"What the hell?" I blinked as I realized Mr. Wallace had spoken. "What have you done with that poor girl. Unhand her!" His wrinkled face grew red as he steppedforward.
"No!" I yelled, putting my hands up between them. "Knix didn't doanything."
"I figured you'd go to the car," Texas said, looking behind me. I turned and Knix nodded to him before he looked at Ms. Enders and Mr. Wallace to addressthem.
"I apologize for having to pull you from the festivities," Knix said. My eyes widened at his proper tone. "But my colleagues and I found Ms. Sevilla in a precarious position and we believe she needs to be rushed to a hospital." Quick. Straight to the point. Completely professional. My chest twinged at being referred to as just a colleague but now wasnotthe time to concern myself withthat.
"Oh dear," Ms. Enders looked to Mr.Wallace.
"You go with her," Mr. Wallace announced, pushing Ms. Enders forward. "I'll make sure the rest of the girls aresafe."
Ms. Enders looked torn between wanting to argue and simply following behind Knix. In the end, she chose the latter. "Call me if anything else happens," she said sternly before gesturing for Knix to lead theway.
Knix looked at me. "Stay here," he ordered. "Go with the others." Knix glanced at Texas. "Bell's secondary on this." Texas nodded and then Knix, Natalia, and Ms. Enders were gone, and I stood there with my bare feet in the dirt and my expensive dress trailing on the grass as I watched them go. My heart hurt, and anger rose. It wasn't Mr. Wallace. His face was truly worried for Natalia and completely shocked when he had seen Knix holdingher.
I glanced at Texas. "I know who didthis."
"What?" Before he could stop me, I took off for the Bluestone House. I heard him calling after me, but nothing could stop me now. I was going to find her, and I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I would make sure she paid for everything she had done to Mr. Spencer's stepdaughter, to the girl from the dance club, and to Natalia. I didn't care if it was pain and grief that was making her do this. It wasn'tright.
* * *
Margarie stoodat the open window of the upstairs bedroom where we had found Natalia and her attacker. She faced the outside with her hands at her sides. A heavy metal object was clutched in one fist. I didn't even try to hide my steps or mask my movements as I opened the door and stepped into the room. She looked over her shoulder atme.
"Oh, it's you," she said, disappointed. "I was hoping Ms. Enders would come uphere."
"Why?" I asked, panting. The soft fabric of my dress trailed along behind me as I walked further into theroom.
She shrugged. "Because I was hoping she wasn't as stupid as she's proven to be. I was hoping she would come up here to look for clues or to –something!" Margarie screamed the last word with a frustrated huff. "But no," she sighed. "The dumb bitch is just that...too fuckingdumb."
"She went with Natalia," I said. "They're going to thehospital."
"Ugh." Margarie turned to look at me. Now that I knew what she was capable of, she looked more shallow and empty than she had the day I had met her. Her face was pale, almost hollowed out. "You're a lot smarter than the rest of those girls," she said finally. "No one else saw it, but I did. I knew how smart you were. You aren't a tittering little airhead, are you?" She didn't let me respond. "No, you're not. So, I had to ask myself. Why is this girl here? What does she want? Is she trying to fit in? That's what I thought originally. That you were just there to fit in. To pretend to be stupid. That's what my sister did, youknow."
I did feel bad for her. I really did, but whatever sympathies I had for her had washed away the further she had slipped into the dark role of blackmailer – among other things. "Kayla was so sweet," she said. "She had everyone fooled. Everyone thought that she was just like them. Nice and young and innocent. But she had plans for herself. She was just going to this stupid camp for the connections she could amass and then thatboy–” Margarie’s voice choked. "God, it's always a boy, isn'tit?"
I shook. I didn't know if it was with rage or fear. Maybe it was a combination of both. I kept my eyes glued to Margarie and the gun in her hand in my periphery. Where was Texas? Had I lost him as Iran?
"Boys are so much worse when you're young," Margarie said. "Kayla didn't believe me when I told her that he wasn't good for her. I tried to pay him off, you know. I didn't have much money then. Not like I do now. God, these dumb bitches..." She laughed, the sound low and hollow. "They have everything – money, power, connections, and they are too brainless to use them to their own advantage. They don't deserve to live. Not when Kaylais–"
"It won't bring her back," Isaid.
Margarie stopped, as if shocked that I had said anything. "What?"
"Hurting these girls won't bring your sister back," I repeated. "Hurting Ms. Enders won'teither."
"It's her fault too!" Margarie screamed. "Don't you see that?!" Margarie gestured wildly and I had to stop myself from cringing as the gun moved in her hand. "She was supposed to protect these girls. To keep them safe. And she didn't. She failed, and she thinks that she can just keep going on like nothing happened. Like Kayla was never here. Like she–" Margarie cut herself off before taking a breath. “But no, this isn’t about her. It’s not about Enders. It’s abouther.” At first, I was confused, thinking she was talking about her sister, but the venom in her voice was wrong for that to be true. “She did this to my sister. My best friend. So, I’m going to ruin this camp. I’m going to ruin Enders and all of the girls and then...then I’ll ruinher.”
"So, what?" I asked. My voice was rough, my tone low. I stepped closer. I was only a few feet away from her now. Margarie’s eyes widened and she backed up to the window. “What then?” I asked. "You were planning to have someone keep attacking the girls from the camp? Rape them? Blackmail them for money? Then hurt them so much that, by the constant reminder of what happened to them, they would end up taking their own lives?" It made me so sick my stomach threatened to roil, and I had to swallow against the urge to throwup.
"I-I–" Margariestuttered.
"It would never have worked out for you," I said. "Do you know why?" I moved even closer and realized something. She hadn’t even bothered to use the gun. It was still at her side. Her eyes were impossibly wide, her mouth agape. I wondered if it was even loaded. It would be wrong to discountit.
"W-why?" shewhispered.
"Because you're not the one with the power," I said as I slowly reached for the gun in her hand. She trembled as I extracted it from her fingers. Once it was in my hand, I breathed a little easier. I continued talking anyway. "You may have been the blackmailer, the instigator of their problems, the reason the girls you hurt will need help...maybe even for the rest of their lives." My eyes watered. I held the gun in my hand. My hands clenched around the metal. It was warm. "You hurt them. Yes. But they have the ultimate power. And they have the ultimate choice. And you can't ever take that away fromthem."
"Yes, I can!" Margarie screamed at me and flung herself forward. She slapped me, raking her nails across my face. I grunted as the gun dropped from my hand and hit the floor. She went for it but before she could close her hands around the handle, I kicked the thing out of her reach. She screamed, insanely. Instead of heading for the gun again, Margarie dove on top of me and we rolled. I grunted again as the camera in my bra banged against my breast. I knew I would have a good-sized bruise there later. I couldn’t dredge up any care though. I was too focused onMargarie.