Cruel Love (Privilege 6)

By the time the taxi she’d shared with Jasper, Tahira, and Rob pulled up in front of the looming towers of Privilege House, she was exhausted in body, mind, and soul.

“I wonder if everyone already knows,” Tahira said, staring up at the windows as Rob paid the cab driver. “That is not a story I want to tell over and over again.”

“I say we just ignore everyone,” Rob said, squeezing her shoulder. “It’s what we usually do anyway.”

He and Tahira exchanged a weary smirk and together, they all exited the car. The night air was frigid and Ariana wrapped her arms around herself, wondering why she hadn’t thought to wear a wrap over her gray gown. Jasper automatically put his arm around her and Ariana flinched. Rob and Tahira were right there. But then she remembered: She’d broken up with Palmer. She and Jasper could do whatever they wanted now.

“I need coffee,” Tahira announced as they entered the lobby. Her shoulders were slumped, her usually perfectly applied makeup hadn’t been retouched all night, and her strapless black dress was in desperate need of a pulling-up. Bu

t her appearance, for once, was clearly the last thing on her mind. “You guys wanna go sit in the café?”

Jasper let Ariana go and they exchanged a glance. “No thanks. I’m pretty exhausted,” Ariana said. “I just want to go lie down and pretend this day never happened.”

“Me as well,” Jasper said, rubbing his forehead. “I could sleep until next Tuesday.”

“Okay then.” Tahira pulled Ariana into a hug. “She’s going to be okay, you know.”

“I hope so,” she said flatly.

“She will. She’s Lexa,” Tahira said with a confident smile. “She’s unstoppable.”

Ariana ventured to smile, but she couldn’t seem to make it happen. If the last couple of weeks had proved anything, it was that Lexa wasn’t as strong a person as she’d once thought.

“See you in the morning,” she said.

Rob lifted a hand to Jasper and Ariana as he put his other arm around Tahira. Together they headed for the café on the far side of the common room. Jasper slipped his hands into the pockets of his suit pants and half smiled.

“Shall we?”

He hit the up button on the elevator that served the girls’ tower of the dorm. It pinged and the doors slid open. Together, they stepped inside. As soon as the doors closed, Ariana was in Jasper’s arms. Neither of them said a word as the elevator zipped them to the top floor. Ariana simply breathed in his spicy, comforting scent.

The volume on the mantra dulled ever so slightly. Dulled to a slight thrum rather than a pounding beat.

She must die … she must die … she must die …

Upstairs, Jasper led Ariana back to her room. She paused for a moment at the threshold, looking around at the slight disarray left behind as she’d gotten ready for the fabulous formal Stone and Grave event they’d attended tonight. Tubes of mascara and lip gloss were still set up on her desk. The clutch purse she’d decided against sat at the foot of her bed, and a pair of black Christian Louboutins were upended near the closet. Ariana had agonized all day over which shoes to wear. Just thinking about it now—the awful shallowness of it all—made her want to throw the shoes out the window. Instead she kicked them into her closet, slammed the door, and went right for her dresser. She pulled an Atherton-Pryce Hall sweatshirt on over her head and unzipped her gown, letting it fall to the floor. Then she shimmied into a pair of yoga pants and climbed into bed, her diamond necklace still sparkling around her neck. Jasper undressed down to his T-shirt and pants and climbed in next to her. He put his arms around her and Ariana rested her cheek on his chest. The mantra now was barely audible.

She must die … she must die … she must—

“I still can’t believe it,” Jasper whispered, stroking Ariana’s hair. “Lexa Greene. She is the definition of having it all. I guess it just proves that you never know what’s going on inside people’s minds.”

Ariana squeezed her eyes closed. I knew, she thought. I knew how distraught she was. Palmer was right. I should have done something. I should have known …

“Can we talk about something else?” Ariana whispered. Her voice was a mere squeak. She hated how weak and scared she sounded.

“Yes. Of course. Sorry.” Jasper kissed the top of her head. Ariana pressed her ear closer to his chest, listening to the comfortably rhythmic sound of his heartbeat. For the first time in an hour, her brain was silent. “I do have a question for you, actually.”

She tilted her head back so she could see his face. “Yeah?”

“Yes.” He shifted slightly, crooking his free arm behind his head. “Earlier tonight … what did you think I was going to tell you? What was the secret you thought I’d found out?”

Ariana’s heart thumped so hard she was sure it was going to stop beating altogether. Suddenly terrifying images flashed through her brain. Images of her shoving Jasper against a shelf-lined wall in the potting shed. Of her holding a pair of rusty, dirty garden shears to his neck. Of the fear in his eyes as he begged her to stop.

How the hell was she supposed to explain that? Ariana pressed her lips together and racked her brain. The “secret” Jasper had found out was that Briana Leigh Covington, the girl Ariana was currently pretending to be, had hooked up with a female professor at her old school. What other secrets could Briana Leigh have had? Secrets that might merit such a drastic reaction?

As she looked around her room, her eyes fell on a framed photo of the ranch house where Briana Leigh had grown up. Ariana remembered the last time she was there, and her encounters with Briana Leigh’s rich, crotchety old grandmother. “I thought you’d found out that I bought my way into Atherton-Pryce,” Ariana said, thinking quickly. “Lexa is the only person who knows, so when you said the two of us had been very naughty … I figured you’d found out about the bribe and that she was keeping the secret for me.”

She paused and licked her lips. It was thin, she knew, but it was all she had.