RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,148

faintest glimmer shining through the boughs of the live oaks, but it's there. I see it plain as day. Which means Wren's already at the gazebo. So why, then, did he tell me to wait an hour to meet him? Jesus fucking Christ, I'm probably blowing this way out of proportion, but I’m not waiting a goddamn hour to find out what’s going on if I don’t have to. So help me, I’m going down there and I’m finding out what the hell is going on.

Unlike the first time I ventured into the maze, tonight the air is calm and still. It's even warm enough that I've come outside without a jacket. It's much brighter, too. The sky's clear and the moon is almost full; it casts so much light down onto the grounds of the academy that I'm able to navigate a path through the high walls of the maze without losing my way at all. My ears roar from the silence as I approach the gazebo. I've planned a litany of abuse that I'm gonna hurl at Wren if I find him sitting in here with his nose in a book. I haven't let myself consider what course of action I’ll take if I find him in here with another girl. I know he wouldn't do that. I know it like I know the sun will rise in the morning, and the world will keep spinning on its axis. This awful feeling that keeps churning around in my stomach won't give me any peace, though.

Why didn't he answer the question I asked him in that text message? If he's not planning on messing around with other girls at this party, then why wouldn't he just say so?

I'm five feet away from the gazebo when I'm finally close enough to see inside. And it's not Wren inside, after all.

It's Dashiell.

And Carina.

Fuck!

I duck down, and the taste of copper floods my mouth; I've bitten my damn tongue. My eyes water around the pain, but I don't make a sound. Crouching down in the bed of rose bushes outside of the window, they can't see me from inside...but now I'm stuck here. It's a miracle they didn't see me marching toward the building. Even if I squat down low and scurry back towards the entrance of the maze, there's a very real chance that they'll spy me. I am well and truly screwed.

Voices float out of an open window into the still night air.

“You don't have any right!” It's Carina's voice, and it sounds like...ahh, shit, it sounds like she's crying. Fuck, this is the last thing I need—to get busted eavesdropping on this conversation. At least it sounds like she’s giving him hell for messing in her relationship with Andre.

“You're right. And I'm sorry,” Dashiell murmurs. The acoustics inside the gazebo must be ridiculously good. His voice is low and deep, but I can hear him perfectly. I have really gotta get out of here. “I just don't want any of this coming back to hurt us down the line, okay?”

Hah. Dick. He's got a funny way of showing her he cares. If he didn't want anything coming back to hurt him down the line, he shouldn't have arranged for Carina to walk in on him while he was getting his dick sucked by another girl. That would have been a great start.

“The cops need to know,” Carina says. “This...what you're asking me to do. It isn't fair, Dashiell. There have got to be consequences. He can't just...” She's crying now. Crying hard enough that she's choking on her emotion. “He can't just be allowed to get away with it again. What if...what if he hurts someone else? What if he hurts Elodie?”

Everything stops.

My heart.

My brain.

All cognitive thought.

What the hell did she just say?

“He's dangerous, Dash. You know he is. We can't allow someone else to suffer because of him. Not because we're too chicken shit to speak up, for fuck's sake.”

“Look, you have no idea what you're talking about. How can you know she wasn't high when she wrote that? She was out of her mind ninety percent of the fucking time. Mercy saw to that. Just throw it into the fire and let's just wash our hands of this whole thing.”

“But Elodie—”

“I know she's your friend, Carrie, but I don't know the girl. If you care about her so much, then make sure she stays the hell away from him. Shouldn't be too hard. He'll forget all about