: Chapter 4

Istalk into Riley’s house.

There’s a commotion above my head, so I go to the stairs. The layout isn’t rocket science. Half the homes in this part of town have something similar. I climb the stairs and stop in front of a door.

Her door.

Eli told me which bedroom is hers, and here I am. Except, the door is locked.

I could pick it if I wanted to—if I had the patience for it. But patience isn’t something I’m known for. Not now, with intoxicating anger flowing through me. I take a step back and kick, smashing her door open.

Empty.

Who locks an empty room?

I consider that, going so far as to check the closet, then get the fuck out of there.

There are only a few places that Margo would go to avoid me. A few places she would either trust to hide her from me—big mistake—or that she’d think I wouldn’t hunt for her.

Savannah or Amelie maybe.

Or Ian.

Riley was the obvious choice. I’m almost proud that Margo didn’t run straight here. I check with Eli, confirming that he’s with Margo’s best friend, and he sends a selfie of the two of them.

My phone rings. I smother a groan, dropping into my car.

“You better be calling to tell me you left town,” I say.

“Hello to you, too,” Margo’s mother says. “I just⁠—”

“If you’re about to ask for a favor, don’t.”

“Caleb, you don’t understand.”

I growl. Amber is a distraction and a drug addict. She had her uses, but her calling me? Absolutely not.

“Your mom is looking for me,” she whispers.

I freeze. “What?”

“I don’t know what to do. Somehow she got my number⁠—”

“Then change your number.” I stare straight ahead. My mother, Margo’s mother, the fucking Bryans. This mess is snowballing.

This wasn’t part of the game.

I hang up on her. Can’t really do anything about Mother, since she’s always been a wild card. Everyone else has a plan, motives, wants, and needs. She’s just crazy.

I try calling Margo again, but it’s still going straight to voicemail. If you had told me two months ago that the girl I had carried a grudge against for seven fucking years would change me, I would’ve punched you in the goddamn face.

She’s under my skin. She found the cracks in my armor and slipped right in, and I loathe her for it.

Maybe that’s why I went through with my decision to talk to the Bryans.

My next stop is Theo’s house. As much as I’d love to barge into Amelie’s home, it wouldn’t do me any good. So I’m sending someone who can be a little more persuasive.

Theo and the Page girls have history. Amelie’s sister goes to Lion’s Head, our rival school in the neighboring town of Beacon. But because Amelie attends Emery-Rose… Lucille has always hung around. To say her and Theo somehow got off on the wrong foot would be putting it mildly.

But while there’s no love lost between them, there’s a weird sort of kinship, too.

I don’t get it. I don’t try to get it.

Theo meets me in the driveway, his eyebrow raised. Already expecting me to ask him something—because why else would I show up unannounced?

“Margo’s missing,” I tell him.

His expression doesn’t change.

“She might be at the Page house.”

He snorts. “She might decide to hide in a bed of vipers, too.”

“You want to go find out or what?” I snap.

Time tugs on my skin.

Every second that passes, she’s getting farther away from me. Every bone in my body needs to know where Margo is. She can’t run away. She isn’t in control. I am.

But right now, I don’t think that’s quite true. She got the upper hand on me.

“Where are you going?” Theo questions.

“Dunley’s, then Fletcher.” I shake my head, already mentally crossing off Savannah Dunley from my list. “Maybe straight to Ian’s. The fucker deserves to be hit again.”

I’ve already been suspended from hockey for six weeks. I’ve got nothing left to lose, except perhaps the rest of my season. And there, my goal of playing hockey in college would most likely sputter out.

Nothing beats the impending doom of being forced into a job I don’t want like hockey does.

Theo’s eyes darken. “And the video?”

“Apparently it came from Savannah.” I lift my shoulder. I don’t know how much truth to put into that. Savannah holds grudges, sure, but I wouldn’t have expected this from her.

It’s a bit too conniving. More on Amelie’s level…

“Another reason to visit her first,” Theo reasons.

I sigh. Savannah and Amelie were Margo’s best friends. Now, they’re causing more trouble than they’re worth. But unfortunately, we don’t live in a society where I can just bury them in the backyard.

“Your uncle is going to be pissed,” he adds.

I don’t need to be told that. I know it. I live it.

“I’m giving you a shot at Page, and you’re still flapping your lips.”

His chuckle follows me back to my car. Fuck him. He’ll help, but he’ll do it in his own time. And maybe he’s right: I should clean up the video. It spread faster than I anticipated, and Savannah’s phone was just the catalyst.

She didn’t record it.

I dial a number I memorized a long time ago.

“Yes?”

“Do you have a death wish?” I bark.

They swallow.

“Get rid of it.”

“What?”

“Get rid of the fucking video—get it off every phone, every server, or so help me God, I will ruin your life.”

Silence.

Then, “You didn’t like the angle?”

I growl.

“Fine. Consider it done.”

Margo isn’t with Savannah. She knows that girl would do anything to get back in my good graces—including tell me if Margo showed up. Since I have no messages from Dunley, that leaves one option.

My little lamb thought she would outsmart me. But what she doesn’t know is that I’ve been hemming her in since before she came back to Rose Hill. Trimming away at the number of people she can turn to, making it so eventually, she’ll only have me.

I crack my neck. There’s only one place—okay, two, if Theo ends up finding her at Amelie’s—that Margo could be.

Next stop: Ian Fletcher’s house.