“They’re all in prison,” I said. “It can’t bethem.”
“A family member, maybe?” Trina said, cocking her head to theside.
“I don’t think so. A lot of the families have left town. And the ones who haven’t have been pretty vocal about how disgusted and ashamed they are to be related or married to one of thosepricks.”
Adam frowned. “What about the Medusa girls?” he asked. “Maybe one of them is still totally brainwashed by the Network and wanted to get back atyou.”
Laney shook her head. “They’ve all left towntoo.”
“Plus they aren’t RFA students anymore, so they couldn’t get onto the campus even if they tried,” Trinaadded.
My brows shot up. “That’s a good point,” I said, straightening my shoulders. “The administration added extra security a couple of weeks ago to make sure journalists couldn’t get into the school to harass students over the whole Network scandal. So it had to be a student or staff member who put the bomb under thecar.”
“Or a parent, grandparent, or sibling of one of the students,” Adam said. “They’re allowed onto the campustoo.”
“I’m sure the cops have already considered all of that. But they still don’t have any suspects as far as we know,” Trina said, brows knitting. “It just sucks that there’s no security cameras in the Blair Hall parking lot. Otherwise they’d already know who did thisshit.”
Laney sighed again. “I just don’t get it. Who the hell would want to do this to me?” she said. “I keep going over it in my head, and I just can’t think ofanyone.”
I shuffled my feet under the table and gnawed at the inside of my cheek. Trina cast a suspicious look in my direction. “Do you know something,Hunter?”
“No. But…” I trailed off, rubbing the back of myneck.
“But what?” Laney said, eyes widening as she stared atme.
“A couple of weeks ago, I wondered if there was something else going on,” I said softly. “Someone else who didn’t want you atRFA.”
“Why?”
“Because of the video at the assembly, and those notes in the abandoned building. The Medusa girls have always denied having anything to do with it, which is weird, because they’ve admitted to the rest of the stuff, and the Network guys won’t claim iteither.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say anything about this before now?” Trina asked. Her eyes looked like they were about to pop out onstalks.
Guilt fired a white-hot spear through my chest. “I thought I was overreacting,” I said. “I thought ithadto be the Medusas or the Network guys, and I was just finding shit to be paranoidabout.”
“But now you’re wondering if you were actually right, and it was someone else,” Adam said, noddingslowly.
“Yeah.”
Laney’s forehead wrinkled. “So you think it might’ve been someone else who posted that video in the assembly?” she asked. “Someone else who attacked me and Adam when we were exploring the oldbuilding?”
“Maybe, yeah,” I said. “We all assumed that it was the Network or the Medusa girls, because it made sense to us at the time. But what if we were wrong? What if someoneelsehas been after you this wholetime?”
Laney’s face turned even whiter. “Who?” she said. “I haven’t done anything toanyone.”
“I know.” I leaned down to kiss the top of her head, feeling like fucking shit for upsetting her. She’d already been through enough today, and now I was piling even more stress on top of her. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m probablywrong.”
“No, I actually think you’re right,” Trina said, eyes narrowing slightly. She turned her attention to Laney. “I mean, someone just tried to blow up your car with you inside it. Whoever it is, theyreallywant you gone for somereason.”
Laney grimaced. “Noshit.”
“Maybe they want to silence you,” Trina went on. “They tried to make you leave town by posting that video to humiliate you. But that didn’t work, so they decided to take more drastic measures to shut youup.”
“What would they want me to stay quiet about, though?” Laneyasked.
“Well, it can’t be the Network, because you already found out about them and blew up their shit, so there’s no point trying to silence you onthatissue now. But this person is still coming after you anyway,” Trina said slowly, brows pinching together. “So it has to be somethingelsethat they’re worriedabout.”
I rubbed my jaw. “What was it we originally thought when we saw those notes in the abandoned building?” I asked. “It was about my sister,right?”