Malice (12 page)

Tristan’s scowl deepened and he pulled the front door opened. I had to wonder if the carefully placed whisper looked like more than it was from his angle.

When Levi backed away, he winked at me. I was sure he knew exactly what that whisper had looked like.

“Hey there,” Levi said easily as he brushed past Tristan, heading up the stairs. “Good night Samara,” he called over his shoulder.

“Good night,” I called back.

“Busy evening?” Tristan asked.

I smiled smugly at him. “You’ve no idea.” I sidestepped him and kicked my shoes off. I wiggled my toes and the feeling was blissful. “What are you doing here?”

“Renee was in a pinch. She needed someone to stay with Magnolia for a bit. I didn’t realize until I got here that you were on a date,” he said accusingly. “She didn’t say with whom but I figured it was with Xavier. I had no idea you were going out with…” He faded off as he made an irritated gesture toward the staircase.

Tristan actually thought that Levi and I had gone out? On a date?
Together
?

I was momentarily speechless as Tristan gaped at me.

Then again, the carefully placed whisper could have been very misleading.

“She doesn’t know, does she?” he demanded as he misread my silence. “Your mom has no idea that you went out with Levi.” He shook his head. “She wouldn’t approve. I don’t think she’d be happy about this at all.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t ask you what you think,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.

Now Tristan was the one who was silent. I held his gaze as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. Did he not like the thought of me going out with Levi? If that was the case, that was just too bad. Never mind that it wasn’t true.

I decided a subject change was in order. We needed something to end this uncomfortable stare down. “Did Mom say where she was going?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t really ask. She just mentioned that it was a last minute meeting with someone who’d just come to town. Grandma is at her Bridge Club tonight. Your mom sounded kind of desperate so I offered to come over.”

“Okay.” As if I needed anything else to worry about. I couldn’t help but wonder where she’d gone. “Did she say if she’d be late?”

“No, she didn’t say either way.”

“Thank you for covering for us,” I said, going for a professional tone. It wasn’t the first time that he’d watched over Magnolia or The Bella Luna. But under the circumstances, I felt uncomfortable having him here.

“It was fine. I didn’t have anything else going on,” he said.

He went over to the reservation book. “A young couple checked into the Briar Suite before your mom left. They’ve headed into town already but it didn’t sound as if they’d be gone too long. She’s expecting two ladies, sisters, I think, to show up shortly. As far as I know, they’ve decided to share the Willow Suite.”

I nodded. The Willow Suite was the only suite with two queen sized beds. “Got it.”

His gaze traveled upstairs, in the general vicinity of the Ash Suite. “I could stick around for awhile,” he offered.

“Why?” The single word came out sounding far harsher than I’d intended it to. Prior to this week, I wouldn’t have hesitated to take him up on his offer. Now it felt misplaced.

“I thought maybe you’d want some company. Magnolia should be heading to bed soon. I don’t know how long it’ll be before your mom gets back. It doesn’t feel right to leave you here, alone, with Levi.” He sounded so serious. He shoved his hands into his pocket and waited for me to say something.

I let out an indelicate, snorting laugh of contempt. What did he care if I was alone with Levi? He was already under the impression that we’d gone on a date. I reminded myself that he hadn’t seemed very happy about that, either.

“Oh, Tristan. I’m sure Levi and I will get along just fine. So really, you can leave. It’s a beautiful night for a walk.” Most other nights, I’d have driven him home. But not tonight. Tonight, I was done being nice.

Without another word or a backwards glance, I climbed the staircase.

I pounded once on Daphne’s door before swinging it open. She was sitting on her floor, painting her toenails. She gifted me with a huge smile as I stepped inside and closed the door.

“What were you thinking?” I demanded.

The smile fell away and her expression crumpled into a look of confusion. “I was thinking that you’d say thank you.” She put the bottle of nail polish away and then used a bit of air magic to dry her wet toenails.

“Are you joking?” She
had
to be joking.

“No, actually, I’m not. I just did you a huge favor. It’s not my fault if you can’t see that.”

“You humiliated me! How is that a favor?” I marched into her bedroom, my hands on my hips.

When I left my house not all that long ago, I hadn’t been sure if Xavier would be here or not. I had planned on avoiding him no matter what. When I noticed his car wasn’t in the driveway I felt safe stopping.

“It’s a favor because nerd boy needed to be made aware of what he’s missing.”

“Don’t call him that,” I said, automatically. I raked my hands over my face and shook my head at her reasoning.

“Oh, come on Sam. Xavier isn’t that bad.”

“He
is
that bad. His hands are like creepy crawly spiders.” I scowled remembering the way I’d swatted at them and they’d just come back again. Like a spider you think you’ve squashed with your shoe…then it pops back up and continues on its way.

“You’re not actually mad at me, are you?” She looked genuinely surprised.

“Daphne! You had to
pay
someone to go out with me!” I said, trying to keep my voice down. Her mom had let me in and I didn’t want her to overhear this conversation. “If this ever gets out, do you know how mortifying that would be?”

What if Tristan found out?
I cringed at the thought. He’d warned me. And he’d been right. I’d really rather he didn’t know that.

“I didn’t exactly pay him,” she muttered. Her smile had vanished now that she realized just how upset I truly was. “I mean, no money exchanged hands. The thing is, he owed me fifty bucks. He’s owed me for a long, long time. I knew I’d never see the money. Then last week I realized maybe I could get something else out of him. I told him that if he did a favor for me we’d call it even.”

“Oh,” I groaned, “that is so much better.”

“You don’t have to worry about him telling anyone. When he told me how upset you were, I had Finola whip up a potion. I snuck it into his protein shake this morning. He won’t tell a soul about it. He
can’t
tell a soul.” She shrugged, as if all was right in the world. “It’s all taken care of.”

I didn’t want to admit that her words did make me feel just a bit better. I would have to remember to thank Finola for her amazing potion making abilities.

“Come on Samara. Tristan needed a wakeup call. He needed to see that if he’s not into you, he should be. I knew you would never go out with Xavier if you knew I was behind it.”

It was irritating that she could sound so reasonable. Especially when she was so
wrong
.

“The problem is that it backfired,” I reminded her. “So you paid your brother to go out with me, made me feel pitiful for nothing. Tristan doesn’t care.”

“I don’t believe that,” Daphne argued. “Something is going on with him. I don’t know what it is but I think we should find out.”

“No, I think you should stay out of it,” I said.

“Maybe I should talk to him,” Daphne offered.

“You?” I scoffed. “Talk to Tristan? What good would that do? You two have never said a single nice thing to each other. You don’t even like him.”

“That’s not true. I just feel ambivalent towards him. Kind of like how I feel about Alex,” she admitted.

I pushed off the wall I’d been leaning against. “What’s up with that, by the way? I thought we both agreed that we should discourage Finola from chasing after him. Next thing I know, you’re floating Alex her phone number. I have to say, I’m feeling kind of betrayed.”

She laughed at me.

“I guess I finally decided that someone who has the potential to make Fin happy couldn’t be all that bad. Besides,” she said with a shrug, “it’s
Fin
we’re talking about. She won’t leave the house without an umbrella if there’s even a hint of rain. She won’t drive out of a parking lot until she’s double checked everyone’s seatbelt. Hell, she won’t even wear high-heals because they make her nervous. How dangerous could Alex really be?”

“Love is blind and stupid,” I grumbled as I loosely repeated what Finola had said to me.

“I can’t argue with that,” Daphne mumbled. “As for Tristan, I always thought he was so smart. But I’ve changed my mind. He’s just plain stupid if he can’t see what he’s missing out on.”

“What happened with him the other night is all your fault,” I wailed. “You and Finola! You pushed and pushed and wouldn’t let it drop. I was fine with how things were. I’ve been fine with it for years. I knew I should never have admitted to Tristan how I felt.”

“In all fairness,” Daphne said lightly, “Fin and I suggested that you talk to Tristan. We said that you should
tell
him how you feel. Neither one of us suggested that you attack him with your lips.”

I couldn’t argue her point because she was right. I’d made that blunder all on my own.

The sound of a car door slamming caught our attention. I wandered over to the window. I didn’t bother to hide my scowl as I caught sight of the car that had just parked in the driveway.

Daphne smiled at me apologetically. “Xavier’s home?”

I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. She had better not get any more not-so-brilliant ideas about Xavier and me.

She carefully got to her feet. “Will you forgive me if I buy you a hot cocoa, or a smoothie? A brownie and hot cocoa maybe? Ice-cream? Banana cream pie?”

I shook my head as a smile tried to work its way onto my face. It was hard to stay mad at Daphne.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said.

~*~*~

Fifteen minutes later we were walking into The Rush. I glanced at our usual spot, disappointed that it was occupied. I did a double take when I realized who was seated there.

“Is that…?” I let my question fade away.

“Uh-huh,” Daphne said with a huge grin.

Alex and Finola were huddled together in the booth.

“Did you know about this?” I asked.

“Uh-uh,” Daphne replied. “Someone’s been keeping secrets from us.”

Finola glanced up, probably because she felt us staring at her. I grinned at her. Daphne waved exuberantly. Finola did not seem nearly as excited to see us as we were to see her.  She smiled nervously—probably fearing some kind of embarrassment from Daphne—and gave us a tiny wave.

We got in line and placed our orders. Normally I wouldn’t be so gluttonous but just this once I allowed Daphne to order the hot cocoa and the brownie that she promised. I decided it was the least she could do.

When we had our drinks and desserts, Daphne didn’t hesitate to head Finola’s way. When our friend glanced at us, I couldn’t tell if she minded our intrusion or not.

“Hey, guys,” Daphne said as she plunked herself down in the booth. She slid in, making room for me.

When Finola glanced up, I raised a questioning eyebrow at her. I didn’t want to intrude if she didn’t want us to. She forced a small smile but motioned for me to sit.

I was expecting a giddy look of elation. She’d been crushing on Alex for nearly as long as I’d been crushing on Tristan. She should be wearing a happy smile. What I saw was something completely different. Daphne obviously noted it as well because she didn’t jump in with her good-natured teasing.

“What’s wrong?” I questioned

“Did you hear about Bree?” Finola asked as she leaned across the table. She kept her voice low and her eyes darted around The Rush.

Daphne and I glanced at each other, looking equally confused, before turning back to Finola.

“No,” Daphne said as I tacked on, “Why?”

Alex fidgeted with his glass. “Word is, she ran away.”

“She did what?” Daphne asked.

Alex nodded solemnly. “Yeah, that’s what I heard.”

“From who?” Daphne demanded. It was rare that she wasn’t one of the first people aware of gossip of this magnitude.

“Her mom and my mom are friends,” Alex said.

“But I also overhead it from a group of juniors when I was waiting in line for my order,” Finola told us.

“Why would she run away?” I demanded. Why would someone run away their senior year? It seemed absurd to spend that much time in school and not see it through to the end. It wasn’t as if Bree was the kind of girl that would drop out, as stereotypical as that sounded. She had friends. She got good grades. Maybe she had a bad home life? It was the only thing that I could think of.

“See,” Alex said, “that’s the strange thing. She left a note saying she was leaving and that she didn’t want anyone to come looking for her. But,” he said and he paused, his brow furrowed in concern, “her mom said she left almost everything behind. As far as she could tell, she just took a few changes of clothes.”

Finola nudged him. “Tell them what else.”

“Oh,” he said, “yeah. She didn’t take her purse. Just her wallet.” He shrugged, probably not understanding the attachment most females had to that particular accessory. Hell, it was more than an accessory. It was practically a lifeline.

Daphne straightened up as she leaned back in her seat. Confusion swamped her features. “That’s so strange. I didn’t know her well. But she did date my brother for awhile. I can’t imagine her running away. Do they know where she went? She doesn’t strike me as the kind of girl that would be willing to rough it out on the streets.”

“That’s just it,” Finola said. “No one has a clue. Her friends said she’d been acting a little strange the last few days. But none of them saw it coming.”

“Her parents were completely blindsided. I feel so bad for them. They’ve always seemed like such a close family. Then to take off with just a note…?” He shook his head.

“She didn’t even take her car,” Finola said.

“She must’ve left with someone,” I pointed out.

“Do you think…?” Daphne asked. She trailed off as her gaze floated out to the parking lot.

“What?” Finola said.

Daphne slapped her hands on the table and I winced. Her eyes were widened in excitement. “Do you think she left with Levi? I mean, it was just last week that we saw them together. And her friends said she started acting strangely recently. Maybe they ran off…?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Levi was at breakfast this morning. He was alone. In fact, he went back up to his room to do some work before I left.”

Daphne’s eyes glittered, her suspicion clear. “Maybe he’s hiding her away.”

“Daphne,” I groaned. “I get that you’re not real crazy about the guy but I can guarantee that he’s not hiding Bree in his suite. We’d know if he brought in a guest.”

She slumped back in the booth again, disappointed at having her theory shot down.

“Is her family looking for her?” I asked.

“They’ve been checking with all of her friends,” Alex told us. “But other than that, they really don’t even know where to start. Right now, because she’s not a minor and because she left a note, she’s considered a voluntary missing person. Unless evidence turns up proving there’s been foul play, the police and The Council really have no reason to get involved.”

We were all quiet for a moment, letting that little bit of news sink in. Slowly, our gazes wandered around the table. We all wore matching looks of confusion and disbelief. The facts of the story didn’t add up.

Bree wasn’t exactly Miss Goody Two Shoes. She’d dated Xavier for crying out loud. But she wasn’t exactly a wild child either.

“When did this happen?” I asked. “Just today?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I guess she told her parents she was hanging out with her friends yesterday. She got home last night and went straight to her room. When she didn’t come down by lunchtime today, her Mom went to check on her. Up until then, she thought she was just sleeping in. That’s when they found the note. They don’t know for sure but they think she probably left last night.”

“And no one knows which friends she was with,” Finola added on. “No one in her usual group saw her yesterday.”

“How very curious,” Daphne muttered. Her tone was light, as if she thought the whole incident was simply amusing and not troublesome at all. Maybe she was right. I didn’t know Bree well enough to form an educated opinion.

“No,” Alex said firmly, “curious doesn’t cut it. Something is wrong. I know it.”

Daphne lifted her perfectly plucked brow. “And how would you know that?”

He shifted in his seat and dropped his gaze. His voice was low. It was surprisingly smooth and melodic. “I just have a hunch.”

Alex was tall and lanky, almost bony. He wore his bleached-blond hair in carefully gelled spikes. His skin was pale, like Finola’s. His eyes were a faded, washed out gray. He also had chiseled cheekbones and disturbingly long, dark eyelashes that any girl would trade her fingernail polish collection for. In all fairness, I had to admit that when he smiled and set a single dimple free, even I found it charming.