Page 133 of Tell No Lies

“Don’t sweat it. You’ll be great. I mean, it’s just dance. If you mess up, just make something up. It’s not like you have to complete a pass or remember a playbook.”

My breathing stopped. Counting to ten was not enough. I gave up and closed my eyes, trying to push everything out of my head. “You’re right. It’s nothing like football. If I mess up, I’m alone on a stage representing my entire team and the studio. No pressure! I can just come up with something on the fly.”

“That’s right, babe.” Evidently, he’d missed the sarcasm dripping from my words.

Clenching my fists proved to only leave nail marks on my palms and no sense of release. I was ready to turn and correct him when I realized he had stopped walking. He was staring straight ahead with a look that could kill. I turned to follow his line of sight and finally saw my car.

Pictures were covering every exterior surface. Pictures of Mike and me kissing yesterday, both before and after chemistry; pictures of me in my room crying on the floor; pictures of me walking with Gage just this morning. Written in red paint on the hood was scrawled another message:

I already told you once. You are mine.

Suddenly Mckayla grabbed my arm and turned me. “Aubrey! Are you okay? I called Brandon, and he’s on his way.”

I didn’t know why she was yelling until I looked around and realized a crowd had formed around my car. My head was in a daze, so I focused on her. She had things under control. Brandon was coming.

Repeating the facts to myself, I tried to find a clue or a reason behind this.

Someone had taken pictures of me at school. That could have been anyone, student or teacher.

Someone had access to my room and my computer. I could tell that’s where it was taken from based on the angle of the pictures of me on the floor.

Someone had vandalized my car.

Who had reason enough to torture me this way? Who had I wronged so horribly that I deserved this? I didn’t even really know anyone here well enough to have true enemies. None of this made sense.

Most of the crowd dispersed when nothing else interesting happened. My head was swimming by the time Brandon pulled up and parked next to my car. I heard him swear as he walked around the vehicle, seeing the evidence for himself.

“Aubrey, you need to call your coaches and let them know you’re missing today. I called the detectives over the cases on my way over, so they should be here soon.”

I nodded but made no move to follow his order. Mckayla had her phone in her hands and gave me a sad smile before typing. “I’ll ask Cassie to let them know. You can call them yourself later.”

Her tone snapped something inside me. She was talking to me as if I might crumble at any moment. Granted, all day I’d been walking around like a basket case, but I wasn’t a weak person. I’d let things go too far for too long with Morgan, and I wasn’t going to do that again. I’d learned my lesson about letting things happen to me without fighting back.

“Brandon, can we have the detectives look at the footage from the campus cameras from yesterday and today? I know where I was in these pictures. Maybe we can see who took them.”

He seemed shocked to hear me speak. I guessed, after my performance last night, he’d expected me to be in a ball on the ground again. Well, there was a huge difference between the pain of a broken heart and being terrorized by a coward.

I could put a stop to the second one.

“We also need to have someone look at my laptop. I think someone hacked in and has access to the camera.”

He looked over the pictures on my car. “You think this was taken from your computer?”

“Judging by the angle, yeah, I do. There’s nothing else on my desk, so it’s not like something could have been planted without me seeing it.”

He seemed to be considering this. “That’s a good point. Nice catch. I’ll take your laptop into my office and have someone look into it.”

“Can we get someone here to take care of this paint before it ruins the car? It’s still wet, so maybe it can be wiped off. I know the detectives will want pictures, but after that, I want to get it taken care of fast.”

“Yeah, I’ll call the guy that comes by the office and details the cars in the parking lot.”

He turned away from me and began working on his phone. It was only a few baby steps, but taking action against this monster made me feel powerful. I wasn’t going to fall apart this time.

I turned around, looking for Mckayla, and spotted her standing with Mike. I had completely forgotten about him the second I’d seen my car. From the look on his face, he was as furious as I was about this.

Brandon was absorbed with his phone, so I walked over to them.

“I swear I’m going to find out who’s doing this to you, Aubrey.”