KITTY ADJUSTED HER LAPTOP SO THE CAMERA CAPTURED THE entire corner of the patio next to the Dumbrowskis’ pool, then backed away. “Can you see everyone?”
Bree nodded. Her face pixilated, and jerked slightly as the stream buffered. “I think so.” She pointed at the screen, moving her finger around the semicircle. “Damn, this is a lot of people for a secret DGM meeting.”
“I know.” Kitty glanced back over her shoulder. Bree was right. Olivia, Ed the Head, Peanut, Theo, Mika, Donté, John, and herself. Plus Bree via the internet. So much for their tightly kept secret.
“I’ve got kale chips, tofu cheese puffs, and savory quinoa cakes,” Peanut said, placing a tray of snacks down on a metal table beneath a large umbrella.
Ed leaned in to Olivia. “Is that food or a science experiment?”
Theo dove into the quinoa cakes, munching happily. “These are awesome. Did you make them?”
“I helped,” Peanut said, blushing.
“Where’s Margot?” Bree asked.
“Still at the hospital,” Kitty said. “But Logan’s with her.”
“He’s pretty much refusing to leave her side,” John added, “until this psycho is behind bars.”
Ed grunted. “Isn’t that sweet.”
“Good,” Bree said, ignoring Ed. “If the killer finds out she’s awake, he might try and take her down.”
Theo froze midbite and exchanged an uneasy glance with Peanut, while Mika squirmed in her chair. Kitty winced. She, Olivia, Bree, and Margot had been living with the threat of their anonymous stalker for over a month, but today was the first time the newbies learned that their lives might be in danger, and she didn’t want to completely freak them out.
“You guys are going to be okay,” Kitty said firmly. “No one’s going down.”
Ed the Head elbowed John in the arm. “That’s not what I heard.”
“Ew?” Olivia and Peanut said in unison, then smiled at each other.
Oh well. At least the mood was still on the light side. “I know this has all come as kind of a shock to you guys,” Kitty said, looking at the new DGM members in turn. “It’s a lot to process.”
Peanut stared blankly at Kitty. “I don’t understand.”
Ed reached across Olivia and patted her hand. “We know.”
“If you didn’t ask us to take over as DGM,” Peanut said, “then who did?”
Kitty tapped the side of her nose with her finger. “That’s exactly why you’re here this morning.”
Mika smiled broadly. “I should have known you were involved,” she said. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it!”
Kitty preened a little. “I’m pretty good at keeping a secret.”
Ed rolled his eyes. “You’re not the only one. The killer seems to be pretty good at it too.”
Great. Bree was usually enough of a smart-ass for the group; now they had two. “You’re not wrong,” Kitty said, using his one-liner to drive home the gravity of their situation. Donté, Mika, Theo, and Peanut needed to understand the danger.
“This guy we’re dealing with,” Olivia said, inching to the edge of her lawn chair, “is deadly.”
“Three murders already,” Kitty said. “And five former DGM targets have gone missing.”
“He’s been one step ahead of us all along,” Bree added.
Kitty picked up the manila envelope that had been left for her boyfriend. “Even in recruiting you guys.”
“Why would he get us involved?” Mika asked.
“It’s not enough just to destroy our lives,” Olivia explained. “He wants to destroy everything we love, too.”
“Which means us,” Donté said, addressing his team. “Kitty thinks he might try and frame us for something.”
“For what?” Theo asked, his eyes wide. “Rex’s murder?”
Ugh. Kitty wasn’t going to suggest Rex’s murder—and certainly not Sergeant Callahan’s involvement—until they had more information. She didn’t want anyone to panic. “Not necessarily. It might—”
“Oh my God!” Peanut cried. Her hands flew to her face. “We’ll go to juvie. I can’t go to juvie. Do you know what happens to girls like me there?”
“Damn,” Bree said with a shake of her head. “Do you and Olivia share a brain or something?”
“Just half of one,” Ed mumbled.
Olivia stuck out her tongue at him.
“No one’s going to juvie!” Kitty cried.
“I’ve heard that before,” Bree said.
Kitty sighed. Wrangling her own team was hard enough. This was like herding cats.
“Guys,” Donté said, pushing himself to his feet. He strode to Kitty’s side. “We need to stay calm. We don’t know anything for sure, other than that the killer is planning something for tomorrow.”
“Planning what?” Theo asked, his face white as a sheet.
Kitty took a deep breath. “We don’t know, but we think it has something to do with the volleyball tournament.”
“Like, dude might go full Heathers on Bishop DuMaine,” Bree said.
Donté set his jaw. “We have to stop him.”
“We should tell the police,” Peanut said.
Kitty cringed. This was going to send them over the edge. “That might be a problem.”
“Why?” Mika asked.
“Because we think Sergeant Callahan is involved.” Kitty took a deep breath. “He might be the killer.”
Mika opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. In fact, no one said a word. The only sound was the gentle lapping of the water against the edge of the pool, and a rustling of leaves overhead.
“What are we going to do?” Peanut shot to her feet and flapped her hands up and down in a full-blown panic. “I can’t handle this. We just wanted to put Amber and Rex in their places, you know? We didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“Someone always gets hurt,” Bree said. “Sometimes they deserve it. Sometimes they don’t. But don’t think for a minute that we’re one hundred percent innocent.”
Kitty knew Bree was talking about Tammi Barnes. They didn’t know what was going on in Tammi’s home life or how that affected her behavior at school. All they saw was a cold-hearted bitch who forced some fourteen-year-old freshman girls into a pretty skanky situation. Did she deserve what DGM did to her? Yes. But could they have helped her if they’d known what was really going on? Probably. And that was the part that haunted all of them.
“Look,” Kitty said. “We’re on our own for this one.”
“What did you have in mind?” Donté asked.
“We all show up at school on Sunday,” Kitty said. “We’ll outnumber him and, hopefully, be able to stop whatever he has planned.”
“You realize he’s a cop,” Ed said. “With a side arm.”
Kitty scowled. “The thought has crossed my mind.”
“And that’s not actually a plan,” Ed continued. “That’s more like half a plan. Maybe one third.”
“I don’t think I want to . . .” Peanut started.
Kitty held up her hand. “You can stay home if you want. You can try and hide from this. But I guarantee he’ll find you.”
Peanut bit the nail on her pinky finger. “But—”
“Ronny DeStefano,” Kitty interrupted.
“Coach Creed,” Bree said.
“Rex Cavanaugh,” Olivia added.
“Someone has to pay for that,” Donté said. “We’re all in this together now.”
Donté’s support gave her strength. They had to see this through, no matter the outcome. Last time they tried to make a stand against the killer, Kitty had let her fear and her bitterness control her decisions. But this time it was all about the team. There was strength in numbers, even more so with Donté by her side.
“It’s time to decide,” she said, gazing around the semicircle. “Who’s in?”
“We’re in,” John said, before Bree even had a chance to answer.
“We?” Bree asked.
“Don’t start,” John said. “You can’t leave the house, jailbird. So I’m taking your place on this one.”
Bree jolted in her chair. “John, you can’t.”
“Too late,” he said.
“But—”
John reached over and silenced the volume on Kitty’s laptop as Bree continued to talk, then gestured to the group. “Who’s next?”
“We have to do this, Peanut.” Theo placed his hand over hers.
Peanut sighed. “Fine.”
“I’m in,” Olivia said. “After what he did to my mom, I need payback.”
Kitty gazed around the room with a smile on her face, which dropped when her eyes landed on Ed the Head.
“I know you swore an oath,” she said, ready to give him an out. “But this goes above and beyond. Ed, if you want to bail, no one will blame you.”
Ed laughed. “You think I want out? Hell no! I’m in this, Kitty Wei. Don’t think you can get rid of me now.”
Kitty was taken aback. “I wasn’t going to kick you out, I just thought—”
“You thought wrong,” he said.
“So we’re all agreed?” Kitty said, bringing them back around. “We’re going to do this together?”
There was a brief pause and Kitty held her breath. Finally, heads began to nod around the circle and a single word rang out across the patio.
“Together.”
