RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,149

her soon enough, and then you won't have to concern yourself with her safety anymore.”

“How can you be so cold? How can you be so detached from this?”

I hear Dashiell sigh. “The only person I care about is you, Carina. I think I've made that abundantly clear. If you don't wanna hear that, then that's your business. I get it. I fucked up. We can deal with that another time, though. Now give it to me.”

What the hell does he want from her? And what the actual fuck are they talking about? I risk a peek over the top of the rose bushes, but all I can see is the tops of their heads. Carina's crying grows louder. “Fine. Here, Lord Lovett. You always get your way, don't you?” I've never heard such bitter hurt in her voice. Not even earlier, when she told me that Andre had dumped her via text.

“I have no idea why you're protecting him like this,” she says. “He's not your friend. You know that, right? He might act like it, but he just uses people to get what he wants.”

“Maybe you're right,” Dashiell agrees. “But high school's nearly over, Carrie. We'll all be going off to follow our own paths in life. I'll probably never see him again. Until then, I have to see him all the fucking time, and I'm not risking him opening his mouth and blabbing to everyone about what went down that fucking night.”

“Oh my god, what are you going to—” Carina's startled gasp cuts short. She whimpers, and the sound is so heartbroken and mournful that I want to run in there and comfort her. I can't, though. This exchange between them is most definitely private. And I'm worried that it also might be somewhat illegal. I'm so confused, but Carina mentioned my name, and—

The door to the gazebo flies open.

Carina races out into the night and I see that her face is streaked with tears. She wraps her arms around herself like she's doing her damnedest to keep herself together.

Thank god, mercy of mercies, she's facing away from me and doesn't see me scooting back into the bushes like a fucking criminal.

“Carina, wait!” Dash emerges from the gazebo, slamming the door closed behind him. He goes to my friend, placing a hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him. “We've all made mistakes, okay. Big ones. I don't think we should have to keep on paying for them like this.”

She sniffs, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “Are you talking about what he did? Or what you did to me?”

For a moment, Dash doesn't say anything. I think he's going to let her walk away without an answer from him, but then he stumps up the courage, looking up at the sky, and he nods. “Yeah. I'm talking about what I did to you. I hate it, okay. I hate that I hurt you. I let things spiral out of control and I took a wrong turn. I've regretted it every single day since then. When are you going to forgive me?”

Carina.

Poor Carina.

She blinks at him, her profile painted in silver by the moonlight. “When are you going to learn that your position in life doesn't automatically entitle you to a do-over whenever you fuck up?” She looks like the saddest person in the world as she walks away from him. That is until Dashiell's shoulders slump and his head drops, a weary, dejected sigh working free from his lips. Then, he claims that title for himself.

He goes, too, disappearing into the opening of the maze, leaving me alone, my thighs burning from my awkward, contorted position in the bushes. It hurts like a motherfucker when I stand, straightening out my legs one at a time.

What the fuck did I just witness?

They might as well have been talking in code; there was so much I didn't understand. I did gather quite a bit of information, though, and troubling information at that.

Something bad happened. Something that Carina and Dashiell were involved in. And Carina is worried about it happening to me, too.

A cold, dead fist closes around my heart.

I go into the gazebo, pins and needles prickling all over my body. It takes all of a second to see the book sitting on top of the burning logs in the fireplace, flames licking over its tan leather-bound cover. I singe my fingers pulling it out.

It's only when the book flips over, landing with a flat