I hear Gabriel talking softly, and a girl’s voice answering. My heart patters in my chest.
Of course, Gabriel has a girl here. I flattered myself when he said he never brought another girl to his condo. I thought it made me special, but it just makes me a gullible fool. Even more reason why you should not trust these guys.
A few moments later, Gabriel leans over the railing, his voice as sweet as triple-chocolate-cherry cake.
“Someone’s here to see you.”
He steps aside, and George stands in the stairwell, her face ashen, her arms covered in cuts and bruises, her cheeks smudged with tears.
That’s not the face of someone who’s just had sex with Gabriel Fallen.
“George, what happened?” I try to rise off the couch to go to her, but Noah shoves me down again.
“Mackenzie, I—” the words catch in George’s throat. Fresh tears well in her eyes. ‘I’m sorry. Alec and Cleo put around that no one should hang out with you, and I got scared. I should have—”
Her face crumples, and she buries her head in Gabriel’s shoulder. He places an arm around her and glares at Noah. “Apparently, Alec saw the two of you hanging out at school, and with his expert powers of deduction concluded she’s breaking his ridiculous rules. He won’t come after me for hanging with you, but he feels good about attacking a girl.”
“I had nothing to do with this.” Noah’s hands curl into fists. “I wanted Mackenzie to suffer, but if I had any idea of what Alec was really planning, I—”
“What the fuck happened to George?” I yell. Eli winces.
“George works in a vintage store in Brawley where Cleo loves to shop. She overheard Cleo in the changing rooms with her friends last night talking about their nefarious scheme, so she went to school early to warn you. She couldn’t catch you, so she went to the gym and saw them carrying you away. She went to find a teacher, but Cleo got to her first. While the guys took you to the car, Cleo and her snakes beat George up and locked her in the school basement. I only found her because I go down there sometimes to get blazed.”
Realization hits me. In the desert, Alec wasn’t talking about Queen Boudica, he was talking about George. Which is odd – he knows I came after him because of what he did to my cat, so why didn’t he acknowledge it?
“Fuck.” My head spins. “George, I’m so sorry. This shit is between me and Alec. Not you. You were never supposed to be involved. You were right to run away from me. I— I’m bad news.”
Her eyes are wide as saucers, and for a moment I think she’s going to run at the window and leap through to freedom. Instead, she shuffles across the room and sits down beside me, curling her feet beneath her. I see she’s wearing Gabriel’s clothes – she’s swimming in an old tour t-shirt and a pair of drawstring sweatpants, but in an adorable way they suit her.
“I shouldn’t have run,” she says. “I just… I already knew about the rule when we went outside for lunch, but I didn’t think anyone would care until I saw Cleo staring at me. She was even worse to me after you disappeared. I didn’t want to give her a reason to—” George swallows. A spasm of pain hits her, and I’m ready to head back out to ram Cleo’s head into a wall. “I’m sorry. I thought you were tricking me. You and Cleo – just like in the old days. You’d pretend to be my friend so I went against the rule and then the two of you would do something horrible to me.”
“I used to be a mean bitch, huh?” I place my hand over hers.
“The meanest.”
I smile, and in that smile I pour all of my cruelty. Cleo will burn for this. “Let me say this once, and know that I mean what I say. You have nothing to fear from me. This mean bitch is on your side now.”
The grin on George’s face could light up the Emerald Beach NYE bonfire.
“Now that’s taken care of, anyone for a drink?” Gabriel has a cocktail shaker in his hand. He still hasn’t put a shirt on, but I’m not going to be the one to ask.
“I think Mackenzie just needs to lie down,” says Eli.
“Guess again.” I hold out my hand. “Make mine a double.”