Page 92 of Five

“Actually,” I say to the officer, “I know my rights.” This is probably not a great way forward, but there’s no way in hell I’m opening up my locked phone for this corrupt asshole. Who knows what he’ll do. “If you’d like to confiscate it, be my guest. But I will not open it and my dad’s lawyers will be here in a matter of hours filing complaints if you do that.”

I get a stupid raised eyebrow from both these jerks. And I raise one right back. I dare you, that eyebrow says. I double-fucking-dare you to mess with us.

“No,” the officer says, smiling at me. “Not necessary. We have Miss Middleton’s text stream.”

Right.

I turn to look at Frank and say, “I’m not staying in your room. I’m getting a hotel. Goodnight.”

I spin on my heel and force myself to walk, not run, out of Palladium House.

I’m about halfway to my car in the parking lot when I hear footsteps behind me. I whirl around, expecting to cuss out Frank for following me, but it’s not Frank. It’s Mia.

“Rory!” she whisper-yells. “Wait up. Where are you going?”

Jesus. These people never give up. “To a hotel,” I say. “In case you haven’t noticed, our floor has been taped off for evidence.”

“I know,” Mia says, looking over her shoulder. When she turns back, she’s biting her lip. “I want to call my parents so bad right now. But if Kallie finds out, she’ll—”

Mia stops.

“She’ll what?” I ask, so annoyed. I just want time to think about everything that’s happened and I want to do that alone. Can’t these assholes just leave me be?

“Look,” Mia says, glancing over her shoulder. “I don’t know where you stand on all this… this weird shit going down at Palladium, but I lied back there. Kallie said I had to. I know Tera wasn’t depressed. And I knew she was thinking about leaving, so I believe you. I think someone… did that to her.”

“Did that? They fucking killed her, Mia.”

“Shhh,” Mia says, looking every bit as scared and paranoid as Tera did last weekend at the pairing. “Keep your voice down. Can I come with you? To a hotel? I don’t want to stay here and if I go back inside to get my car keys, Kallie and Jeremy will know I’m leaving.”

I don’t trust her. Not one bit.

“Please,” Mia whispers. “I just need to talk to someone and you’re the only person I can trust.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Then you can just listen,” she says. “Because whatever you think you know, I know a lot more, Rory.”

“How much more?” I ask. Because more information would be very helpful right now. Especially with what Five and I have planned for tomorrow night.

“Everything,” she whispers. “I know everything and I’ll tell you all of it.”

I consider that offer for a moment. My best friend is dead. D-E-A-D. I will never see her again. I will never talk to her again. But maybe, just maybe, I can get revenge for what they did to her.

So I say, “Get in.”

We check into a motel near the university. Mia wanted to go somewhere fancy and nice, but I don’t trust the people who run the nice, fancy hotels here in Princeton. So we’re in the cheapest, most disgusting motel I could find. There’s no way whoever owns this place is one of the upper echelon.

When we get inside the room, and after I pull the blackout curtains closed, I turn to Mia and point to the small table and chairs in the corner and say, “Sit. And you’d better be serious about telling me everything. Because I’m not in the mood for bullshit tonight.”

She sits. And she talks. For hours. She confirms all of Tera’s suspicions. And mine. And Five’s. Everything we thought about Palladium House is true and it all came straight from Kallie.

But Mia doesn’t say anything new. No new names, just the ones I already know. No new connections. Just things I already know…

“We have to go to Eat Meet tomorrow night,” she finally says after I’m silent for a while.

“Why’s that?” I ask. “It would seem monumentally stupid for us to show up and let ourselves be victims.”

“Because,” Mia says, “that blonde woman we met at the pairing is gonna be there.”