“It’s not impossible. Maybe seeing her again resparked his interest,” I say. “Or maybe someone else noticed that Jackson seemed keen on Evan.”
“You mean like Mia?” Hawk asks.
I nod. “Which puts her back on the playing field. The thing that stops me is, I don’t believe Mia wants to hurt Evan, but she’s friendly with Abby, so maybe she let something slip.”
“Mia seems too savvy to let something slip inadvertently,” Hawk says.
“You want to add Abby to the list?” Damon scoffs.
“Why not?” I ask. “Honestly there are a lot of girls jealous as fuck of our girl right now. It’s not like we keep our attention quiet. Girls notice and talk. Add to that, the attention Evan is getting for being director. It’s a perfect fucking storm.”
“None of these girls scream mastermind of the operation though.” Hawk smirks. “Annie would be able to do this, maybe Keira. They think similarly, but I wouldn’t think Keira had it in her.”
“Why not? She has just as much ambition as Evan.” I have to point out. “While I’d love to eliminate people, I think we’ve narrowed our focus too much. Olivia isn’t the only crazy bitch at our school. And she isn’t the only one who wanted us.”
Damon presses his lips together but doesn’t say anything. Olivia was a misjudgment on his part. He thought he could control her, but there’s no controlling crazy.
“I looked into Elizabeth’s school. It isn’t Kentwood Prep, but that doesn’t mean much.” I think back to my search into her school and Kentwood. “They cross with sports and some of their parties. It wouldn’t be unheard of that she and Jackson know each other. It’s just not something I can pin down.”
“I’d love to have something concrete.” Damon smooths his hand over his handlebar. “It would make this easier.”
“Okay, timeline, then.” I rub my hands together. “The tire, the texts, the car.” I pause.
“More texts. Olivia outs us to the school. The rose. Social media account,” Hawk adds. “Though the social media account turned out to be revenge by Chase and Abby.”
“You forgot the text to Heather. Someone wanted us to get caught.” Damon shakes his head. “Only the rose physically hurt her.”
“The car could have.” Hawk breathes out harshly. “If I’d been any slower, they could have clipped us before speeding off.”
“We do need to make Chase and Abby pay for that account.” I run my hand through my hair. “Both of them gloated to Evan about it. Mia said that Abby was planning something. Hopefully, that was it. I don’t see them doing the texts, but possibly the rose.”
“I did enjoy leaving Chase in the woods the first time...” Hawk rubs his chin thoughtfully. Then he grins evilly. “Maybe after the play we can revisit it. We can’t fuck with any of Annie’s actors right now. She’s stressed enough as it is.”
Both Damon and I nod. It’s like Evan has shut down to everything except the play. She’s got a lot on her plate since she lost her lead.
“She’s going to be brilliant,” I say. When I meet Hawk’s gaze, he nods.
“She’s amazing as a director, but acting with her on stage is something else entirely.” Hawk lies back on his bike and stares up at the stars. “Wherever we go for college, Annie needs to act as well as direct.”
“She was saying the program at Crowne Mawr allows that.” Damon smiles, and then he gets serious. “Brandt has his fingers in this somewhere. You won’t convince me otherwise. Especially since he was the last to leave before Evan found her tire flat.”
“From what I’ve heard and seen, I agree about Brandt.” I straighten. “He was trying to convince Chase to quit and come tohis production to show Evan. But even Chase isn’t that gullible to leave a leading role to be an extra.”
“Chase actually has his priorities straight.” Hawk chuckles. “Brandt should have offered him pussy, and then maybe he would have changed his mind.”
“Is the internship really what Brandt’s after?” Damon asks.
“He’s got industry connections through his father, but maybe, like Chase’s dad, daddy isn’t willing to help his son be a little nepo-baby.” There might be a way for me to find out. I just have to ask the right ants.
“Do we know how they decided on the showcase directors? Evan obviously deserves to be in the showcase, but how did Brandt get in?” Damon asks.
There’s always the obvious way. Buy in.
“There were a couple of donations in the spring. One for additional lab equipment in the science wing. Another for some of the classrooms that need to be renovated. I can’t remember the other one, but I’ll look into it this week. It wouldn’t be the first time a parent bought someone their future,” I say.
“It’s worth exploring, but we need to be careful so we don’t kick the hornets’ nest and cause trouble for Annie,” Hawk straightens. “It’s less than a month until the performance. We can keep looking into this, but we can’t really confront anyone, especially if they are in the play.”
We all sit with that a moment. As much as I want to confront the asshole or assholes fucking with our girl, if it is someone in her cast, then we can’t push and end up hurting her play.
