Sweet Deceit (Privilege 4)

As she scurried across the street, Ariana caught a disturbed look from an elderly couple walking their puggles. She almost shot them an annoyed glare in return until she remembered that she was dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein. It might have been Halloween, but this wasn’t exactly a big neighborhood for trick-or-treating. She ignored them, raced to the far sidewalk, and ducked through the gates in front of Lexa’s house. The driveway was long and steep, and by the time Ariana made it to the front door she was out of breath. She narrowed her eyes to better see in the dark and saw that the door had been left yawning open. Kaitlynn was already here.

Steeling herself, Ariana ran for the door, imagining what must have occurred. Kaitlynn had probably decided to simply ring the front bell, knowing that Lexa would be surprised to see her, but would let her in. They were, after all, friends—even if Lexa was planning on having Lillian vetted by a detective. Then, the moment the door had swung open wide enough, Kaitlynn had attacked. The element of surprise was always quite helpful in situations such as these, a fact that both Ariana and Kaitlynn knew well.

Sure enough, as soon as Ariana’s foot hit the front step, she heard a crash. She ducked through the door, her heart in her throat, and followed the noise to the parlor just off the foyer. She froze when she saw Kaitlynn and Lexa locked in a struggle. Lexa’s blond Heidi Klum wig was strewn on the floor, and she’d lost one stiletto heel as Kaitlynn dragged her backward, her fingers clenched around her throat. Ariana ducked behind a tremendous planter. She watched as Lexa’s thin fingers clawed at Kaitlynn’s white-knuckled hands. Watched as Kaitlynn clenched her jaw and pressed her lips together, her eyes narrowed and nostrils flared from the effort. Watched as Lexa’s legs began to twitch. As her life began to leave her.

It was fascinating, watching it all from the outside. Playing the part of spectator.

Lexa’s eyes started to roll into the back of her head, and Ariana took her cue. She plucked a large blue-and-white china vase from a table, walked up behind Kaitlynn, and smashed the vase into the back of her head, right near the base of her skull. Kaitlynn slumped forward, releasing her grip on Lexa, who fell to the floor choking and coughing and writhing around, her miniskirt riding so far upward that her black panties were exposed.

Ariana stood over Kaitlynn for a moment, her chest heaving up and down. This was going to feel so, so good. It was all she could do to keep from smiling. She had to be careful, though. Lexa might see.

Kaitlynn turned over with a groan and blinked a few times, clearly dazed. But when her eyes fell on Ariana, it was like everything snapped into focus. She shoved herself to her feet, her teeth clenched, and let out an inhuman shriek, vaulting herself at Ariana.

This time, however, Ariana was the one who was ready for the assault. As Lexa crawled across the room, her back to Ariana, Ariana grabbed the charging Kaitlynn by the shoulders, turned to the side, and used Kaitlynn’s own momentum to fling her through the nearest window. The crash was satisfying, the blood even more so. Kaitlynn lay crooked forward over the windowsill, scratches all over her arms, a gash through the black vinyl around her stomach. Ariana plucked a particularly sharp shard of glass from the window frame and hovered over Kaitlynn as she struggled to turn over, coughing up blood and spittle.

“You said . . . you said we were friends,” she whispered to Ariana, convulsing.

“I say a lot of things,” Ariana whispered to her. She lifted the shard of glass and let Kaitlynn get a nice, long look at it. “This is for Brigit,” she whispered.

Kaitlynn’s green eyes widened just before Ariana slashed her across the throat. She twitched twice, big full-body twitches as her lifeblood seeped out all over the bushes just outside the window frame. And then, with one last gurgling cough, she closed her eyes, and it was over.

It was finally, finally over.

Ariana lifted Kaitlynn’s hand, slid the purple bangle from her wrist, and shoved it on over her own hand, adding it to the red one she already wore. She could practically hear Brigit’s laugh of triumph in her ears.

“Ana!” Lexa ran up behind Ariana and barreled into the back of her shoulder, clinging to her as she looked down at Kaitlynn’s broken, bloody corpse. “Omigod, Ana. What did you do?” she choked out.

Ariana dropped the shard of glass with which she had just freed herself and turned to Lexa, shaking. “I just saved your life.”

“We have to call the police,” Lexa said, turning away from the body, tears streaming down her face. The fake eyelashes were peeling free and her black eyeliner was smudged all the way to her cheekbone. Her hand went to her throat, where Ariana could see a series of angry red bruises left behind by Kaitlynn’s fingers.

“Wait!” Ariana blurted, sounding panicked, even to her own ears. Lexa froze and Ariana wrung her hands on the skirt of her costume for effect. The white fabric was already splattered with red dots, and the blood on her hands made it much worse. Such a shame. She was going to have to burn her outfit and lose the deposit. Although, for now, the blood did lend a certain added touch of Halloween spookiness to the ensemble. “Just wait. We have to think.”

“Think? About what?” Lexa said, groping in her purse for her phone. She was shaking all over and gasping for breath. “Ana, Lillian’s dead!”

It was all Ariana could do to keep from grinning at the words. Lillian’s dead. Dead, dead, dead. The word danced a happy jig in her head. She took a deep breath and reminded herself she was supposed to be freaking out.

“I know. I know, okay? I just . . . let’s just take a second and calm down.” Ariana crossed over to Lexa, biting down on her own tongue to bring tears into her eyes. She sat down on the brocade couch, tugging Lexa with her, making sure to keep the bloody bit of her dress folded toward her lap.

“Calm down? Are you serious? Lily just tried to choke me to death and now she’s over there . . . she’s over there. . . .” She looked at the window, horrified, then looked away, covering her mouth with her quaking hand. “We have to call the police. We have to!”

“Omigod,” Ariana said, crossing her arms over her stomach and leaning forward, as if the realization of what she’d done had just hit her. She and Lexa had to be in this together. Lexa could never suspect the truth of tonight’s events. “Omigod, omigod, omigod.”

“Okay. It’s going to be okay,” Lexa rambled. “Ana, take a breath. If you lose it, I’m gonna lose it, and we can’t both lose it right now.”

Ariana breathed in deeply through her nose, letting Lexa comfort her.

“But you’re right,” she said tremulously, lookin

g over at the body as if horrified. “Lillian’s dead. And I—”

“You saved my life,” Lexa said, with the faintest hint of clearheadedness.

Exactly, Ariana thought. Let’s let that fact sink in now, shall we?

Her plan was working like a charm. By setting Kaitlynn up to try to kill Lexa, then swooping in at the last minute to play the hero, Ariana had earned Lexa’s trust. Her gratitude. Her undying devotion. Plus one big, fat future favor.

Lexa just hadn’t realized any of this yet. But she would. Jasper had been right. She had not only found a way to fix the situation, she had found a way to twist it in her favor. The only person on Earth who knew Ariana’s true identity was dead. And Lexa—the one person who could make or break her future—was forever in her debt.