Page 101 of Fighting Fate (Granton University 1)

When Tess scowled at her, she grinned. “Just kidding. I love you too.” Opening her arms, she joined the group hug.

So very glad she’d found these two women, Paige sighed and rested her cheek on Tess’s shoulder. “And what about Logan?” she asked. “Do…do you think I’m awful for…for falling for him?”

Bailey wrinkled her brow with the confused frown. “Why?”

“I…” Paige blinked, wondering about that herself. “I don’t know. I guess I just hated him for so long without even knowing him. I actually spit in his face when he came to Trace’s funeral, and he was probably there to apologize.” Groaning, she covered her eyes with both hands. “Oh, Lord. I just remembered that. I’m surprised he didn’t hate me right back all these years. I blamed him and thought everyone else did too. I thought everyone would be scandalized if we ever got together.”

“Well, what do you think your brother would say if he were here right now?” Tess asked.

“I’m not sure. He wasn’t the vindictive type. I couldn’t see him blaming Logan for causing his death.” She winced. “Maybe for kissing Kayla. But she was there and didn’t blame Logan afterward. It was clear to her he never wanted to permanently harm Trace. But I just…” She blew out a tired breath. “Thinking about it gives me a headache.”

“Me too.” Bailey rubbed her own temple. “I’m telling you, if I had to deal with as much as you have, I’d have a prescription for Xanax by now.”

“No, you’d be in a loony bin by now,” Tess corrected.

As the two roommates scowled at each other, squabbling over which one of them could take on more stress without breaking, Paige grinned. No matter what, she knew she could always count on these two for a smile.

Before she could tell them how much she loved them both, her phone dinged, telling her she had a text. Thinking it might be Logan, she instantly forgot about Bailey and Tess. She hurried to her desk and heard two dings from Bailey and Tess’s room before she could check the message.

“That’s weird,” Tess said, disappearing into the bathroom. “Hey, I wonder if it’s A.”

“Oh, Lord.” Bailey groaned as she followed Tess into their room to fetch her own cell phone. “I’m officially cutting you off from Pretty Little Liars, starting now.”

Paige opened her phone to find a text alert from the University.

“It must be about Dorian,” Bail

ey mused aloud when she and Tess returned with both their phones.

All three of them checked their shared message simultaneously, Tess reading hers aloud. “Police are pursuing an armed gunman on the west end of the campus. Oh my God.” She gulped before reading the rest. “School officials advise everyone remain inside with locked doors, and stay away from the west side of the university completely.”

A cold arrow of dread sliced up the back of Paige’s neck.

An armed gunman? That didn’t even seem possible.

“What the hell,” Bailey breathed. She raced to the window and yanked up the shade. Students were running—sprinting actually—for any building closest to them. It was bizarre to watch, like a tiny stream of ants seeking cover from an invisible giant shoe stomping down on them.

“This isn’t happening.” Tess grabbed Paige’s hand and held on tight.

“Just…calm down,” Bailey said, her rational voice grounding Paige. “We’re a good distance away from the west end of campus. We’re safe here.” Then she pointed at Tess. “Go lock the door. To our room too.”

Tess let go of Paige’s hand and raced off, immediately obeying.

Bailey found the remote control for Mariah’s TV and clicked it on. Paige just stood there, dazed. Her mind racing, she tried to orient herself, remembering what was on the west end of campus. She couldn’t think, couldn’t map out the buildings in her head. She grabbed her skull in both hands as the TV popped on. Instantly, an aerial view of Granton from a helicopter’s perspective appeared on the screen.

“It’s still unclear who the gunman is,” a news reporter’s voice told them. “Authorities are vague on details, but we can see from this vantage point, there have been injuries if not loss of life.”

Bailey approached the fifty-inch screen as if in a daze. She pointed to a shadowed blob lying on the ground in the middle of a deserted street. “Is that…is that a person?”

Tess returned to Paige’s room and neared the television with Paige to gather around Bailey. Before they could decide if it was a human being lying in the middle of the road or not, a blast of light appeared from an alleyway, preceding a dark figure, holding what could only be a massively huge gun.

“Oh my God!” All three girls screamed and clapped their hands over their mouths.

“He’s shooting,” Tess gasped.

“It looks like we have a visual of the shooter.” Even the reporter’s voice took on an anxious edge as the camera zoomed in, but it couldn’t focus enough to give any details of the person with the gun except for a dark outline. “It impossible to tell from this distance if we’re dealing with a male for female. But the gunman is still very much on the loose and firing his or her weapon.”

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening,” Tess chanted.

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