Sweet Deceit Page 14

  “Not in the yellow pages,” Maria said with a snort. She reached for her Coach bag and extracted her cell phone. “I’m sure my father has a guy in DC to recommend.”

  “Wait. Both of your dads use private investigators on a regular basis?” Lexa asked.

  Soomie lifted one shoulder as she chewed. “We’re talking about billion-dollar businesses, Lex,” she said. “They don’t mess around.”

  “Hi, Daddy,” Maria said into her phone. “I just have a quick—

  Yes. Yes, Daddy. I’m eating right now. No, Daddy. I’m not working out too hard. Well, how else do you expect me to get into a decent dance company unless I—” She listened for a few seconds, then groaned. “No, Daddy, I am not going to Harvard! We’ve been through this.” She rolled her eyes at the girls and shoved herself up from the blanket, placing her hand over the phone. “This could take a while.”

  Maria gestured with her free hand as she paced away from the picnic blanket, sparring with her dad. Ariana’s heart pounded with fear as she tried to figure out some way to discourage Lexa from her new plan. If she hired a PI and he uncovered Kaitlynn’s true identity, it would all be over for both of them.

  “I don’t know about this, you guys,” she said, her voice raspy thanks to her coughing fit and a seriously dry throat.

  “Why not?” Lexa asked. “We need to know more about the girl before we can initiate her. We don’t just let anyone in, you know.”

  “I know, but—”

  “And in case it’s not clear, this is all on the DL,” Lexa told her. “Don’t breathe a word of this to Lillian. Technically we shouldn’t even be talking about this in front of a tap, but I thought you were going to help us out with some info on her.”

  Ariana slowly reached up and clutched her forearm, squeezing as hard as she could. Leave it to Lexa to find a way to put her back in her place as quickly as possible.

  “Okay,” Maria said, snapping her phone closed as she returned to the group. “My dad’s going to set the meeting for eight o’clock on Friday. The guy’s name is Nathan Dove. I just texted his number to your phone,” she told Lexa.

  “Friday? But that’s Halloween,” Soomie pointed out. “What about the party?”

  “My parents’ house is ten minutes from yours,” Lexa said. “I can pop out, meet this guy, and get back to the party before I’m even missed.”

  “Did you tell him what it’s about?” Ariana asked Maria.

  “Nah. My dad doesn’t have time for minor details like why my friend might need to hire a detective,” Maria joked, sitting again. “But he does have time for a rundown of my daily caloric intake and to badger me about my dream of being a dancer.”

  “He’s just looking out for you,” Soomie said, touching Maria’s back.

  Ariana’s constricted lungs loosened slightly. At least the PI wouldn’t know what Lexa wanted until they actually met. Which meant he wouldn’t start looking into Kaitlynn until after his meeting with Lexa on Friday night. Ariana had until Friday to figure out a way to keep that meeting from happening.

  She had until Friday to figure out how to stop Lexa Greene.

  ALWAYS A WAY

  Ariana sat in a comfy, cozy high-backed chair at the Hill on Wednesday night, feeling neither comfy nor cozy as she stared outside. The floor-to-ceiling windows were being pelted by heavy raindrops, the noise like a pair of rushing trains coming at her from both directions. In her hands was a latte, cold and untouched. Her eyes stung from being open and staring for so long, and when she blinked, her eyelids stuck for a moment before opening again.

  There was no answer. No matter how many times she went over it in her head, she simply could not find a way out. Earlier today she had tried to talk Lexa out of meeting with the PI, saying it was a waste of time and money—not to mention a waste of a good party. That if the other Stone and Gravers hadn’t found out anything about Lillian yet, then maybe that meant there wasn’t anything to find out. But Lexa was unmovable. She even seemed excited. Apparently she was looking forward to playing a little cloak and dagger.

  Little did Lexa know, however, that the moment this guy started to look into Lillian Oswald’s past, a chain of events would be set in motion that would inevitably lead to Ariana landing back in prison. She had to stop Lexa. At whatever cost.

  But every time Ariana thought about what that meant, she started to squirm. Yes, Lexa was putting Ariana’s entire future at risk, but Lexa didn’t know that. And technically, the girl hadn’t done anything wrong. Yes, she’d been acting like a bitch lately, but she had a lot going on in her life, what with her parents’ issues and all the publicity and the stress of having a history-free tap in Stone and Grave—plus the suspicion that one of her best friends was dating her ex. When Ariana thought about it diplomatically, the girl actually had a lot of reasons to be on edge. Besides, being bitchy, in and of itself, didn’t warrant the ultimate punishment. If acting like a jerk meant getting offed, then half the population of this school would have been dead a long time ago.

  Ariana groaned under her breath and placed her cup down on the carved oak table next to her chair. What was she going to do? How was she going to do it? And when?

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  Ariana looked up to find Jasper hovering over her with a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant. The shoulders of his coat glistened with raindrops and his hair was completely soaked. She hadn’t seen him come in or go to the counter, but then, she had turned her chair toward the window specifically so she wouldn’t have to deal with anyone. She leaned back and sighed.

  “No, thanks. I’m fine,” she replied.

  Jasper placed his food down next to Ariana’s cup and sat on a footstool closer to the window to face her. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you don’t look fine.”

  Ariana fiddled with her fingers. “It’s just . . . I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  Jasper laughed and Ariana glowered at him. “It’s not funny,” she said curtly.

  “Sorry.” Jasper ran his hand over his mouth and straightened his face. “The very idea of you not knowing exactly what you’re doing seems so implausible it made me laugh.”

  Ariana stared at him as he unbuttoned his coat and shrugged it off, getting up to hang it on a coatrack in the corner. He came back and sat in the same spot, resting his elbows on his knees.

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  Jasper rubbed his hands together. “Ana, you radiate this intense level of self-assuredness that basically intimidates everyone around you,” he said, his eyes sparkling. “Were you really not aware?”

  A flattered blush crept across Ariana’s face. “Well, I haven’t felt very self-assured lately.”

  “Could have fooled me.” Jasper reached underneath the footstool and inched it closer to her legs so that their knees were almost touching. “Tell me what the problem is. Maybe we can put our two evil minds together and figure out a way to fix it.”

  Ariana laughed. Yeah, right. Like she could really tell him what was going on.

  “I can’t,” she said. “It’s . . . private.”

  A dark cloud passed through Jasper’s eyes, but it was gone even faster than it appeared. “Well, then, I’ll just give you a general bit of wisdom and you can do with it what you will.”

  He reached out and took both Ariana’s hands in his. Her instinct was to pull away, but then she looked into his eyes. They were so blue, so intense, so determined, she found herself frozen. His skin was insanely warm, odd considering he’d just come in from the storm of the century.

  “Any situation . . . and I mean any situation . . . can be twisted to your advantage,” he said, his voice low. “You are a creative, strong person, and you will find a way to not only fix the situation, but to benefit from it. The key, Ana, is to not give up. The key is to keep looking at this problem, whatever it is, from every angle you can possibly think of, until the answer presents itself.”

  Ariana stared into those hypnotic blue ey
es, and just like that, her heart warmed, and she felt her uncertainty begin to melt away.

  “The answer will just present itself,” she said slowly.

  “It will,” he replied with utter confidence. He squeezed her hands, then released them and stood, gathering his food and drink. “Don’t give up, Ana. That’s the key. Never give up.”

  Then he grabbed his coat, folded it over his arm, and walked away. Ariana turned in her chair to watch him go. Then she sat back in her chair and smiled.

  He was right, of course. There was always a way. How could she have forgotten that? Look how far she’d come already. Breaking out of prison, traveling across the country twice, faking her death, attending her own memorial service, creating a whole new life for herself, landing in all the honors classes she wanted at one of the most prestigious schools in the world, winning the heart of the most sought-after guy on campus.

  There was always, always a way. Now all she had to do was find it.

  THE PLAN

  “Could someone hold my hair on so I can pin it?” Maria asked.

  “Okay. That sounded weird,” Kaitlynn said as she zipped up the skintight pants on her Catwoman costume.

  “I’ve got it,” Ariana offered, crossing Lexa and Maria’s room to help Maria in front of the full-length mirror. Maria had chosen to dress up as Christine from Phantom of the Opera, and was adding tendrilled extensions to her hair to look more the part. She was wearing a big, frilly nightgown and a ton of heavy makeup.

  “Wow, Ana. You look seriously freaky,” Maria said with a grin, eyeing Ariana’s reflection in the mirror.

  “Thanks,” Ariana replied. “I’m assuming that’s a compliment.”

  “Oh, it is,” Lexa said, sitting down on her bed to place her feet into her gold stiletto heels. “Where did you get that wig?”

  Ariana glanced at Kaitlynn and smiled slightly as she touched the heavy gray and white wig that stood straight up from the top of her head. Her face was powdered white and she’d blackened the area around her eyes and bought a set of gross false teeth—though she wasn’t wearing them yet. Her bride-of-Frankenstein dress was white and had gray gauzy layers. The bells of the wide sleeves fell almost to the ground.

  She looked scary as hell. Palmer was going to love it.

  “Lily and I got our costumes in town yesterday,” Ariana said.

  “What happened to dressing up together?” Lexa asked as she smoothed her blond Heidi Klum wig.

  “I tried to get her to go superhero sexy with me, but she was all about the scare factor,” Kaitlynn lied. Both of them had known exactly what costumes they were going to buy before they ever walked into the shop.

  “Well, it works for you,” Maria said, adding the last bobby pin to her hair. “That’s it. Thanks, Ana.” She turned around to face the room. “What do you guys think?”

  “Totally Broadway worthy,” Kaitlynn said.

  “Well, I’m almost done,” Lexa said. “I just need you guys to help me with the false lashes. I suck at those.”

  She grabbed a plastic box with two black caterpillar-like sets of lashes set against a piece of purple foam and headed for the bright lights of the bathroom. Kaitlynn and Maria moved to follow, but Ariana hung back, her heart skipping a beat as a perfect opportunity presented itself.

  “I’ll be right there,” she said. “Just going to tweak the eye makeup.”

  Lexa shrugged and the three of them headed inside the bathroom. Checking over her shoulder, Ariana quickly grabbed Lexa’s gold clutch and slipped her cell phone out of her bag. Her fingers trembling slightly, she scrolled through the contact list until she found private investigator Nathan Dove’s number, then copied the number down on a Post-it. She had Lexa’s cell back in her bag and the bag back on the desk where it had been before the girls returned from the bathroom.

  One step down. Many, many more to go.

  “Okay. It takes me an hour and many tears to get those things on, but Maria does it like it’s putting on a Band-Aid,” Lexa joked.

  “Seventeen years, a couple dozen ballets. I’ve gone through thousands of those things,” Maria said with a worldly smirk.

  Lexa went straight for her purse. She pulled her phone right out and froze as she looked down at the screen. Ariana’s heart all but stopped. Had she left Dove’s number up on the screen? Could Lexa somehow tell she’d been messing with it?

  “Soomie texted. She says everything’s ready and to get our butts there ASAP,” Lexa said with a laugh.

  Ariana let out a sigh of relief.

  “So. Are we all ready?” Lexa asked, tucking the phone inside the bag again. “Conrad’s bringing the car around in about five minutes.”

  “Actually, I’m going to have to meet you guys there,” Ariana said, glancing at her watch.

  “What? Why? I thought we were all going over together,” Maria said.

  “She has a phone call with her grandmother,” Kaitlynn explained, shrugging into her jacket, which looked kind of silly over her shiny nylon outfit.

  “She wants an update on how things are going around here,” Ariana lied. “I haven’t been in touch in a while, so she’s freaking out.”

  “You schedule calls with your grandmother?” Lexa asked flatly, looking up at Ariana through her fake blond bangs.

  “You schedule calls with your parents,” Ariana shot back.

  “She makes a good point,” Maria said to Lexa, picking up her white coat. “But doesn’t old lady Covington realize it’s Halloween?”

  “She’s in her eighties,” Ariana replied. “She doesn’t even know it’s October.”

  The others laughed and finished gathering their things.

  “But how will you get there?” Lexa asked, lifting the hair of her wig out from under the collar of her black coat.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just take a cab,” Ariana said, walking them out and down the hall toward the elevators. She paused in front of the door to her room. “See you there.”

  The girls air-kissed her and waved as they made their way to the elevators. Ariana slipped into her room and closed the door behind her, her nerves jittery. She needed a few moments to herself to go over the plan. To make sure everything was in place. Her whole future, her very life, all hinged on tonight’s events. Everything had to go perfectly.

  Tugging her phone out of her bag, she entered in Dove’s number and saved it into her contacts under “John Smith.” Then she went to her desk and opened the top drawer. Sitting atop her pens and pencils was a long, brown envelope, inside of which was the compromising photo of Palmer. Ariana clenched her teeth as she stared down at it, then plucked it up and shoved it into her bag. She wasn’t planning on using it—if all went well tonight, she wouldn’t have to—but it was always good to be prepared.

  Taking a deep breath, Ariana sat on the edge of her bed, closed her eyes, and took herself through the plan step by step by step, looking for any flaws—any potential hiccups. Finally satisfied, she opened her eyes again and looked around the room in satisfaction.

  It was going to work. It had to. Her entire future depended on it.

  HUSBAND AND WIFE

  “Welcome to my haunted row house!” Soomie shouted, opening the door for Ariana. She had a huge smile on her face and some kind of black drink in one hand. Her eyes were unfocused, as if she’d already downed a few of those drinks, even though the party started just a half hour ago. Conversation and laughter gurgled out into the night air as Soomie grabbed Ariana’s wrist and tugged her inside. “Where’ve you been?”

  Ariana could smell the alcohol on her breath and tried not to scrunch her nose. Soomie was in a good mood for the first time in weeks. She didn’t want to do anything to put a damper on it.

  “I had to make a call.” Ariana touched the skirt of her frayed dress. “What do you think?”

  She struck a pose, tilting her head back so that her extremely tall and heavy gray and white wig almost took her down. She flashed her long black fake nails.


  “Appropriately spooky,” Soomie said. “What do you think of mine?”

  Ariana looked Soomie up and down. She wore a light pink gown with delicate spaghetti straps, and a gorgeous, sparkling tiara. Her makeup was colorful and bright, and there were glittery stars pasted around her eyes.

  “I like it. But I thought you were going goth,” Ariana said.

  Soomie sipped her drink and swallowed. “I changed my mind. This is my homage to Princess Brigit.”

  She reached down and tugged up the hem of the wide skirt. On her feet she wore a pair of pink sequined flats. The sight of them brought tears to Ariana’s eyes. Brigit never wore heels—was never able to walk in them—until the night she died. The night that Kaitlynn and the rest of her friends convinced her it was time to try.

  “That’s really sweet, Soomie,” Ariana said, her heart heavy.

  “Don’t look so sad,” Soomie said, gripping Ariana’s arm. “She’s looking down on us right now and smiling. And besides, it’s a party!”

  She hooked her arm around Ariana’s back and led her into the house. The place was small—thin and long, like any historical row house—but poshly decorated. The walls of the living room were painted a deep violet, and the fireplace was tiled in dark reds and ambers. Not that it was easy to take in the details. Soomie had gone all out with the Halloween decorations. Everything was covered with cobwebs, fake spiders, wispy ghosts, and leering monster masks. The bay window at the front of the house held ten expertly carved jack-o’-lanterns, each one more elaborately terrifying than the last.

  “Okay, the first floor is for eating, drinking, conversation, and general merriment,” Soomie said, sliding sideways to get through the crowd and dragging Ariana with her. “Upstairs, in the dining area, is the dance floor. I had the table and chairs moved to make room,” she explained, pointing at the staircase. “On the third floor are the two bedrooms. You can imagine what they’re being used for,” she said. “But on the roof is the real fun.”