Privilege (Privilege 1)

nt. Kaitlynn was right. She was an idiot.

But she wasn't powerless.

Ariana opened her eyes. Kaitlynn was turning away in disgust. A hot rage surged through Ariana--so hot it seared her skin. All she could see was Kaitlynn. Everything else--the car, the trees, the lake, the night sky--all of it faded to black. Kaitlynn had used her. She had lied to her for sixteen months, day in and day out. She had forced Ariana to kill an innocent girl. Something she'd sworn she would never do again. And now she was calling her useless?

With a guttural growl that echoed off the lake, Ariana lunged forward and shoved Kaitlynn with both hands. Kaitlynn shouted in surprise and fell to her knees. Ariana pounced on her and grabbed her by the hair, just as she had done with Briana Leigh.

"You miserable lying bitch!" Ariana seethed, feeling the frizzy texture of Kaitlynn's curls between her fingers. Savoring the pain on the girl's face as she wrenched her forward. She turned toward the lake. It was Kaitlynn who deserved to die. Kaitlynn who deserved to suffer a horrible, undignified end. And Ariana was going to make it happen.

"Get off me!"

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Kaitlynn whirled around and backhanded Ariana across the face. Stunned, Ariana slammed into the side of the car and fell backward onto her butt, taking a handful of Kaitlynn's hair with her. For a moment she had forgotten that she was dealing with someone who wasn't drugged. Someone who wasn't tied up. Someone who could defend herself.

Someone who could kill.

"Ow!" Kaitlynn held her hand to her head and gaped at the hair in Ariana's fist. "You bitch."

Before Ariana could even move, Kaitlynn had jumped on her and slammed her head back into the hard-packed dirt. Ariana kneed the girl in the stomach and used the moment of shock to roll her attacker off her, but Kaitlynn grabbed Ariana's foot before she could scramble away. Ariana hit the ground again, face-first. Kaitlynn pressed her knee into the small of Ariana's back and gripped her hair, shoving her face into the dirt.

Ariana couldn't breathe. She struggled, wagging her head back and forth, trying to grab behind her and get hold of Kaitlynn, but nothing worked. She was using up what little oxygen she had, starting to black out.

No. I'm not going to die this way. I just got my life back. No... no... no...

Just when she was about to helplessly give in to the oncoming darkness, Kaitlynn released her. Ariana lifted her chin and gasped for breath. She got a lungful of dirt and her throat burned. Coughing like mad, she turned over and looked up at Kaitlynn, who was now

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rummaging through the car. Hot tears coursed down her face as she fought for breath. She was still struggling to get her knees under her when Kaitlynn loomed over her once more.

"This is where we part ways, friend" Kaitlynn said through her teeth. She raised the half-empty champagne bottle Briana Leigh had lifted from the plane. "Thanks for nothing."

Ariana let out one pathetic screech before the bottle cracked against the back of her skull and everything went black.

268

A PROMISE

The sky was purple.That was all Ariana was able to register before her head exploded with pain. She groaned and gripped the back of her skull, rolling over onto her side. Every bone in her body seemed to ache and there was an awful taste in her mouth.

Dirt. She was lying in dirt.

Suddenly everything came rushing back and Ariana shoved herself to her knees. The buzz of a motorboat's engine assaulted her ears, and she winced as a new bolt of pain shot through her skull. Lake Page was coming alive. The search for Ariana's body was revving up again.

I have to get out of here, Ariana thought. Now.She scrambled to her feet and turned around. The car. The car was still there. And there appeared to be some kind of note shoved between the window and door. Pressing her lips together, Ariana grabbed the

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piece of paper, torn from one of the notebooks she had bought for her new school year.

Be seeing you soon! Kaitlynn had written. She had even drawn a smiley face next to it. Ariana balled the page up and threw it on the ground. Kaitlynn had probably realized the car would be too easy to trace. Smart girl. Evil girl.

Ariana's fingers curled at the very thought of what Kaitlynn had done to her. She was going to kill that bitch. She looked down at her Calvin Klein dress, stained with dirt and blood, and her jaw clenched. She was going to murder that bitch the first chance she got.

Grabbing the keys from the ground, Ariana raced to the back of the car and popped the trunk. Empty. Kaitlynn had taken everything. The clothes, the laptop, the jewelry, the cash--even the toiletries and towels and makeup. The yawning void of the trunk stared up at Ariana, mocking her. Heart in her throat, she slammed it closed and got behind the wheel.

Please. Please, just this one thing...