Fighting Fate

by Linda Kage

  And found both her friends gawking.

  “What…” Bailey couldn’t speak beyond that.

  Paige blushed. “Um…that’s a long story. You go first. What were you saying when you came in?”

  Bailey and Tess exchanged glances, both looking confused as if they’d already forgotten what they’d been so excited to share.

  “And what’re you doing back on campus so early?” Usually they didn’t roll in until after sundown on the Sunday before the week started. But it couldn’t even be eight a.m. yet. “Didn’t your ski trip go okay?”

  “Oh!” Tess finally brightened. “Yeah. No. I mean, my dad broke his ankle, and we had to leave early. But he’s going to be fine. We heard about Dorian Wade on the news so we hurried back to find out what was going on here. Did you know he was found—”

  Paige blanched. “Yeah, I know.” Scrubbing her face with both hands, she sighed and slumped onto the edge of her bed.

  Had it only been two nights ago that the whole debacle with Dorian had started? It didn’t seem possible. It felt like ages had passed. Things were moving too quickly. She didn’t know if she could keep up.

  “I have a lot more to tell you than you’ll believe,” she admitted.

  “Start with Logan,” Tess demanded, plopping down beside her. “And don’t leave out a single detail.”

  “Especially the juicy ones,” Bailey added, landing on her other side.

  “Actually, I think I need to start three years ago.” Paige groaned and dropped her hands. “But first, tell me what they said on the news. Do they have any suspects for who shot Dorian?”

  Tess gasped. “He was shot? With a gun?”

  “No, with a paper clip,” Bailey muttered. “God, Tessie. Really?”

  Tess ignored her and never took her wide-eyed gaze off Paige. “Holy crap. How do you know he was shot?”

  Paige winced. “The cops told us. When they came to question Logan and me.”

  Bailey waved her hands. “Wait, wait, wait! Why would the cops question you and Logan? Maybe you should start with that story first.”

  “No!” Tess grabbed her wrist. “Start with the bedroom details first. I want to know how long you guys have been sleeping together.”

  Paige blushed hard. “I don’t know if I can. It’s so surreal. I still can’t believe this is actually happening. But, oh my God, you guys. It was sooo…” She grinned and sighed. “He kept telling me I wasn’t ready, especially after Friday night. But I kept pushing and—” With a gasp of clarity, she glanced between her friends. “I’m no longer a virgin. Oh, wow. I can’t…this is all just so…I don’t know how to explain it. It was amazing, and I feel so alive and exhilarated and…and…but then I’m also kind of nervous and afraid that my dad is going to disown me, and I’ll lose my friend Kayla. But it was still so worth it.” Cupping her face in her hands, she gave a little moan. “I can’t process everything.”

  When both her friends stared at her as if she was insane, she blushed. “What?”

  Bailey blinked. “I’m in shock we’re even having this conversation.”

  “What brought you two together?” Tess asked.

  “Oh, right.” She still had to tell them everything. Blowing out a breath, Paige collapsed backward, landing with a plop on the mattress. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she hugged them hard and swallowed her apprehensions.

  “There’s a lot I haven’t told you guys,” she confessed. “About me. About my family. About before I came to Granton. And it started three years ago. With my brother.”

  Almost two hours later, Paige had changed into some day clothes and told her friends the entire history of her and Logan. Feeling drained, she slid off the bed and approached the sink to wash her hands. She had no idea why the urge came over her, maybe she needed to physically rinse away her anxieties.

  On her bed, Bailey and Tess remained mute, much as they had been through most of her story. Feeling their gazes, she studied her reflection in the mirror. Other than her tousled hair full of bedhead—yeesh, no wonder Logan had appeared so amused when he’d touched her hair—she looked exactly like herself.

  It was strange how the world around her seemed to be falling apart and her features hadn’t altered even a tad—well, except for the pair of nifty bruises on each cheek.

  Needing something to do as she received her friends’ inevitable reactions, she snatched up her brush and pulled the bristles through the dark strands as she turned to face Bailey and Tess.

  “So what do you think?”

  Bailey’s mouth moved, but nothing came out.

  “Which, uh, which part are you asking about specifically?” Tess pressed her hand against her forehead. “There’s kind of a lot to digest here, and…and respond to.”

  “I guess, right now, I just want to know if I’m still your friend.” Paige dropped her brush to her side, her eyes imploring them to forgive her. “I should’ve been up front with you and told you about my mom…and Logan a long time ago. But I was just so…” She winced. “It was just so hard to talk about. I was so mad at both of them, blaming them for things they didn’t need to be blamed for, needing to put my miseries on someone’s shoulders. I couldn’t even talk about it at my grief group, but—”

  “Shh, shh.” Tess swept off the bed to hug her. Pulling Paige close, she said, “We aren’t mad, I swear. You just needed a little time before you could talk about it, is all. We still love you, don’t worry about that.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Bailey muttered. “These are exactly the kind of exciting details I want to know as soon as I meet a person.”

  When Tess scowled at her, she grinned. “Just kidding. I love you too.” Opening her arms, she joined the group hug.

  So very glad she’d found these two women, Paige sighed and rested her cheek on Tess’s shoulder. “And what about Logan?” she asked. “Do…do you think I’m awful for…for falling for him?”

  Bailey wrinkled her brow with the confused frown. “Why?”

  “I…” Paige blinked, wondering about that herself. “I don’t know. I guess I just hated him for so long without even knowing him. I actually spit in his face when he came to Trace’s funeral, and he was probably there to apologize.” Groaning, she covered her eyes with both hands. “Oh, Lord. I just remembered that. I’m surprised he didn’t hate me right back all these years. I blamed him and thought everyone else did too. I thought everyone would be scandalized if we ever got together.”

  “Well, what do you think your brother would say if he were here right now?” Tess asked.

  “I’m not sure. He wasn’t the vindictive type. I couldn’t see him blaming Logan for causing his death.” She winced. “Maybe for kissing Kayla. But she was there and didn’t blame Logan afterward. It was clear to her he never wanted to permanently harm Trace. But I just…” She blew out a tired breath. “Thinking about it gives me a headache.”

  “Me too.” Bailey rubbed her own temple. “I’m telling you, if I had to deal with as much as you have, I’d have a prescription for Xanax by now.”

  “No, you’d be in a loony bin by now,” Tess corrected.

  As the two roommates scowled at each other, squabbling over which one of them could take on more stress without breaking, Paige grinned. No matter what, she knew she could always count on these two for a smile.

  Before she could tell them how much she loved them both, her phone dinged, telling her she had a text. Thinking it might be Logan, she instantly forgot about Bailey and Tess. She hurried to her desk and heard two dings from Bailey and Tess’s room before she could check the message.

  “That’s weird,” Tess said, disappearing into the bathroom. “Hey, I wonder if it’s A.”

  “Oh, Lord.” Bailey groaned as she followed Tess into their room to fetch her own cell phone. “I’m officially cutting you off from Pretty Little Liars, starting now.”

  Paige opened her phone to find a text alert from the University.

  “It must be about Dorian,” Bail
ey mused aloud when she and Tess returned with both their phones.

  All three of them checked their shared message simultaneously, Tess reading hers aloud. “Police are pursuing an armed gunman on the west end of the campus. Oh my God.” She gulped before reading the rest. “School officials advise everyone remain inside with locked doors, and stay away from the west side of the university completely.”

  A cold arrow of dread sliced up the back of Paige’s neck.

  An armed gunman? That didn’t even seem possible.

  “What the hell,” Bailey breathed. She raced to the window and yanked up the shade. Students were running—sprinting actually—for any building closest to them. It was bizarre to watch, like a tiny stream of ants seeking cover from an invisible giant shoe stomping down on them.

  “This isn’t happening.” Tess grabbed Paige’s hand and held on tight.

  “Just…calm down,” Bailey said, her rational voice grounding Paige. “We’re a good distance away from the west end of campus. We’re safe here.” Then she pointed at Tess. “Go lock the door. To our room too.”

  Tess let go of Paige’s hand and raced off, immediately obeying.

  Bailey found the remote control for Mariah’s TV and clicked it on. Paige just stood there, dazed. Her mind racing, she tried to orient herself, remembering what was on the west end of campus. She couldn’t think, couldn’t map out the buildings in her head. She grabbed her skull in both hands as the TV popped on. Instantly, an aerial view of Granton from a helicopter’s perspective appeared on the screen.

  “It’s still unclear who the gunman is,” a news reporter’s voice told them. “Authorities are vague on details, but we can see from this vantage point, there have been injuries if not loss of life.”

  Bailey approached the fifty-inch screen as if in a daze. She pointed to a shadowed blob lying on the ground in the middle of a deserted street. “Is that…is that a person?”

  Tess returned to Paige’s room and neared the television with Paige to gather around Bailey. Before they could decide if it was a human being lying in the middle of the road or not, a blast of light appeared from an alleyway, preceding a dark figure, holding what could only be a massively huge gun.

  “Oh my God!” All three girls screamed and clapped their hands over their mouths.

  “He’s shooting,” Tess gasped.

  “It looks like we have a visual of the shooter.” Even the reporter’s voice took on an anxious edge as the camera zoomed in, but it couldn’t focus enough to give any details of the person with the gun except for a dark outline. “It impossible to tell from this distance if we’re dealing with a male for female. But the gunman is still very much on the loose and firing his or her weapon.”

  “This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening,” Tess chanted.

  “Where are they?” Bailey asked, squinting as she eased closer. “Is that…is that the food court?”

  The food court?

  Paige forgot to breathe as she studied the buildings instead of the dead person lying on the ground. It was the food court, less than a block away from The Squeeze.

  “Logan!”

  She didn’t think, she just moved, lunging for the doorway. Bailey caught her just as she unbolted the top lock. Hooking her around Paige’s waist, she hauled Paige backward, Tess joining in to the assist her when Paige resisted.

  “Paige! What are you doing? Are you insane?”

  “He’s out there.” She struggled harder against both girls. “Let me go! Oh my God, let me go.” When a sob hiccupped from her throat, she wiggled and twisted with more fervor.

  Bailey cursed and Tess ducked when Paige’s elbow inadvertently swung her way. Finally, her suitemates propelled her backward enough to tackle her onto Mariah’s bed.

  “You…are…not…leaving…this room.” Bailey panted, out of breath.

  Tess stroked her hair in a soothing manner. “Just relax, sweetie. Logan is fine. He’s just fine.”

  Paige only tensed harder, trying to buck her friends off her. “How do you know that? He said he was going to—”

  “Well, you’re not going out there to check on him without thinking. God, Paige, think!” Bailey sat up and off her, brushing her multi-colored hair out of her face. “You didn’t even try his cell phone first.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Tess sat up too. “Let’s just call him and have him tell you he’s okay.”

  “Okay.” Paige wheezed out a breath, forcing herself to calm down and think logically. But her body just wouldn’t unwind; alarm warnings were going off all over inside her. Logan was in trouble; she just knew it.

  She couldn’t lose him. She’d already lost too many people in her life. Not Logan too. She still itched to dash for the door and physically find him.

  But she did the rational thing first. She called his cell phone with fingers that could barely dial through all the shaking.

  “He’s not answering.” She squeezed her eyes closed. “Why isn’t he answering?”

  Tess bit her lip and glanced at Bailey before saying, “Maybe he hadn’t gone to the juice bar yet to pick up his phone.”

  Or maybe he was that shadowed figure lying in his own blood they wouldn’t take off the screen of her television.

  Her whole body began to shake.

  The gunman had disappeared down another dark alley and was out of the view of the camera, but the motionless figure in the middle of the street hadn’t moved, would probably never move again.

  Tears flooded her lashes. “Logan, where are you?”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  PAIGE ESCAPED THROUGH THE BATHROOM.

  After she, and Tess, and Bailey called every possible place Logan might be with no answer from any of them, she went into the bathroom, telling her friends, she needed a moment alone. But as soon as she closed the door to her room, she opened the door to theirs.

  She unlatched all the locks with trembling fingers, trying to be as quick and silent as possible so her suitemates wouldn’t hear. And finally, she was in the hallway, free to find Logan. A few doors opened, big round, scared eyes peeking out, asking her what was going on. But she didn’t pause as she rushed for the exit at the end of the hall. She took the stairs two and a time and pushed her way outside within seconds.

  The world was eerily quiet, the campus lawns totally deserted. In the distance, she saw the news helicopter hovering over the food court district and headed that way.

  She raced down the street, keeping close to the bushes and trees for cover. When she neared the west end of campus, her breathing escalated.

  Scared to death, she plowed forward anyway, more afraid she’d never see Logan again than actually encountering a madman with a huge gun.

  Reaching out to touch the solid surface of Jamison Hall, the arts department building, she slowed her pace with growing hesitance, not sure how to creep up to The Squeeze without crossing an open, exposed street.

  She heard a gunshot in the distance, and her heart shuddered in her chest. She couldn’t tell how far away the sound was—two blocks? Three?—or how close it was to the juice bar, but she prayed Logan hadn’t been—

  An arm shot out from the thin alley between Jamison Hall and McCuffrey, the science center, as she began to dart across it. When it wrapped around her waist, she started to scream but a hand clapped over her mouth, muffling the sound. Her assailant dragged her backward into the alley and pressed her against the cold bricks of Jamison Hall.

  She began to struggle until his face appeared before her, his azure blue eyes bright with shock and anger.

  “What’re you doing?” he hissed.

  “Oh my God!” She leaped at him, beyond relieved to see him, and wrapped her arms tight around his neck, squeezing with a force that made him stumble against her. With the solid warmth of his body reassuring her, she shuddered. “Oh my God. I was so worried. When I got the text alert, I thought you were there…getting your phone. I had to know…make sure you were okay.”

  Adr
enaline made her breaths come in sharp, painful wheezes. It was possible she was even hyperventilating. She wasn’t sure. It was hard to think. All she knew was that Logan hadn’t been hurt.

  That was all that mattered.

  Petting his hair, she kept touching him, stroking the skin on the back of his neck, so very, very grateful. Another shot rang out, echoing eerily down the alley. They were coming more sporadically now. Probably fewer people to shoot at. Hopefully.

  Logan jerked in her embrace and pulled back to send her an incredulous stare. “Are you completely insane? How could you run toward a terrorist killing random people just to make sure I was okay?”

  Paige could only stare at him, her mind a scattered mess. She held her breath, trying to control her rickety gasps for air. “What’re you doing here?” she was finally able to ask, glancing around the deserted alley.

  It was quiet now. Too quiet.

  Like death.

  Logan shook his head and sent her a look as if he couldn’t believe she even had to ask. “Don’t you know? I showed up at your room but Tess and Bailey said you’d gone looking for me, so I raced toward a freaking terrorist shooting random people to make sure you were okay.”

  A laugh blurted form Paige’s lungs. “God, I love you.” The words tumbled out before she’d even planned what to say. But she didn’t regret them in the least. She wanted him to know before—

  Well, before anything else might happen.

  His eyes flared with surprise. Then he lunged toward her and held her hard. The hug was comforting and warm. She felt safe and happier than she could remember being in a long time. Logan was holding her. Logan was alive. He dipped his face and kissed her hard, his mouth frantic as it clung to hers.

  Another gunshot—too close for comfort—broke them apart.

  “We need to get out of here.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her tight behind him. Bending his knees into a slight crouch, he inched them cautiously toward the opening of the alley as he ran his free hand along the wall and used it like some kind of guide.