“A couple of hours ago,” she said.“I told her to leave.”
I ran a hand through my hair.“Oh my fucking God.She’s dead.She’s fucking dead.”
“She’s not dead,” Diya said.
But I was already down the steps and heading out the front door because talking to her wasn’t going to help us find Astrid.She had asked Astrid to leave because she was pissed at us for hooking up behind her back, and now … Astrid’s gone?!
“She’s fucking dead,” I repeated, my strides long and quick toward her car.
Frasier ran a hand through his hair, pacing in front of Astrid’s car.Arch hurled a fist at his car, a string of curse words leaving his mouth barely a moment later.I jogged up to him with Diya close behind.
“Did you find anything?”I asked Frasier.
“No.”
“Did Cairo?”
“He’s looking at the cameras, got access through Kai from Poison.It’ll take a minute.”
“And Rush?”
“I haven’t heard from him yet,” Frasier said.“He’s not answering his phone.”
“Fuck,” I murmured, my stomach in knots.“Fuck!”
“I think—” Frasier started, then looked down at his buzzing phone and answered it, putting it on speaker.“Did you find anything?”
“The same car that picked Astrid up was at the Overlook fifteen minutes ago, dumping something,” Kai—not Cairo—said.
Kai was the tech geek of Poison, Redwood’s most notorious student-led gang, and he could find anything.I could hear cries in the background, ones that sounded like Cairo.
“It looks like a body.”
Everything suddenly stopped, and my entire body felt like it was giving out.
“What?”I whispered.“It hasn’t even been two hours since …”
Arch was squealing out of the driveway and speeding toward the Overlook.Frasier dropped the phone.And I was shaking.I couldn’t stop.My fingers wouldn’t be still, my mind was racing, and my heart?It felt like it would burst out of my chest.
“What?”I said again.“Wh-what’d he say?”
“No,” Diya said to my left.“No, they said … they said they wouldn’t hurt her.”
I slowly turned to face her.“What did you just say?”
Diya stared at me for a couple of moments and shook her head.“I … I’m sorry, Calix.I messed up.”
CHAPTEREIGHTY-FIVE
ARCH
The salty airburned my lungs, like fucking acid.I paced the edge of the rocks at the Overlook, gaze shooting between the ocean waves slamming against the shore and the gravel underneath my feet.
Why the fuck didn’t I check Astrid’s location tonight?I should’ve seen her phone location in the middle of the street and immediately left the race.She was more important, and I would fucking kill myself if she was dead.
My hands balled into fists as I looked over at Calix fighting with Diya.
That bitch … I should kill her.
