Can I say there would have been no Rachel without George Bouchard?
There’d be fewer Rachels.
But Papa created Rachels too.
Bobbi got that part right. I can pretend Papa never did it. We could sugarcoat it, paint it all in white and say the blood isn’t visible anymore, but even with layers and layers of white paint the blood is still there.
It’ll shine through under the luminol.
It shines through every time somebody asks Mama how she and Papa met.
Something’s wrong with me, that I’m even thinking about this.
Bobbi walks over to me. “Your friend. Rachel.”
I instantly sit up straighter. “What about her?”
“I met her once.” Bobbi laughs bitterly. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It was at a party where I was supposed to take care of somebody.”
My eyes widen.
Rachel hadn’t been alive for long between getting kidnapped and getting murdered.
“Was she—” My voice chokes up. “How did she look?”
Could Bobbi have saved her? Did Bobbi look at some poor, desperate girl and think‘not my problem?’
Because then Bobbiisa problem.
“Uncomfortable.” Bobbi runs a hand through her short hair. “Zayden was with her, but so was John Allers. You know, the tech billionaire.”
“Oh. He’s Kappa Alpha,” Blaze says. “He and my dad are friends.”
The tech billionaire.
How casual. Just a tech billionaire. Not even somebody in organized crime, no. A guy who knows the right people, who has the right friends. Investments into companies that go under in five years, but don’t worry, the next one will surely bring a lot of market value, so who cares? John Allers can afford to meet with pretty young women who don’t want anything to do with him.
Blaze says something, but I don’t hear it through the thick, goopy air.
Asch’s arm around me tightens, and he kisses the side of my head. “Pandora?” he asks, in that way that makes me think he might’ve been saying my name for a moment already. “You need to breathe.”
“There’s no air,” I point out, but that sounds crazy. “There is air,” I correct.
I don’t tell him that it’s starting to smell like blood in the room.
This is really, really bad.
I toss Asch’s arm off me and stand up.
“So we’ve all had a long night,” I state, and I force myself to smile. “I’m fucking tired. I’ll grab Samantha and head back to the dorm. Bobbi, please don’t kill us on our way out.”
“You should both stay here tonight,” River says, casting another suspicious look in Bobbi’s direction. “Just until we’re sure we’re all still on the same page.”
Asch nods, getting up with me. “No offense or anything, Bobbi, but we’d feel better having Pandora here.”
Bobbi rolls her eyes, and I agree with her. Asch is being way too overprotective.
“Blabe, back me up,” I say, turning to Blaze. “You want your big bed all to yourself tonight too, right?”
