Brianna’s lips curled. “Three out of four ain’t bad. But don’t worry, my little Iron Stomach, I’m coming for you next.”
“Leave him alone,” Parker snarled, not liking the way she was talking to his friend. Maybe he still felt defensive of the guy, even though they’d grown apart. Or maybe he knew that if Brianna was willing to torture Brett, she was willing to torture Ruby, too.
Ruby was supposed to be off-limits.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know,” Parker said. He could see the little red light now, blinking above the TV, and he spoke directly into the camera. “I was there for the entire party.”
“Oh, I’d love to hear your version of the events,” Brianna said, kneeling beside Ruby, “but unfortunately, the story doesn’t begin with you.”
“I got to the party early! I even put the marker in Gavin’s hand. I take full responsibility for it.” Parker threw up his hands in surrender, and he felt the vibe in the room shift. Gavin’s gaze was trained on him. Juniper’s, too. They both thought he was falling on his sword to protect them. But Parker had understood the story of Damocles his entire life, and in that moment, he knew exactly where the sword was hanging.
He wouldn’t let it fall. “I arrived at the party around nine o’clock. I was alone, and I wanted to talk to Gavin before—”
“It doesn’t start with you,” said a voice, and Parker’s pulse quickened. That voice was lilting, sweet. Familiar. Ruby stared directly into the frame, her perfect bow lips quivering. “It starts the night before, in my bedroom. You know it does. It starts with Shane, the rope, and—”
“The video he made,” Parker said, his cheeks reddening. “The video he showed to the entire school. I wanted to stop him!”
“I know you did. You, Juniper, Gavin, and Brett. The four of you did damage control for me. Or, should I say, you just did damage.”
“That isn’t fair,” Parker said. Juniper looked wounded. Brett and Gavin were silent, watching, listening.
“I’m just speaking the truth. If Shane hadn’t crawled into my window the night before the party, none of you would’ve done what you did. Right? You were seeking vengeance, for me. It all starts with me.”
The room fell silent. As much as Parker wanted to gloss over this part, to forget it entirely, he knew they couldn’t. Ruby was right. Everything that happened at the party was because of her. Well, everything that happened was because of Shane, and what he did to Ruby on that Thursday night. December 20.
Ruby inhaled shakily, looking at Brianna. “The night before Dahlia Kane’s Christmas party, your brother climbed through my window. He was carrying a rope.”
21.
TONGUE TIED
I need you. Ruby slipped the note into Shane’s locker, hands trembling. She needed him desperately. The two had spent twelve glorious nights together before her mother had noticed her missing and called the cops.
The cops.
Ruby had been humiliated, stumbling home in the early morning light, only to be greeted with flashing lights and a gaggle of boys in blue. Walk of shame indeed, she thought, running a hand through her hair. Of course, she and Shane hadn’t slept together slept together (yet, she thought, and blushed), but still, her hair was a mess and she was dressed in the clothes she’d worn yesterday.
It painted a certain picture.
But not to Mrs. Valentine. Ruby’s mother came charging across the yard, wrapping her daughter up in her arms. She was sobbing before Ruby could even get a word out. It took a good twenty minutes to convince her mom (and the cops and the group of “concerned citizens”) that she hadn’t been abducted by a serial killer and tortured for sport. She’d simply snuck off to a friend’s house, to offer support over a recent breakup.
“But someone called the house,” her mother sputtered, freckled hands gripping Ruby’s shoulders. “He said you were in danger.”
Ruby’s stomach tightened. There was only one person who would pull a stunt like that, but she couldn’t explain it to her mother without explaining everything else. “Mom, it was a prank. I was hanging out with Juniper.” After all, the two used to be best friends. They’d grown up together, told each other secrets, all that little-girl cutesiness. But things had gotten complicated when Ruby started dating Parker, and at the time, she’d thought Juniper was being unfair.
Parker wasn’t possessive. He was attentive. Devoted.
That was the problem with dating a boy like him. At first his possessiveness felt a lot like love, like he couldn’t stand to be apart from her. By the time she realized who he really was, she’d pushed away everyone who might help her get away from him.
That was why Shane was such a godsend. And Ruby wasn’t about to let him slip through her fingers just because her mother had become a neurotic mess. Yes, Ruby had sympathy for the woman, and yes, sometimes people did get snatched up in the night, but good God. If she couldn’t sneak over to Shane’s house, how were they supposed to plot her escape?
Ruby’s gaze trailed to her bedroom window. It sat on the side of the house, draped in shadows, even when the sun was high. If Ruby had “trouble sleeping” that night, Charlotte would sleep in their mother’s bedroom, and no one would notice Shane climbing through the window.
Hence, the note stuffed into his locker on Thursday morning. I need you, it said, without instructions, or a signature. Ruby couldn’t risk sending a text. A text could be intercepted, but that note could’ve been from anyone. And later that day, when Shane passed her in the school park, she leaned in and whispered, “The grain of sand retaliated. Come to me?”
He arrived at midnight on the dot, like a beautiful, mysterious boy should. Ruby opened her window and pulled him inside. At first he didn’t say anything, just lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them, one by one. Ten tiny kisses. She could envision him lifting the eyelet lace nightgown off her body, slowly, so he could drink in every inch of her. Then she envisioned herself doing the same with his clothes, drinking him in. Every inch. Yes.
She blushed and looked down. “We need to . . .” Come up with a plan, she thought, as his fingers grazed the tops of her thighs. The nightgown wasn’t very long. She sighed, leaning into his touch. “Shane.”
“It’s okay,” he said, brushing her cheek with his lips. She was melting, melting. “I solved our problem.”
“What? How?” She’d anticipated weeks of planning, maybe an elaborate contraption. An adult-size mousetrap to contain Parker. A complicated scheme that would land him in police custody.
But as Shane looked into her—always into her, never at her—she felt as if cool fingertips were trickling over her skin. Whatever he’d come up with, it wasn’t hokey. But it was big. “We can’t tell him about us. We can’t risk him hurting you,” he said.
“Or you.”
“I don’t care about that,” Shane replied, so casually. “But I won’t let him hurt you. And I won’t let him hurt my family to get to me. Bri’s been through enough, and if he starts messing with her . . .”
Ruby swallowed, her hands curling in on themselves. “What are we going to do?” For a minute, she thought he was going to propose a murder, and it startled her, how calm she felt. Maybe it was denial, or maybe she figured he wouldn’t really go through with it. But in that moment, she thought, We can do that. Eliminate the problem and get rid of the body. Never think about him again. Yes.
But Shane didn’t look angry as he peered into her eyes, and he’d have to be, to suggest something like that. He looked, if anything, resigned. “We have to run.”
“Run?” Ruby stepped back, more affronted by this suggestion than the one she’d invented in her head. “What about our families?”
“They’ll have fewer mouths to feed.”
“They . . .” But she couldn’t argue. He was right. With three kids instead of four, her mother might actually be able to stick her head above water. And as for Shane’s family, well, Brianna would freak, but her father would only have to support the two of them
. This could work.
“You won’t miss them?” Ruby asked finally, tucking a hair behind his ear. It broke free, and she chased it again. God, she loved playing this game. How could she say no to him?
Shane leaned in and kissed her once, twice, three times. “I’ll miss them terribly,” he said into her lips, and Ruby opened her mouth, so she could draw him closer. “But I’ll die without you.”
That was it. The exact perfect thing to say, from the exact perfect boy. Ruby could feel herself falling. She was falling, landing softly on the bed, laughing, and then he was crawling over her. Laughing too.
His hands slid up her legs, and suddenly Ruby’s heart was beating too fast. She was passing over the threshold of excitement and right into fear. Her entire body seized up. Shane must’ve felt it, because his face fell, and he lowered himself to his side. “Hey, it’s okay. We don’t have to.”
“I want to,” Ruby found herself saying, and for the first time, it didn’t feel like she was reciting her lines. Playing a character. “I do,” she said, rising onto her knees. But instead of creating distance, like she always wanted to do with Parker, she climbed on top of Shane, her legs on either side of him. “Just . . . not like that.” She remembered how it felt to have Parker crawling over her. Remembered the fear, and the pressure of his body against hers. Pinning her like a butterfly.
“Ruby? I need to know what you’re thinking. Come on, walk me through it.”
Ruby laughed. Shane had started the “walk me through it” game one week earlier, after a particularly long bout of silence. Ruby had gotten so good at keeping her thoughts to herself, it hadn’t even occurred to her that someone would want her to speak, to explain.
But he had. One week ago he’d gotten her to open up about her failed friendship with Juniper Torres, and tonight he’d get her to open up again. Maybe in more ways than one, Ruby thought with a smirk, unbuttoning his shirt, so she could get to his chest. She leaned down and licked him from his stomach to his throat.
Shane groaned. His hands went into her hair, and for a second, she thought he was going to let it go. That was okay. She didn’t really want to talk anyway. But it made sense that her silence made him nervous, considering all the secrets she kept, and after kissing her for another minute, he pushed onto his elbows.
“You know the rules,” he told her.
“I don’t want there to be rules between us,” she said, pouting. It was a game she was used to playing, everything calculated. She had to remind herself that she could be normal with him, and then she had to remind herself that normal didn’t exist. Not when you’d been hiding for so long.
Shane looked up at her sitting over him. “I don’t want there to be rules either,” he said. “But I will never take your silence to mean yes.”
Ruby’s chest tightened. Tears flooded her eyes. And Shane said, “Baby,” brushing the tears away, kissing her cheeks. “Why did that make you sad?” He was looking into her again, into the depths of her soul. Nobody looked at Ruby like that. Not since she’d grown breasts. People wrote songs about her “milky-white pillows, freckled and fair” as if this were medieval times and she should be flattered that they weren’t saying “sweater puppets.” But Ruby hated being looked at that way. It was like . . .
“Like people wanting to screw you is some kind of compliment,” she’d slurred to Parker at a particularly raucous party, where they’d gotten wasted and she’d spent half the night dodging Nathan Malberry’s advances.
And Parker, the clueless idiot, had turned to her, saying, “It is a compliment,” thinking she was talking about him. Then, when he caught Nathan leering, he and Brett had pounded on the guy until he puked.
Ruby kept her concerns to herself after that.
But now, with Shane’s gaze boring into her, she told him what had happened later that night. How she had slept with Parker, not because she wanted to, but because she’d known, deep down in her gut, that he’d keep going whether she said yes or no. He’d waited months for her. And that night, when Nathan wouldn’t stop pawing at her, it was like Parker needed a promise that she was actually his.
Ruby had just wanted to go home. She was tired, so tired, and thinking of Nathan curled up on the floor made her sick. But Parker kept looking at her like he’d done her a favor, and she started to get this sinking feeling in her stomach, like what had happened to Nathan had been her fault. So after he’d driven her to his house, and crawled over her on the bed, leering like Nathan had, Ruby finally said, “Okay.” Not, Yes, please. I want you. Not, I’m ready now.
Just, “Okay.”
Now, whispering about it in her bedroom, Ruby was thankful for the near darkness. She felt foolish for letting things go so far. She felt foolish for talking about it. Would Shane even want her anymore, knowing what he knew?
He pushed off the bed. Strode toward the window. Peered outside.
“Where are you going?” For the briefest instant, she thought he was going to hunt Parker down. Then, when she realized that was a Parker reaction, her stomach dropped to her knees. “You’re leaving me?”
“Never.” Shane looked back at her, smiling softly. “I just had an idea. Wait here.” He slipped over the windowsill. He was gone less than a minute. When he returned to her bedroom, a curious object coiled around his hand, Ruby blanched. She knew it, even without seeing her reflection. Moments ago she’d been swelling with heat, swelling with desire, and now she felt entirely cold.
“What is that for?” She gestured to the rope.
“My dad asked me to pick up a Christmas tree, and I needed this to tie it down. But first . . .” He dropped the rope onto the bed, coiled tightly and fraying on the ends.
“First what?” Ruby crawled backwards, away from him.
“You’re going to tie me up.”
“I . . . what?” She looked at him like he’d lost all sense of reality, like his brain had tumbled out of his head.
“It’s the perfect solution,” he said, holding out his wrists.
“Why?”
“Because I won’t be able to hurt you. You won’t even have to worry about it.”
Ruby’s chest flooded with warmth. She wanted to hug him. She wanted to do other things too. Still, there were concerns. “I don’t want to hurt your wrists.”
“My sleeves will protect them.” He gestured to the button-down that perfectly matched his eyes.
“We’d have to leave your shirt on.”
“You already unbuttoned it.” That wry, familiar grin took over his face. Transformed it. He was a creature of love and light, a boy willing to do anything to be with the girl he adored.
“Are you sure about this?”
In response, Shane looped the rope around one wrist, then the other. “All you have to do is tie.”
She did, making a grand, elegant bow atop his wrists. It made him look more like a present than a prisoner. Still, her gut was a tangle of nerves, and as she looked at him, she felt she was crossing a line. “Shane.”
“I trust you,” he said. “Completely. That’s the point.”
“And I . . .” Did she trust him? Yes. She’d trusted him from the moment they’d met, and making him powerless, just to prove it . . . That was a Parker solution. Parker’s wickedness had bled into every aspect of their lives, making them darker. Making them panic. Now they were going to lose their families because of him?
Hooking her finger under the rope, Ruby guided Shane onto the bed. “Tomorrow night, we’re going to a party.”
“At Dahlia Kane’s? It’s supposed to be legendary.”
“Something big always happens, and people talk about it for the rest of the year,” Ruby said, untying the rope. All it took was a single tug, and that bow came undone. “What if, this year, I’m the thing that happens? What if I break up with Parker in front of everyone and then disappear into the forest?”
“Um . . . does Dahlia live in a cabin?”
She laughed, pushing the rope farther away from them. It sl
ithered off the bed, coiling on the floor. “She’s on a couple acres of forestland. But there’s a road on the other side of it, and if you park there, I could sneak off to meet you after the breakup.”
“No, I don’t like this. What if Parker sees you going into the forest alone? What’s to stop him from following you?”
“That’s the point. If Parker sees me sneaking into the woods alone, and he doesn’t go after me, well, maybe we’re wrong about him. Maybe we don’t have to leave town. But if he trudges after me, refusing to let me leave him, then running is the right thing to do. The safe thing.” Ruby climbed into Shane’s lap. “Besides, how fitting would it be for him to chase after me the night I disappear? People will think he made it happen. They’ll hold him responsible.”
“Karmic justice.” Shane kissed her throat. He kissed her neck, trailing his lips to her cheek. Just as he reached her mouth, he asked, “Are you sure about this?” and he could’ve been asking about the party, or the rope, or the fact that they were about to find each other in an entirely new way.
“Positive.” She glanced at the rope on the floor, grinning slyly. “Besides, I hear it’s better when boys use their hands.”
After that, Ruby lost track of time for a while. Shane pulled off her nightgown, slowly, just like she’d imagined he would, his hands gliding over her skin. She helped him out of his jeans. Finally, when they were both undressed, and both trembling, he looked up at her and she said, “Yes.”
“Ruby?”
“Yes. Please. I want you.”
Shane cupped her face with his hand, kissing her again. When he shifted beneath her, the universe shifted too. She lost sense of herself almost instantly. Then, just as quickly, Ruby crashed back into her body. But instead of skin and muscle and bone, she was made up of pure, liquid honey. Pure, glittering light. The kind of light that could burn away the memory of a scarred, broken girl and leave only a beautiful skeleton behind.
This Lie Will Kill You Page 14
