. “We should reply to him. Demand proof. I don’t believe him, but I’ve underestimated him before.”
I’ve had enough of seeing proof.
Detective Lina holds up her hands, my phone now being examined by Detective Alexander. “We need to take a step back and think this through.”
“If there’s a chance that Charlotte is still alive, we don’t have much time. We need to act! Now!” I exclaim. “Detective Lina, come on!”
The two detectives make eye contact and have some sort of silent conversation. She nods at him, then turns to me. “You are not to send any messages that we haven’t authorized. We need to get him to believe that he’s won. He has to think we know there’s no way we can get close to him. Feed his ego.”
I nod. That I can do, even if it leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. I know what I need to send.
You’re the one who holds all the power. I get that. The police can’t end this. Only you can. Tell me how.
I show the detectives what I’ve typed, and when I get a curt nod, I hit send.
“Do you think he’ll reply?” Chace asks.
“It’s hard to tell,” Detective Alexander says. “Some killers can’t help themselves and others have more self-control over the impulse.”
“So time will tell which type of psycho Jake is,” I say.
Detective Lina gives me a sad smile. “Yes.”
We wait. Minutes feel like hours. I can tell Jake has read the message, but he hasn’t replied.
What is he thinking?
My lip is raw where I’m tugging it with my teeth.
I’ll let you know.
My breath catches at his message.
“I’ll let you know is all he’s written,” I say. “What does that mean? When will he let me know? And what will he let me know? What if he really has killed Charlotte?”
Detective Lina takes the phone.
“He’s telling you he’s in charge, Lylah. I expect he’ll make contact again, but he’ll make us wait,” Detective Alexander explains. “That means if he hasn’t already killed Charlotte like he claims, he’s likely to keep her alive. She’s his pawn.”
“She’s a person, not a pawn!” Sienna snaps.
She’s our person, and I close my eyes, wishing and willing with all my might that she doesn’t get killed.