Kiss and Tell(13)

“Okay, okay.” Calum held his hands up in surrender. “I acquiesce. We’ll party on Saturday like it’s 1999.”

This time, Tenley couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Just as long as you never say that again.”

Calum gave her a salute. “Come on, I’ll take you out the back way. Just be careful of wires. There’s some construction going on.”

Tenley picked her way around a few stray wires as she followed Calum toward the exit. “Careful,” a construction worker grunted as they passed. “Some of the areas are—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. As Tenley stepped past him, several wires suddenly broke loose from a clump in the ceiling. Sparks flew as the wires tore away, bringing metal piping with them. “Watch out!” someone yelled.

Adrenaline surged through Tenley as she hurtled herself out of the way. She landed on the floor only inches out of the piping’s path.

“Ow!” The howl made her whip around. Calum, who’d been a few steps behind her, had caught some of the falling piping on his arm. It left an open gash behind. Calum’s already pale face grew several shades paler as he stared down at the blood pooling out of it.

One of the construction workers rushed over. “We’ve got a first aid kit in the truck,” he assured Calum. He glanced over at Tenley, sweat pooling on his upper lip. “You okay over there?”

Tenley nodded mutely. She shook out her arms, then her legs. She was in one piece, but the burn on her leg ached, and her skin was clammy all over. It was the accident at the homecoming dance all over again, the very worst kind of déjà vu. She could picture the light crashing down next to her, could almost feel the heat searing into her.…

“You sure, Tenley?”

Calum’s voice pulled her back to the present. “Yeah,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “You go take care of your arm.”

As one of the construction workers hustled Calum off to get first aid, another came over to help her up. “You’re lucky you’re so spry,” he commented.

Tenley stood up carefully, regaining her balance. “Who knew being a gymnast would save—”

She was interrupted by an angry shout. “What the hell?” someone yelled.

Tenley looked toward the source of the voice. A construction worker stood at the top of a ladder. He was holding a chunk of loose wires in his hand. The bottoms had been sliced neatly across. “No wonder that fell. Someone clipped the wires!”

Tenley shrank back, bumping her shoulder into the wall.

Someone had planned this.

No, not someone. The darer.

A beep rose from inside Tenley’s bag. Her body went numb as she reached for her phone. Blocked.

I just kicked things into high gear. Who knew doing my own dirty work could be so much fun?





CHAPTER NINE


Wednesday, 7:00 PM


Emerson sat in her car, trying to muster up the energy to drive home. It had been a terrible day: The only people to utter a single word to her were Tenley and her teachers. Even Marta had successfully avoided her. It had made Emerson feel like a magic act: Just one blink and she could disappear forever. Unable to take the silent treatment any longer, she’d skipped cheer practice and spent the afternoon trying to figure out what Delancey’s key unlocked.

She’d tried every avenue she could think of. She’d e-mailed Abby to ask if she knew about it. She’d taken the key to the hardware store to see if anyone there had suggestions. She’d made sure it wasn’t a fit for a local PO Box. She’d even ransacked Delancey’s bedroom, on the fabricated excuse that Delancey had borrowed one of her textbooks. But after all that, she was left with only one possible lead: a scribbled, balled-up note she’d found in the trash can next to Delancey’s desk. It had just two words on it, written in Delancey’s perfect cursive: Purple door.

Was it possible Delancey’s key led to a purple door? And, if so, what did that door have to do with the darer?

Despite the dead ends, racing around town and actually doing something about their situation had Emerson feeling the most like herself all week. With a sigh, Emerson put her car in gear. When she slipped into her house a few minutes later, she could hear the buzz of a TV drifting out of her parents’ bedroom. She crept quietly up the stairs, hoping they wouldn’t hear her. She couldn’t take another lecture, not tonight. She made it safely into her bedroom, closing the door behind her with a soft click before she turned on the light. That was when she noticed it.

Her underwear drawer.

It was hanging open, underwear and bras a tangled mess inside. Emerson walked toward it in a daze. When she’d opened the drawer that morning, it had been neat and orderly, underwear on one side, bras on the other. Now straps were hanging out and her underwear was jumbled in haphazard piles.

She inched closer, fear thrumming through her. It wasn’t until she was right there, close enough to touch, that she saw the invitation.

She lifted it up. It was printed on thick pink card stock and lined with a silver ribbon. YOU’RE INVITED! it screamed at the top. Underneath, in the same typewriter font, were the details.


What: A tryst

Where: The Bones

When: Tonight

Why: Disobey, and Tenley finally dies

Dress Code: Your underwear… and nothing else



Emerson squeezed her eyes shut, shaking all over. She had no choice but to obey. As strange as it was, Tenley was the only real friend she had right now. She couldn’t risk losing her, too.

She knew the whole thing could be a setup. But if it wasn’t, and Tenley ended up paying the price, she’d never be able to live with herself.

Emerson sneaked back out to her car in a daze. The drive to the Bones barely felt real. But then it appeared in the distance: a tower of boxes stacked to the sky. This far away, it reminded her of concrete LEGOs. Officially, the building was called the Tides Condominiums, but in the three years that it stood unfinished, the local news stations had coined it the Bones: as in a skeleton of a building. One day, it would be all glass and gleam, luxury apartments that would draw the rich in from Boston. But for now it was just a shell.

Emerson tried to quell the shaking in her hands as she parked in the Bones’ abandoned lot. She touched a finger to the horseshoe necklace she was still wearing. She could use all the luck she could get tonight.

Emerson had just turned off her car when her phone buzzed. Fear spiked inside her, making the temperature in the car suddenly feel like a hundred degrees. But the text was from Josh. You around?

Emerson stared grimly down at her phone. Running a quick errand. Call u after! The false cheeriness made her stomach turn as she climbed into the dimly lit parking lot. She gave her pocket a quick pat. Her pepper spray was there.

It was dark inside the building, but someone had lined up two rows of tea candles. Their tiny fingers of light created a pathway through the building. Blood pounded in Emerson’s ears as she followed it. The path wound past steel beams and concrete walls and bags of cement before stopping abruptly in a wide-open space.

“Whoa.” Emerson’s palms grew wet as she looked around. Red rose petals were everywhere. They lined the room, bathing the space in red. In the center of the floor, the silky petals had been delicately arranged into the shape of an X.

Emerson moved closer, the pounding in her ears now a full-on roar. The message was clear. X marks the spot. Or maybe it meant something else. X’d out—done .

Her instructions flashed though her mind. Dress Code: Your underwear… and nothing else.

Closing her eyes, she slipped out of her jeans, then her top. The clothes fell to the floor, leaving Emerson in her underwear.

“Okay,” she called out angrily. She opened her eyes, wrapping her arms around herself. “I’m half naked! What now? Are there cameras? Video?”

Outside, the wind howled, lifting goose bumps on her bare skin. From the distance came a faint creak. Every muscle in her body tightened. “Hello?” she yelled out. “Who’s there?”

Nothing.

But she could sense it. Her neck prickled. Someone was there. “Hello?” she tried again. “Show your face!”

A creak rang out in the distance, and then something else. Was that a snicker?

Fear choked her. Someone was waiting. Watching.

A shadow flickered in the corner of her vision. She spun around, but there was no one. Another breeze tickled her arms, and suddenly she was furious. “If you’re here, come out!” she yelled. Her voice bounced off the distant walls, circling around her. But the space was eerily still again, the kind of quiet that came from being truly alone. If someone had been there, they were gone now.

“You know what? Fine!” She grabbed desperately for her shirt. “I followed your orders! I’m out of here.”

Her shirt was dangling above her head when she heard them. Footsteps.

The fabric slipped out of Emerson’s hands. The footsteps drew closer, the sound drumming through the wide-open structure. Emerson stood paralyzed, her limbs like stone.

A person emerged. Tall build. Broad shoulders. Mohawked hair.

“Josh?”

“Emerson!” Josh took a step forward as his eyes darted from Emerson’s underwear to the rose petals and back. “What—what is this?” Confusion and horror flitted across Josh’s face. And then—anger. “This was your errand? Were you meeting someone here?”