Sweet Deceit (Privilege 4)

Ariana pressed her lips together and didn’t respond. Let the girl have the last word. She clearly thought she deserved to have it.

PI

“Hey, girls! You’re just in time,” Maria greeted Lexa and Ariana as they arrived at the edge of her plaid picnic blanket after Spanish class on Monday. “Quinn just delivered our coffee and snacks.”

“Pumpkin spice latte for Ana, and a skim latte for Lexa,” Quinn said, handing over their drinks.

“Thanks,” Ariana said, taking her cup and sitting down on the blanket, tucking her pleated skirt modestly around her thighs.

“Thank you, Quinn,” Lexa added, sitting as well.

“You’re welcome,” Quinn said. “I guess I’ll be going. Unless you needed something else?”

“We’re fine,” Maria said dismissively.

Quinn smiled, unaffected by Maria’s tone. The girl always simply did her job, no questions asked, no complaints. It was quite admir able, really.

“Okay. See you later.” Quinn tugged out her phone as she scurried off, sending a quick text. Of everyone Ariana had met at Atherton-Pryce, Quinn always seemed to be the busiest.

“So? How did your presentation go?” Soomie asked, leaning back against the thick tree trunk behind her.

“Fine,” Ariana said.

“Well,” Lexa replied at the same time.

They both sipped their coffees and Ariana saw Maria and Soomie exchange a glance. Her skin warmed slightly and she preoccupied herself with straightening her skirt and tugging it down toward her stockinged knees another millimeter. Maria and Soomie weren’t stupid. They had to have noticed that things had cooled between her and Lexa.

“So, Ana, have you found out anything else about Lillian and her family?” Lexa asked out of nowhere.

Ariana glanced up at Lexa, her face perfectly framed by her dark hair. Lexa’s green eyes studied her shrewdly over the plastic top on her coffee cup.

“I didn’t realize I was supposed to be digging,” Ariana said.

“Honestly?” Lexa said, raising her perfect eyebrows. “My bad then, I guess. I just assumed after our conversation you would try to get to know her better. I didn’t realize I had to spell it out for you.”

As if Ariana was so incredibly dense for missing the hint.

“Sorry,” Ariana mumbled. She took a sip of her coffee to keep from screaming at Lexa. “I guess I’ve had a lot on my mind. Maybe you should have made that my task. Then there would’ve been no confusion.”

Lexa’s eyes flashed and Ariana instantly felt chagrined. What was she thinking, telling Lexa off? Bringing up the task issue in a public forum? She was supposed to be kissing the girl’s butt until she got into Stone and Grave. There was no point in keeping her relationship with Palmer a secret if she was just going to irritate Lexa in other ways.

But she already knows about me and Palmer, Ariana thought, frustrated. Otherwise why would she have set that task?

She felt like she was playing a game of chicken with Lexa. Neither one wanted to mention the Palmer-Ana relationship out loud first. Well, Ariana was not going to break first. She was not about to ask Lexa’s permission to date the guy she loved. Never would she give the girl that satisfaction. When the time was right, everyone would know about Ariana and Palmer, and then Lexa was just going to have to deal with it.

“It’s weird that we can’t find anything out about her with all the government search engines our members can tap into,” Soomie interjected. “The only reasons her information could possibly be that classified would be if (A) she’s in witness protection, (B) she’s the daughter of some international dignitary-slash-fugitive who’s been given asylum by the government, or (C) she’s got an assumed identity.”

Ariana flinched and swallowed wrong, then started coughing uncontrollably. She covered her mouth with her hand and turned away, her heart racing.

“Are you all right?” Maria asked.

“I’m fine,” Ariana croaked, coughing a few more times.

“Maybe we should talk to national about her,” Maria suggested, sipping her espresso. A cool breeze tossed her wavy dark hair in front of her eyes, and she tucked it behind her ear. “I’m sure they have the resources to find Lily’s family.”

“We can’t,” Lexa said flatly. “They’ll think we didn’t properly vet our taps. Which, let’s face it, we didn’t. We just thought she was cool and liked her style and figured Headmaster Jansen wouldn’t have let her into Privilege House if she wasn’t worthy.”

L