Kiss and Tell(39)

“She was kidnapped—” Sydney spat out, but Calum talked right over her.

“Tenley was the most important. She and her dad were out on the water the night of my ill-fated boat ride. They didn’t see me—I spied on them long enough to ensure that—but there were photos. I had to hunt them down and bury them where no one could ever see them.”

Sydney cowered against the wall, her heart pounding wildly. This couldn’t be happening. But Calum kept talking, his voice insistent. “I thought that would be enough. I never planned to take things further than that. But then junior year, I transferred back to Winslow, and everywhere I went, I saw you or Caitlin and I just—I couldn’t take it. Then Tenley moved back, and it was the last straw. I knew I had to punish you all, the same way I punished Kyla and Jenny.”

“So you started the game,” Sydney whispered. She was shaking all over now, and she pressed her hands against her legs, trying not to let it show.

Calum nodded. “I bided my time throughout the summer. I wanted my game to be perfect this round. In the end, it was Tenley herself who gave me the idea for my theme, thanks to that infantile game of truth or dare she played at her party. At first, I just targeted you, Caitlin, and Tenley, but then I learned about Matt Morgan’s new affair.” Calum slammed his fist into the couch, making Sydney jump. “After that, Emerson Cunningham joined the game. There was Tricia and Delancey, too, of course. But they were never important—necessary casualties.”

“Why not just kill us?” Sydney hissed. “Why torture us first?”

“I wanted you all to feel what I’ve been forced to endure: a slow, gnawing fear, the kind that eats away at you. If anyone were ever to find out what my dad had been forced to do, or what I had been forced to do… the last of my family would be destroyed. Do you know what that kind of fear does to you? You didn’t, of course. But thanks to my little game, now you do.”

Calum tilted his head until he was looking straight at Sydney. “You were the only one who almost got out. At the homecoming dance, I was going to tell you everything. But then you rejected me—left me—just like all women do.”

Calum stood up abruptly. “You deserved to be framed for the fire in your dad’s apartment after that.” He took one step toward her, then another. Sydney’s eyes darted toward the window. The snow was a wall of white outside. Calum stuck his hand into his pocket. “I have something for you, Syd. I stole it back from Tenley.” He lifted the sapphire ring from his pocket. The stone glittered in his palm.

A scream rose from Sydney, but before she could run, Calum grabbed her hand and shoved the ring onto her finger. “There.” His nails dug into her skin. “My mom died in it, and now you will, too.” And then his hand was on her neck, and he was squeezing, hard.

Spots danced before Sydney’s eyes. She tried to kick him, scratch at him, anything, but Calum was bigger than she was, and much stronger. He pinned her hard against the wall, sending pinpricks of pain reverberating down her shoulder blades. “Please,” she coughed. The spots grew bigger, flashes of light that drained all color from her vision. She struggled even harder, trying to wriggle out of his grip, but Calum just jammed his hand against her windpipe, cutting off more air.

“I didn’t want to do this, Syd.” His breath was hot on her cheek and he stank of beer. “I really was in love with you. But love is just another game, isn’t it? How hard can we stomp on Calum’s heart before there’s nothing left? You thought you won, Syd, but you didn’t. I always win.”

“No!” The word came out in a choking rasp. “I do love you, Calum!” At the proclamation, his grip loosened, just a little. Air rushed down her throat, making her cough. The room spun around her, walls blurring into ceiling.

She could feel the lie building inside her. It hurt as she forced it out. “I was confused! You’d left me in a tailspin with all your notes, and I didn’t know which way to turn. But it never changed how I felt about you.”

He was watching her intently now, his forehead scrunched up in confusion. His grip loosened further. “You’re the only one who ever really understood me,” she rushed on. The words scraped out of her, painful. “I need you, Calum. I love you.”

His grip relaxed. The room stopped spinning. Calum’s eyes were heavy on her face. She lifted a hand to his cheek, pulling him to her. “I need you,” she said again.

“Syd,” Calum murmured, and then his lips were on hers. The kiss was hard and intense. His hand released her neck and slid into her hair. It was her chance.

She lifted her hand and slammed the sapphire ring against his face. It dug a gash into his cheek, and Calum leaped backward with a howl. That was all the space Sydney needed. She sprinted away, grabbing her car keys and racing toward the front door.

Outside, the cold slapped at her, an assault from every side. The sun was almost finished setting, and the snow was so thick she could barely see a step in front of her. She pushed blindly forward, the wind whipping her hair into her face. She had to get to the gate. Because of all the snow, she’d left her car parked on the other side, out on the street.

“Sydney…” Calum’s voice lifted behind her, tossed left and right on the wind.

Sydney ran faster, toward what she could only hope was the gate. She’d made it several yards when her foot hit something hard and she went flying forward. She landed face-first in the snow, on top of her keys. Cold stung at her skin, rubbing her cheeks raw. She could feel the snow seeping into her clothes, until the cold wasn’t just around her, but inside her, settling in her bones. Still, she dragged herself up and lurched forward again, hands out in front of her, searching for the gate. “Sydney?” Calum’s voice floated toward her, a little louder this time. A laugh followed, distant and hollow.

Icy iron bars hit up against her fingers. Yes. She was shivering violently as she felt around for the door. Her hand closed around the knob. She pulled. Pulled again.

It was locked.

She sagged against the iron bars. She couldn’t see the keypad anywhere, and the gate had to be at least eight feet tall and coated in slippery, wet snow. There was no way she was climbing over it.

“Sydney? Where are you?” Calum’s voice reached across the darkness and the snow. “The gate’s in panic mode; we’re locked in. You’ll never outrun me. I was a lifeguard, remember?”

Sydney pushed herself off the gate, squinting through the blur of white. Her gaze landed on the cliffs that bordered Neddles. They were the same ones that ran through Dead Man’s Falls. She thought about how dark and twisty it had been up there. If there was ever a place she could lose Calum, it was up on those cliffs.

Sydney shoved her keys into her pocket and took off in the direction of the rocks. Drifts of snow were starting to pile up on them, making the climb treacherous. But she had no other option. She could hear Calum calling out in the distance: “Sydney… Sydney…”

She pulled herself up onto the rocks. Snow crept under her fingernails, sending a chill convulsing through her. Calum’s voice rang out again. “You want to play, Sydney? Fine, I’ll play. But remember: I always win.”

She had to keep moving. She had to get away.

She crawled upward through the snow. Hand, foot, hand, foot, inching from rock to rock. She didn’t dare look down, or take her eyes off the route. The snow was a tunnel around her. The wind beat at her back. The cold wetness soaked through her sweater and boots until she could no longer feel her limbs.

It had been Calum all along. It was dawning on her slowly, a spinning, twisting realization, the full impact of it dancing just out of her reach. How could she have missed it? How could she have been so blind? She’d trusted him. Maybe that was the problem. In the end, it was the people you trusted who had the power to break you.

She forced herself to keep going: up and up.

The cliffs were slick with snow, and she slipped as she climbed higher, slamming hard onto her knees. Pain reeled through her, but she refused to stop. In the distance, a round beam of light broke through the snow. A flashlight.

The killer was here.

She pushed herself further. One foot, then the next, then—ice .

Her foot slid out from under her. Suddenly she was careening forward, the edge of the cliff much too close. She cried out as she caught herself on a jagged rock. She stretched a toe out, searching for a safe pathway, but at every angle she was met with ice. This high up, it coated everything.

Behind her, the flashlight burned brighter. She was trapped.

She looked out over the cliff. The storm was colorless: stark white brushstrokes against a black sky. Down below she could hear the ocean roaring and crashing. She wrenched the sapphire ring off her finger. She was breathing hard as she threw it over the cliff.

She was nearly at the edge now. Just a few more inches and, like the ring, she, too, would fall into nothingness.

The icy crunch of footsteps rang out through the night.

There was nowhere left to run. Nowhere left to hide.





CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE


Tuesday, 5:50 PM


It happened in a blur of snow and fog. The flashlight beam tangled in the snow, illuminating the cliffs in bursts. Burst: a thick green sweater. Burst: a thin figure, shoulders hunched against the cold. Burst: Dark hair, threaded white with snow. “Sydney!” Tenley tried to scream her name, but her lips were too cold to move, and Sydney stood at the edge of the cliff, unaware.