“Well, I can tell you one thing,” Hunter said, warm breath ghosting over my ear. “I think we were supposed to meet each other. So that’s an argument forpredeterminism.”
I smiled. “Are you saying we belongtogether?”
“Yeah, in a really pretentious way,” he said with a cockygrin.
I turned my head and kissed him, giggling softly. He always made me feel better. Evennow.
I finished my coffee and forced myself to eat some fruit and muesli, even though I wasn’t hungry. My stomach was churning from all the nightmares I’d endured while I slept, along with the nightmare that was my current wakinglife.
“So… what are we going to do?” I finally said, turning to look at Hunteragain.
“About yoursituation?”
“Yeah. Where would we even begin?” I asked. “I keep going over it, and I just can’t figure out what it is that I supposedly know that no one elsedoes.”
Hunter frowned. “If we’re right about the person being Lindsay’s killer, then we should go back to thelist.”
“Whatlist?”
“The one you were working on before we started thinking my dad and the Network killedLindsay.”
I sat up straighter. “Oh, right. Do you still have the copy I gave you?” I asked. “It’s okay if you don’t. I’m pretty sure I took a photo of it and uploaded it to Dropbox orsomething.”
He reached over and opened the top drawer on the nightstand. “I’ve gotit.”
He smoothed out the paper on the blanket in front of us, and we both leaned over to look at it. “There’s a lot of people,” hemuttered.
I stroked the top of his hand, knowing how much it still hurt him to think about his sister’s death. “Does anyone stand out to you?” Iasked.
He looked over at me. “Thereissomeone I’ve wondered about lately,” he said. “But she’s not actually on yourlist.”
My breath hitched in my throat when he said ‘she’.
“Is it Trina?” I asked. The words felt like poison on my lips. Part of me couldn’t even believe that I’d said them outloud.
“How did you know that?” Hunter said, brows shootingupward.
I settled back against the bedhead, hands nervously entwining in my lap. “I feel horrible for even thinking this,” I muttered. “But lately, there’s been a couple of things about her that have made mewonder.”
“Likewhat?”
“When I first met her, she mentioned Lindsay, but she never told me they were best friends. She made it sound like they were just vague acquaintances,” I said. “I only found out they were best friends when Adam toldme.”
“Did you ask her aboutit?”
“I was going to, but other stuff kept coming up, so I never got thechance.”
“Hm. It’s definitely weird,” Hunter said, rubbing hischin.
“Yeah. Like, why wouldn’t she want me to know she was friends with Lindsay? Unless she was worried I’d start askingquestions.”
“The wrongquestions.”
“Exactly.” I nodded slowly. “And it’s not just that. There’s also the abandoned building thing. It was meant to be me, Adam and Trina hanging out there that day. But she never showed up. She said she couldn’t come because she feltsick.”
“You think she might’ve beenlying?”
“Maybe.” I pursed my lips. “When we thought the Medusas were responsible for the whole thing, we thought they poisoned her lunch to make sure she got sick and couldn’t come, because they didn’t want her getting in the way. But now I’m wondering if she was actually there the whole time, and the text about being sick at home was just acover.”