Page 193 of Dare To Live

“Bret contacted me shortly after Evan escaped. They know someone is helping him, working with him, but they’ve never been able to figure out who. They thought he’d come for Arabella straight away, and they’ve had people watching her the entire time. I even hired people to watch her, but there’s never been a single sighting of him. You were out in the woods, so there was no way to watch over you without you noticing. It’s why Elena sent Arabella to you at Christmas. It was just … good timing that you fell ill.”

“Elena knew?”

“She knew that we had some concerns, but not the full details. We couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t tell you.”

“The car at Zoey’s grave? Was that you or him?”

“That was one of mine,” Ivan says.

“What the fuck!” I step forward again, this time toward Ivan, and he backs away.

“Listen to me, Eli.” Bret moves to stand between us. “When we heard the school was talking about reopening, we knew it was the best opportunity we had to catch him. He’s been one step ahead of us since he escaped, but there’s no way he can resist coming here. It’s where it all happened. So, we convinced Ivan to help us get you both here. Our profiler is certain he’ll want to relive it.”

“You mean he wants to repeat history and fucking kill one of us.”

“Not one of you, no.”

The tone in his voice turns my blood cold. “And what the fuck does that mean?”

“You. He wants you.”

Chapter 111

Arabella

The buzz of conversation fills the air around me. The excitement for the Prom tonight is palpable. Maggie, Tina, and Linda are missing from the jocks table. No doubt they are still leaving their mark on the decorations. I’m glad I didn’t have to spend time with them. After everything they’ve said, I can’t wait to walk out of here and never to see any of them again.

Miles is quiet beside me. He’s been subdued since his confession earlier. But I don’t blame him for what happened to Zoey or Kellan. He took no pleasure in the bullying, unlike the others Evan manipulated. I’m not blind to my best friend’s nature. He’s gentle and kind. If anything, I think that’s why he was picked originally. Evan must have seen him as someone malleable to his words.

I point at the piece of chicken he’s pushing around his plate with his fork. “Are you going to eat that or play with it?”

Miles scrunches up his nose. “Eat it, I guess.”

“You know you could have had something else.”

“Was anything left in the way of comfort food? I’m pretty sure you ate all the chocolate cake they had available.”

My attention moves guiltily down to the two empty plates in front of me. “I didn’t have that much. Anyway, you don’t even like chocolate cake that much.”

“You think they would have had cheesecake or tiramisu. They used to serve it when we lived here.” His sigh is heavy. “Back when we were young.”

I smack his arm gently. “Hey! Twenty-eight isn’t old.”

“Ouch.” He rubs the spot I tapped. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m going to give feedback that the kids they are going to send here need options other than cake when it comes to comfort food. We all need a little piece of home sometimes.”

A flash of red hair catches my eye and I look up. The color is familiar enough to hook my attention. But apart from Garrett, there was only two other redheads in our year.

“Are you okay?”

I drag my gaze back to Miles. “I thought I saw someone I know.”

He laughs. “I think a lot of the faces here are familiar.”

“No, someone else. Someone who shouldn’t be here” My eyes darts toward the door again, but the redheaded woman is gone.

“Who?”

I search around but see no sign of her. “Doesn’t matter. I must have imagined it.”

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