I couldn’t help but snicker as intensity balled her hands.
Ashleigh had no idea how manyrealstories I had. My former editor, for instance…
When I left Ashen Springs, people were still looking for Collin. They wouldn’t find him, just like they wouldn’t find the five other people that went missing last year.
People didn’t get lost in Ashen Springs. They vanished off the face of the earth. My hometown might appear quaint and cute, but it was founded on lies and corruption. The same corruption still infested the town’s hierarchy to this day.
“So?” Ashleigh swung her amber gaze my way. “Got any ideas?”
Oh, I had ideas, three notebooks full of them. None of which panned out. The key word in secret society was ‘secret.’ This meant that after almost five years of research, I had next to no evidence. But there were a few things I’d found, like the mysterious disappearance of Lindsay Manheim and the golden rose keychain hanging on the rear-view mirror of Preston Whitley’s BMW.
Lindsay had one just like it.
I knew this because Trina kept begging our parents to get her one.
Unfortunately, one little keychain wasn’t enough, and I’d handed over any other evidence I had to Derek Adams. He was the current sheriff and my friend Riley’s dad, a vital ally to have. That was until The Order of Ravens and Wolves sunk their claws into his daughter.
I didn’t hold it against him. I’d made my own deal with the devil.
“Well…” I squinted against the sun and followed Ashleigh down the path toward the brick building where my next class was held. “We could always do something about the dark side of cafeteria food.”
“Really?” she snorted. “I thought you were a journalism major? That issohigh school.”
A part of me wanted to argue that I did just graduate, but she was right. It was a lame story.
I’d only been at Loftry for three weeks. That wasn’t nearly enough time to get to know my professors, let alone the secrets this place held. As far as I could tell, it was like any other college campus with prestigious buildings, well-manicured lawns, landscaped flowerbeds, and winding paths.
Dean Anderson, however…
That guy gave me the creeps. Every scholarship student was required to have a meeting with him. The way he looked at me felt like he was sizing me up for something. I’d seen some of the other professors doing the same thing with other girls in their class. Then again, it could just be my paranoia kicking in. The last two years certainly hadn’t helped my nerves any.
Ashleigh’s head dropped back with a disgruntled groan. “I guess we’ll have to stick to the stupid campus stalker.”
Campus stalker?
The hairs on the back of my neck rose as a cold shiver raced up my spine. What did she mean by stalker? “I didn’t hear anything about that?”
Logic told me it couldn’t be Preston. I hadn’t seen him in months, but that didn’t stop me from glancing over my shoulder. A few students were on the path behind us, nothing out of the ordinary, but my heart dropped when I spotted denim on a set of shoulders. Thankfully they were the denim straps of a dress, but still…
“It’s just some sorority girls complaining about panty raids and stuff,” Ashleigh said, twirling her hand in the air.
Relief washed over me, and I sucked oxygen back into my lungs.
Preston’s gone, Marnie. He lost interest. That’s why you haven’t seen him.
But was it?
I tried to tell myself he wasn’t lurking in the shadows around every corner. That didn’t stop the sensation of his eyes constantly watching. Trina would tell me to stop being paranoid. In most cases, I would’ve agreed with her. But there was a big difference between paranoia and alarm. One was the illusion of danger, while the other warned you of a real threat.
A threat didn’t get more real than Preston Whitley.
No one in town would help me, and even if I did go to someone for help, I risked putting my sister in danger. So, I did the only thing I could and turned Preston’s tactics around on him. He followed me, so I followed him and noted everything he did.
I knew what he ate, where he went for a jog every morning at five a.m., and every single item he had delivered to Whitley Manor. After all, we were playing a long game, and a war wasn’t won with one battle. It took time and strategy.
Plus, people with power had a lot more to lose than someone like me. The trick was making them think that you had the means to pull their perfect rug out from under them. There was a reason Louis Kessler left me alone.
“So,” Ashleigh said. “What do you think?”
