his pea coat before holding the front door open for me.
A frigid wind cuts into us as we step out into the parking lot. The night is dark and ominous as we hurry to Cal’s car, slamming the doors behind us to shut out the chill.
Starting the engine, I wait just long enough for Ricardo to buckle his belt before I floor it out of the parking lot and around the corner where the perimeter cameras won’t be able to see us.
My heart is still pounding as I cut the engine and turn to Ricardo. “Quick, turn off your phone.” Digging my own out of my bag, I turn it off with a violent stab at the button. Wait for Ricardo to do the same.
His brows are furrowed when he meets my eyes. “What’s going on? How the hell did peanuts get into Gul’s food?”
Swallowing, I pull the vial out of the front of my dress.
Ricardo’s brows shoot into his hairline as he looks from my face to the glass bottle in my hand. “What’s that? And why was it in your bra?” He keeps his eyes studiously away from my chest.
“Smell it.” Twisting off the top, I hold it under his nose.
He takes a sniff, and his eyes nearly pop out of his head. “Why do you have that? Poisoning someone isn’t your style, Char.”
“You’re right. I’m more the stab you in the heart with a stiletto type, but this isn’t the time for that. Someone snuck this into my clutch at the party.”
Ricardo’s head snaps back toward the academy as if the answer is visible through the car’s rearview mirror. “Someone at the party put that in your bag?”
I nod.
“You have to give it to the police, ma chérie. They can fingerprint it and find out who was behind the attack tonight.”
“And have them wonder how I got it? No, thanks. I’m sure they’ve heard the ‘It wasn’t mine’ excuse one too many times before. There’s no way they’d believe me. I can’t give this to them.”
Ricardo starts to argue, but I press a finger to his lips. “Don’t. There’s more. I asked Gul about that video of her. She denied meeting Professor Rook, but I could tell she was lying about it. There’s something going on with her. I thought maybe she was involved in the hit-and-run, but now, I don’t know. If she was responsible, that doesn’t explain what happened tonight. I don’t think she’s hard core enough to poison herself to throw off suspicion. Do you?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
Sucking my lip between my teeth, I chew on it absently as I think through the events of this semester so far.
Professor Rook.
The threat on Gul.
My attack.
Ricardo’s brush with death.
Tonight’s peanut incident.
Someone is trying their hardest to get at Gul, Ricardo, and me, all because we’re somehow linked with the investigation into Professor Rook’s death. I get why they attacked me, and Ricardo, but Gul?
Ricardo licks his lips. “What if the killer tried to poison her tonight because they think she knows who they are. Like she saw them driving the car?”
His words reverberate through the car, and as soon as they hit my brain I know he’s right. Whoever the culprit is, they’re afraid Gul saw them when she was outside that night. That’s why they attacked her tonight. I still don’t know why she was outside in the first place, but that doesn’t matter now.
The chemical smell of industrial cleaning supplies nearly makes my eyes water as I argue with the nurse at the station closest to the ER. She crosses her arms and turns away from me, unwilling to tell me anything about Gul, wouldn’t even admit she was being cared for in the ER, even though I literally followed the ambulance here and know she’s somewhere behind the heavy metal door. No matter how much I turn on the charm, use my politician’s smile, the woman isn’t budging.
Pursing my lips, I pace over the shiny linoleum floor to where Ricardo is sitting in a chair in the waiting area, chin in his palms. Running one hand over the nape of his neck, I coil my fingers in his curls.
The sounds of nurses making announcements over the intercom blurs as I tune it out, along with the beeping of hospital machines, and the ding of the nearby elevator.
Reaching up, he grabs my free hand and brings it to his lips. “You okay, mon coeur? We’re going to figure this out and