Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Only now do I notice how she keeps glancing at Q before her gaze darts away. Again and again. This has to do with him, but she wishes it didn’t.
“Well? What is it?” Xander prompts. “Have we been hacked? What’s going on?”
“In a sense, yes, but not the way you think.” She presses her hands between her knees and nearly rocks back and forth. “I just want to say first that I did it because I wanted to ensure everyone was safe. After Aspen got that hit on the head, it seemed important to keep track of everyone.”
Delilah is openly confused, but then she would be. She’s not as familiar with Brittney’s special skills as the rest of us. I, on the other hand, fold my arms.
“What did you do?”
“I installed tracking software to run behind the scenes.” She gulps. “On everyone’s phones.”
“You tracked our phones?” Quinton blurts out.
“To keep a lookout on where people were at certain times of the day. In case something like Aspen’s attack happened again, there would be a way of tracing who was near the victim at the time it took place.” She shrugs helplessly. “I wanted to keep her and everyone safe.”
“And you know who attacked Quinton?” The mixed excitement and fear in Aspen’s voice ring out. “Who was it?”
“Let me just say I wouldn’t be coming to you if the proof wasn’t right there in front of me.”
“For God’s sake, who was it?” Xander demands, his voice thin.
She winces before looking at Q. “It was Ren.”
Delilah gasps, as does Aspen. Xander is out of his chair, eyes wide, the color draining from his face. I don’t know how to react. Ren? Of all people?
I look at Quinton, the only person who hasn’t reacted yet. He hasn’t moved. I’m not sure if he’s blinked yet. Aspen reaches for his hand but pulls it away, distracted, still staring at Brittney. “No way. You’re wrong.”
“I wish I was. Believe me, I’m not telling you this lightly. I checked, and then I double-checked. The ID number associated with his phone was the only one in that stairwell at that time other than yours. And it was close to yours, too. I set up checkpoints throughout the school and the castle that ping me at scheduled intervals. Those two phones pinged from that location at the same time. Only those two.”
“But he wouldn’t. He would never.” Quinton looks around the room at his father, Aspen, and even me. “Not Ren. Why would he do that to me?”
I exchange a look with Xander. “There’s only one way to find out for sure. We bring him here, now.” Xander nods, taking out his phone and turning away for a muttered conversation.
Q’s still not having it. “This is ridiculous. He would never betray us—you realize that means he would have been the one who hurt Aspen, too, right?”
And Delilah, though I don’t think he could be faulted for forgetting about her right now. But I haven’t. I go to her, sliding an arm around her waist.
“Are you okay?”
“But why would he? He would have been doing it on his own, right? I don’t understand. He was almost acting nice to me for a while.” Delilah bites her lip, frowning. “Then again, he was also being kind of weird.”
“Weird how?” Q prompts. I recognize the energy in his voice, almost frantic. His whole world has been turned upside down, and all he wants is to find out this was all a misunderstanding.
“I don’t know. Don’t listen to me.” She waves a hand, shaking her head. “He was just being sort of weird, but then a lot of people treat me weird around here. I was probably being paranoid.”
Xander ends his call. “The guards are going to his room now. I told them to bring him here.” Every time he looks at his son, his jaw tightens. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
Q only shakes his head. “No offense, Brittney, but you’re wrong about this one. There’s no way.”
“I hope you’re right. I’d love nothing more than to be wrong about this.”
Yet she doesn’t believe she is. She looks and sounds like someone stuck watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion, aware of what’s coming and unable to do anything about it.
Xander’s phone rings. “Yes?” His head snaps in the direction of Quinton’s, his eyes burning into them. “Fine. If he’s not in his room, he’s somewhere else. Go by my room, and check on my wife and daughter. Then find Ren. I want the entire premises searched!”
“We can look, too,” Delilah offers.
I shut her down immediately. “Absolutely not. Not until we know for sure what’s happening here. Because if he is behind this, and he knows he’s being searched for—”
“Don’t talk that way,” Quinton snaps.
“Until we know the facts,” I insist. “Unless you’d like both girls to go together in search of him. Maybe they’ll find him. Who knows?” When his face falls, and his eyes lower, I know he gets the message. He’s not willing to risk his wife, which tells me he knows there’s a possibility of this being true. None of us have to understand it for it to be true.