Page 60 of Queen Rose

“I know.” Her eyes close for a second, and she seems to be summoning strength.

Lyla immediately hurries over, Scarlett and Daphne hot on her heels. She shakes her head. “What the fuck? How? Who?” Without waiting for an answer, she reaches for Aria and pulls her into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry.”

The other two girls follow suit, and then they’re all crowded around her, taking her inside.

Max’s gaze moves from one to another of us until it lands on me. “Like Lyla said. What the fuck?”

Xander takes pity on me and answers. “She called me while we were all at the park together. She was completely freaking out. All we’ve heard so far is that she found her aunt dead in her bed.”

“Holy hell.” Max’s eyes slam shut, and he shakes his head. “Okay. We’d better get in there, I guess.” He pats my shoulder as we follow the girls up to the house. “You okay?”

I huff out a breath. “I’m mostly just pissed that I’d had an argument with her and that’s why she went home. She didn’t fucking want to be at home. Her dad is all worked up about the two of us dating. She said she wanted to avoid the drama, so I literally snuck her down from her balcony earlier this evening. Then shit hit the fan at my house. My mom found out I lost the scholarship.”

Max groans. “What a fucking night.”

“Yeah. You can say that again.”

We join the girls in the kitchen. They’ve got Aria seated, and Daphne pushes a bottle of water across the counter to her.

Scarlett bites her lip and pats the counter, getting Aria’s attention. “We understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”

Lyla grimaces, wrapping her arm around Aria’s back. “It’s awful.”

Aria takes a few long, slow breaths. “I think she was strangled. And maybe raped. I don’t know much more than that. I saw her and it was like I was trapped in a nightmare. My mug of hot chocolate hit the floor.” She blinks rapidly, reaching down to touch her legs. “It got all over me. But all I could do was stare and scream. I know I did for a long time. And then I ran to the bathroom and threw up. That’s where Franny found me.” She lifts the bottle of water to her lips, and every single one of us sees how badly her hand is shaking as she takes a sip. “My throat is still sore.”

Hearing how it all went down knocks the wind out of me, and my mind goes to some very ugly places. What if she had walked in on that? What if whoever did this to Christina thought he was hurting Aria? I reach up with both hands, clawing at my scalp as I’m hit by wave after wave of unrelenting guilt at putting her in danger because I was acting like a dick when I should have told my mother what I’d done in the first place.

“Nate? You good?” I hadn’t realized Xander was beside me until his smooth, low voice rumbles out quietly for my ears only.

My jaw tenses, but I give a swift nod, appreciative that he didn’t call me out in front of everyone.

He grips my shoulder for a second, and then his hand is gone, as he walks into the kitchen and pulls out a couple bottles of water. He holds one up, his eyebrow hitching in question.

At my nod, he tosses it to me. I don’t have time to think too much about the exchange that occurred between us because my attention snaps to Aria as she speaks again.

“If it’s okay with everyone, I could really use some sleep. And maybe a change of clothes?” She turns to look at Lyla with her lip caught between her teeth.

Lyla gives her a faint smile. “No problem. I’ve got you. Once upon a time, this girl who I thought was a total bitchy badass brought me a whole load of her cast-off clothing, uniforms and everything. I’ll never forget that favor, and I don’t mind loaning them back to her. I even have brand-new underwear, so you don’t have to freak out about that either.”

Beau snickers. “Lyla, I swear. Only you would be concerned with that.”

She wrinkles her nose, frowning at him. “What? No one wants to wear someone else’s skivvies.”

Aria releases a long breath from between pursed lips. A single tear sneaks its way down her cheek. “Thank you.” She glances around. “All of you.”

Upstairs, once we have Aria in a T-shirt and, thanks to Lyla, a fresh pair of underwear, I look over the faint pink marks on her legs. I grimace as she flinches. “Does it hurt?”

“Not really. Just kind of sensitive.” She shakes her head. “I’ll never look at hot chocolate the same way again.” She rubs her hands over her freshly scrubbed face. “I’ll never go back in that bedroom again, either.”

I sit down on the bed next to her. “I don’t blame you.” Looping my arm around her back, I sigh. “I’m going to stay with you tonight. I already texted Mom what’s happened.”

Aria’s hands shake as she brings them down from her face and folds them in her lap. “I don’t know what to do, Nate. I don’t know how all the police stuff works. All I know is I wasn’t allowed back into my room, and no one can stay there until they’re done collecting”—she wrings her hands in front of her—“evidence or whatever.”

“All you can do is be honest and answer any questions they ask of you.”

“I don’t even know what they’re doing right now.” Her voice starts to become a little shrill. “I just left. I left people in my parents’ house, Nate.”

“They said you could go.”

“I left Franny there. She told me as I was leaving that she was fine with that, but I hate that I did that to her. I just couldn’t stay, you know?”

“Okay, so your parents are home by now, right?”

“I don’t know. Should I contact them?” She looks at me, despair in her eyes.

“If it makes you feel better. But I bet Franny already did. Or the police. It actually kinda pisses me off that they haven’t contacted you.” I can hardly keep the growl out of my voice.

Aria grasps my hand. “Yeah. Told you they were shitty,” she says on a sigh. “I don’t know if I can sleep, but I’m going to try. I don’t want to think about it anymore or talk about it anymore unless the police need something else from me. I need to compartmentalize this or it’s going to drive me right over the edge.”

The edge of what is the question. Because I’d already felt like Aria was approaching some sort of cliff. I know she’s hiding things from me and everyone else, and it’s eating me up inside that I don’t know what’s going on in her head.

---