“Do you want me to toss them?”
“No.” She stared at them and frowned. “They’re pretty. It’s fine. Let’s just go.”
“Where are we going?” I asked after we’d showered, eaten, and were walking out the door.
“There’s nothing we can do right now until Constantine sees a judge, so I wanted to go check on my flowers at the greenhouse, and then hopefully by then, we’ll be able to bail him out.”She drove us over to the greenhouse, and as we were walking up to it, someone called to us.We turned to see a flash of cherry-red hair running toward us.
“Eisley! Wait!”
“What’s going on? Is someone else hurt?” Eisley asked quickly.
“No. I have to talk to you.” Emi caught her breath and then the relaxed look on her face turned cold. “The board had a meeting last night and followed up this morning. We are officially asking you to return your key to the greenhouses and not come back.”
Eisley’s mouth fell open, and I reached for her shoulder.
“What? Why?”
Emi crossed her arms. Everything about her stance and tone told me it had been her decision alone, not a board’s.
“They feel that since your husband,” she side-eyed me and my arm around Eisley “is currently in jail for murder, you make everyone uncomfortable.”
“He’s not in jail for murder. He’s in jail because your loser boyfriend won’t fess up about who actually had the drugs.” Eisley pulled away from me and stepped toward her friend.
“Say whatever you want, no one believes you,” Emi spat. “It’s bad enough you were sexting Spencer for the last year, and now Soleil is dead after she said something to your man about being off your meds. Don’t think we aren’t putting things together. We don’t want you here.” She shooed us with her hands. “Take your boyfriend or whatever and get the hell out of Shelley Vale.”
“What are you doing, Emi?” Eisley’s voice cracked. “I thought we were friends.”
“I thought so too, Eis, but then my friends started dying and a lot of it starts with you. So hand over your key and find some other town to ruin.”
Eisley fumbled with her keys and then tossed a key at her.“I want to grab my plants.”
Emi shook her head. “The board says you can’t go unescorted, and I don’t have time to do that today. I’m heading to go help Therese find clothes for Soleil’s funeral. Which, you’re not invited to, you know, since your man probably killed her.”
“He didn’t!”
I reached for Eisley’s hand and squeezed. “Come on, we’ll figure it out.”
“You move on so fast,” Emi smirked. “Maybe that’s why he was so angry. Maybe he’s nuts too. If he killed Soleil, he probably killed Spencer too. Lose my number.” She turned and stormed away.
Eisley collapsed, sobbing.I rubbed her back.
“It’s fine. Ignore all that shit she said. She’s just pissed because you know the truth about her boyfriend.”
“You know what?” She threw her head up and glared at me. “I think you were right. They should get theirs. Every single one of them. They’re bastards. All of them.”
My stomach tightened and then soared with elation. Finally, she was understanding my feelings. “What do you want to do?” I asked.
She stared at the greenhouse, still locked tight.“We’re coming back later for my fucking flowers, and then we’ll go from there.”
Rule 41 - Eisley
If it’s locked, don’t go inside.
Kansas and I spent the day going over the plan for getting my bat flower and catching him up on what I was comfortable telling him.Naturally, he had a lot of questions about us.
“Are you two together then?”
Before Therese’s party, I would have told him yes. Despite loving Kansas, I would always love Constantine too. But now, seeing what I saw down in the basement, Constantine, laughing about having let someone use my body while I was too high to realize… I didn’t know.I wanted to say a direct no. I wanted to hate him for what he did, but I’d never experienced something so intense, so pleasurable, so… hot. Not knowing just exactly who was under that Ghostface mask… Was I sick for low-key enjoying it a little?
