At that moment, Rafe walked by and everything around me seemed to slow way, way down.
I looked at him and couldn’t look away. His eyes were on me, hard and bright, and all I could think was—
Don’t tell anyone.
What would he do if I did?
“OhmyGod.” Jenny’s squeak. That trademark whisper shriek. “What is that look about?” She nudged my shoulder with a little too much force. I nearly stumbled. The girl was way stronger than she appeared. “Seriously, it looks like the guy wants to take a bite out of you.”
Maybe he did.
I felt my cheeks flush. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I turned away and found myself staring at Cassidy. She watched me with her wary eyes.
Cassidy and Jenny—so different. How had I wound up with them?
Why did we seem to fit?
“I heard talk that you found the body,” Cassidy said. As usual, Cassidy didn’t seem to care about the boy-girl, high school gossip. She probably thought it was all crap. No, for Cassidy, it was straight to business.
I cleared my throat and slammed my locker shut. “My dad found her. I was with him but…he found her.”
Same story, different place.
“She was in her nightgown.” Jenny’s voice was hushed like Cassidy’s had been, and she’d apparently gotten distracted from the whole Rafe-biting-me thing.
Good.
I rolled my shoulders and wondered how Jenny knew so much info.
“My dad thinks she went out to meet someone,” Jenny admitted. Ah, that was right. Her dad was a reporter for the Haven Gazette. He seemed to like gossip as much as she did. “And that guy either left her to die…or never showed up.”
Either way, Sissy hadn’t made it back home.
The bell rang.
I grabbed Cassidy’s hand before she could leave. “I need to talk to your grandmother,” I told her. Yeah, I had twenty dollars in my pocket, and I was getting that next reading. “Something’s happened, and I…I need to talk to her.”
Cassidy frowned, but nodded. “After school?”
Good. “Perfect.” Because it was time that I got some answers about this town.
***
PE was hell. As usual. Like running two miles was supposed to be fun for me. How could it be fun for anyone? I huffed and puffed and felt like my side would burst open.
Then, when I went back to my gym locker to change, I noticed my necklace was gone.
Hell.
I’d taken the necklace off—Coach Bartlett’s rule, no jewelry—and left it in my locker.
Now it was gone.
My fingers curled around the cold metal of my locker door.
“Hurry up, ladies!” Coach Bartlett’s twanged voice blasted. “Two minutes and you’re out of here!”
But I wasn’t moving. Lost. I pictured the necklace in my mind. My necklace, it was—
“Move now!” Bartlett barked like a good drill sergeant.
I started changing even as rage heated my blood. I knew exactly where my necklace was, and I knew who’d taken it.
After all, I’d seen it in my mind. It was tucked away in her locker.
Bitch.
***
At lunch, I wasted no time in storming right up to Valerie. She was laughing and talking, and I shoved my way through the pack around her. “Give it back,” I snapped.
That stopped her. She glanced at me, blonde brows raised haughtily. “Excuse me?”
She knew exactly what I was talking about. I could see it in her eyes. With an effort, I managed to unclench my teeth and I said, “Look, maybe you do your little klepto routine for fun, but you’re not taking my necklace. It belonged to my mom, and I want it back.”
She laughed again, a taunting laugh that grated in my ears. “I don’t even know that you’re talking about.”
Troy stood to her right. I noticed that he frowned at her suspiciously. Ah, so she’d swiped things before.
“You want to play it this way?” I asked and bared my teeth. “Fine, but I gave you the chance to willingly hand it back over.”
I turned around and stalked toward the main school building.
“Anna!” Brent smiled at me as he approached, flashing those killer dimples. “Hey, I was looking for you—”
I tried to smile back at him, but right then, I was too angry at Valerie—why’d she swipe my necklace?—and…too guilty to meet his warm stare. I’d made out with Rafe while Brent and I were—
What were we?
“Tell your little trampy new girlfriend to stop harassing me!” Valerie called out, her voice way too loud. The better for everyone to hear her.
Brent’s eyes narrowed and lifted to Valerie. They didn’t look quite so warm anymore.
“I’m not the one who took something that belonged to someone else!” Valerie yelled.