Page 31 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

“Savannah?” His eyes are like two wide-open goals.

Because he’s caught. White-freaking-handed.

I turn around, crunching leaves as I try to find my way out of the trees. “Savannah!” Noah calls after me. I ignore him, gaining speed until my foot snags on a root and I go flying.

The world is a jumble of black and branches. A sharp twig slams my face. My head smacks against the ground. I groan, trying to get to my feet.

Footsteps pound behind me. I scramble, but Noah’s on me too fast. “Here,” he says, huffing. “Let me—”

“Get off me!” I yell, grabbing for my flashlight and pointing it into his eyes.

He draws back, blinking. When I lower the light, a stunned look crosses his face. “What’s going on?” he asks, still hovering, but watching me like I might try to lunge at him.

I might. I can’t believe he’d threaten us. That he’d threaten Piper.

“Stop acting like you don’t know about the writing on our tent.”

His green eyes are slivers in the moonlight as he squints down at me.

“You have the paint, Noah. If I hadn’t come after you, you’d have stashed it in the forest and no one would be the wiser.” I finally push onto my feet, brushing leaves off of me. I tug a twig out of my hair, rubbing two fingers over the place my head hit the earth. Just a bump.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. “I came because I heard a commotion and wanted to check on you two. When I got to your tent, someone was hiding behind it. Whoever it was saw me and ran off into the woods, so I followed them.”

“Right. And you just happened to have stumbled upon the can.”

Noah glances down, like he’s just remembering. “Yeah. The person dropped it.”

“You’re unbelievable.” I spin back toward the tent, and he follows me.

“Why aren’t you listening?” he asks, his long legs moving twice as fast as mine.

I reach the tent, were Jacey is standing with her flashlight like a helpless child.

“Wait,” Noah says, his footsteps finally slowing as he takes in the painted words. “That’swhat you think I did?”

I grab Jacey by the arm to tug her into the tent, but she struggles, pulling away. “What happened?” she asks, racing toward Noah.

“I don’t know.” He moves closer to the tent, shining his flashlight over the message.

“Noah, I swear,” I say, my breath ragged, “you need to stay away from me. Stay away from our tent. If you come anywhere near us, I’ll tell Mr. Davis about this.”

“I didn’t write it,” he says. “What does that even mean,Leave it alone?”

“He was listening,” I tell Jacey, motioning for her to come back inside. “He heard what we said about Piper. And this is his way of trying to get us to stop investigating.”

Jacey turns to look at Noah. After a moment, she laughs. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I found him trying to hide the paint can.”

“That’s not what you saw,” Noah says, rubbing a hand over his face.

Jacey’s smile falls. “You had the paint?”

“I caught him with it in the woods.” I turn back to Noah. “You wrote a threat to Piper, too, didn’t you? The writing—it matches. But why did you do it?”

“Savannah,” he whisper-yells, fingers clawing through his hair, “I’m trying to tell you I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re not listening.”

“I’ve heard enough. We’ve both heard enough. Haven’t we, Jacey?”

---