Page 12 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

Of the eleven who’d been killed—twelve counting the shooter who’d committed suicide at the end of his rampage—more than one had been a football player for the university. Tess shuddered and clicked onto the page before she could stop herself.

Dorian Wade, the star quarterback had actually been murdered in his dorm room two nights before the shooting. But since he’d been killed by the same person, he was added among the list of victims. Being a football player himself, Jonah would know Dorian. She gulped and hit print, listing out everyone who’d died. Amnesia or not, he had a right to know who was gone. Didn’t he? Or would it only frustrate him more to see a list of people he couldn’t remember?

After her small desk printer kicked into gear and started spitting out pages, Tess finally typed Jonah’s name into the Find People section of the university’s search engine. When her query immediately brought up results, she fisted her hands into the air. “Jackpot! We have a permanent and local address. And…oh, my God.”

Bailey paused her reading to lift her face. “What?”

“His dorm room’s in Grammar Hall.” Tess glanced over at her roommate. “How could he live in the same building as us for a full semester and we’ve never seen him before?”

Her friend shrugged. “Well, being that I didn’t see him tonight, maybe I have seen him before.”

Tess scowled. “Don’t be silly. I know everyone you do. And we have definitely never seen this guy before.”

Bailey sniffed but didn’t respond to that. “What’s his room number?”

“One-eighteen,” Tess answered distractedly as she searched for more links with Jonah’s name. But the only thing she could find now were articles about football stats, which might as well be Arabic to her poor, sports-ignorant eyes.

“Well, that explains it.” Bailey flipped a page on her magazine. “He’s on a completely different wing and floor than us. I’m sure there are plenty of people living in that part of the building we’ve never met or seen before.”

Experiencing the itching need to physically do something for Jonah, Tess pushed her laptop off her knees and stood up. “I’m going to his room. Maybe he has a roommate who’s willing to visit him at the hospital.” She arched her eyebrows. “Want to come with?”

She honestly thought Bailey would hop to because they always did everything together, but Bailey surprised her by snorting. “No.” She wrinkled her face into a look that told Tess she shouldn’t have even bothered to ask. “And why are you going to so much trouble? I’m sure the proper authorities will eventually locate his next of kin.”

But it had already taken them two weeks…and Jonah was suffering.

“Because…” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m his girlfriend. This is what girlfriends do.”

“His fake girlfriend,” Bailey reminded her with a concerned wrinkle in her brow. “Tess, you do remember you lied about that part, right? I mean, you’re kind of going a little over the top here. You don’t know the first thing about this guy. You don’t owe him anything.”

“I know. I just…no one deserves to be alone, Bailey. And he’s alone. Totally, completely, utterly alone. How would you feel if you woke up and didn’t know anyone, yourself included? I’d be completely freaked out right now.”

“God, he must be really hot.” Bailey shook her head and went right back to reading.

Tess scowled at her. She didn’t want to confirm it—though, yeah, Jonah had been super, gorgeously hot—because that was not why she was doing this. Huffing at her friend for her lack of support, she slipped on some flip-flops and left their room. By herself.

She shuddered as she hurried along the hall toward the wide stairs at the main entrance of the dormitory. Rubbing her arms, she glanced behind her to make sure no one was following. She hated walking alone through this corridor. Watching eyes seemed to shadow her every step. Ever since the shooting, she’d been doubly freaked to go anywhere on campus by herself. Thankfully, she and Bailey were nearly joined at the hip, and her best friend was the fearless type. Tess rarely had to worry about anything with Bailey around. Without her buddy, however, her heart pounded and anxiety reigned.

Trying to calm her breathing, she skipped down the main steps and shivered again, almost expecting Einstein, the creepy boy genius, to pop out from under the stairwell.

Whenever Tess had left the building with her suitemate, Paige, Einstein had always appeared out of nowhere to puppy-dog Paige around. Tess swore he’d practically lived under those stairs, waiting for Paige to pass by.

But Einstein was dead now. Sixteen years old, a junior in college, and he’d gone off the deep end, killing eleven people and then himself in the Granton University Massacre.

When she passed the shadowed nook he used to haunt, the ghost of his creepy self seemed to slither out toward her with a waft of cool air. Tess muffled a small squeak of fear and skipped into a terrified run until she was panting down the hall, a good thirty feet from the staircase.

“God…” She hugged herself again, hoping she wasn’t the only person skeeved by the memory of him always hanging out there.

Realizing she wasn’t paying attention to room numbers, she lifted her gaze to find she was almost to her destination. But when she found the door to Room 118 covered by yellow police line tape, she slowed to a stop and gaped. After checking the entire hall in front and behind her, she noticed no other room had the same adornment.

“What the heck?” she whispered. Jonah couldn’t be the only person from Grammar Hall who’d been hurt in the shooting. Could he?

No, of course not. Einstein was gone too. And he’d lived somewhere here on the first floor, she was sure.

So, why had the police cordoned off only Jonah’s room?

When a door across the hall and two rooms down opened, Tess jumped. A lanky guy exited and pulled to a surprised halt when he saw her gawking.

She sent him a tense, guilty smile and pointed toward Jonah’s door. “Do you know why that tape’s there?” she asked, hoping she looked sweet and timid enough not to appear intrusive.

---