Colette.
Dani lets out a sharp gasp when she sees it.When she sees her.It pulls my attention from the tangle of insides that decorate the floor.Dani sobs into Jennifer’s shoulder, the latter trying to hold back her own tears, as Laurie moves to my other side.Her eyes lock on the letters inside the heart, head tilted to try and decipher them, and I turn back to it, too, trying to read the cursive that the tubes of tissue have been twisted into.They could be a clue as to who is doing this.Whohe’s doing it for.This display isn’t just a message, it’s a declaration.
I figure out there’s either five or six letters.He’s managed to dot the “i” and connect the end of the “e” to the inside of the heart.Once I determine the vowels, it’s just the first letter—it kind of looks like an “L” but it’s hard to tell—and the middle—
No.
“Oh shit… Oh my god.Oh my god,” Laurie gasps when she recognizes the name, then she does what I want to do and throws up in an empty ice bucket on one of the tables.
“Well,” Billie drones.“At least we knowwhohe’s doing it for.”
The sound of Laurie’s retching is still bouncing off the bucketby the time I wrench my eyes away from the name spelled out with Colette’s intestines.I turn away from the railing, but the image is burned across my retinas.
Billie’s voice is acidic in my ear when she adds, “You must’ve made quite an impression.”
CHAPTER 19
“You have butchered me, body and soul.”
—NotPride and Prejudice
I’d consider myself well versed in what makes a romantic gesture.
Noah Calhoun restoring an entire house for Allie Hamilton inThe Notebookin the hopes it would bring her back to him after years and parental prejudice separated them?
Swoon.
Mia Thermopolis, princess of Genovia, apologizing to Michael Moscovitz with an M&M’s-studded pizza that leads to their first foot-popping kiss among a garden of fairy lights inThe Princess Diaries?
Iconic.
But fashioning a giant heart out of intestines with the entrails forming your prospective lover’s name?
Yeah, that’s downright psychotic.
“How didnoneof you see that when you came up from the basement?”Jennifer asks, shock audible in the shaking of her voice.
“There’s a wall that runs along the dance floor,” Billie replies.“You can’t see anything when you’re on the stairs.”
“Jamie—” Wes says.
“Oh mygod… he could’ve been there when we came up,” Dani cries.
“Did anyone see anything from up here?”Wes asks, but then his voice drops to a low murmur—one meant just for me—as he says, “Jamie—”
“It’s not like someone just sat by and watched him do that,” Billie says irritably.“It’s out of the sight line when you’re not standing at the railing.”
“Well, it’s in our fucking sight line now!”Laurie’s agitated voice sounds echoey so she must still be propped over the ice bucket.
“Jamie!”
“Just give her a minute, Dani.”Jennifer’s voice is quiet, tight, trying to remain calm, while I’m standing here with my eyes closed, squeezing them tight like I might be able to wring out the image of the heart from under my eyelids.It doesn’t work.There’s another retching sound and I’m reminded of the times in the past where Laurie and I have swapped some of our red flag stories.The ick some guys give off really can make you sick to your stomach.
“She can have all the time she wants, ’cause I’m out of here.”
“Billie—”
“No, I’m not sticking around and getting slaughtered because ofher.I’ll take my chances.”
