"Who did you send it to?"
Not a question.
She swallows. "You already know."
"I want to hear you say it."
A beat. "Cody."
I nod once and drive. I take the route along the water because it's long and there's nowhere to go. Serena has always responded to being somewhere she can't leave.
"What did you tell him?" I say.
She doesn’t answer right away, staring out at the water.
"That she's been in the library." Her voice is careful now. Stripped of everything decorative. "That she wasn't alone."
"What did you tell him about who?"
She's quiet.
"Serena," I seethe.
"I told him the guy was dark." She says it quickly. "Tall. Serious. Not on the team."
I take my eyes off the road long enough to look at her.
She's looking at her hands. "I didn't tell him it was you."
The water moves past the windows. Gray and flat. I drive. She’s been following me?
"Why not," I say.
She makes a sound that might be a laugh. "Because I'm not stupid." She looks at me, finally. "Cody finding out it's youchanges everything. I told him what I could say without saying that."
I consider this.
"He has a description that doesn't match anyone obvious," I say. "So, he's looking."
"And you're helping him look."
She's quiet for a moment.
"He called me," she says. "Twice. He asked questions and I—" She stops. Starts again. "You know what he's like. When Cody Ravenshaw decides he wants something from you, you just—" A small helpless gesture. "You answer."
I know exactly what she means.
I pull into the overlook above the water and cut the engine. The sound spreads out below us, still and cold, nothing ahead but water and distance.
I look at her.
She looks back.
Something complicated in her face — not just fear, though that's there, but something underneath it that is more honest than anything Serena usually lets me see. She has always wanted something from me that I've never been willing to give her the right way, and it makes her dangerous and loyal in equal measure, and I have used both of those things without pretending otherwise.
She knows that.
That's why she's still in the car.
