Page 27 of Twisted Liars

“Whatever.” She scoffed and waved her hand. “Just go to your desk. You can work on next week’s articles.”

“I don’t know what they are.”

“Just give me a few minutes,” she said in a snide tone. “I wasn’t actually planning on assigning anything until tomorrow, but I might as well seeing as everyone’s here today.”

I gave her a thumbs up and headed to my desk. Ten minutes later, Addy went around the room with pieces of paper detailing everyone’s assignments for the week.

“Here’s yours, Amerie,” she said breezily, handing me a list of article ideas. A Post-It note with a message in her handwriting was attached to the top. I just thought of something. You should talk to Rosie’s brother. They were very close. She might have told him something that she didn’t tell me.

I nodded and gave her another thumbs up. Then I went over to Jensen’s desk. “Hey, do you think you could take care of the social media stuff for this article?” I asked, showing him the note from Addy.

“Sure. I’ll just need Elena to take some photos for it,” he said, nodding slowly.

I returned to my desk. The burner phone lit up with a text notification a minute later.

Jensen: That’s a good idea. But we need to get hold of him. Might not be easy.

Me: How come?

Jensen: He quit school after Rosie died. Depression, I think. I haven’t seen him here since last year.

Me: Does he have social media? We could contact him there and see if he’ll meet up with us.

Jensen: No, he deleted it all. I don’t have his number either. But I know he likes to drink. I see him at parties sometimes, sitting in the corner with a beer.

Me: Any parties coming up soon?

Jensen: August mentioned one happening this Friday. One of those sea cave parties I told you about.

I smiled thinly and tapped out my reply. Looks like we’re going to a cave party...

Jensen

Just after three, I went over to Amerie’s desk in the Mill. “Hey, I’m heading home,” I said, pulling my car keys out of my pocket. “Want a ride?”

“Sure. Thanks!” Amerie stuck her tongue out and mimed choking herself, clearly sick of the loud, fake conversations we had to have when her phone was around to avoid suspicion from anyone listening in via the bug. “Maybe we could study together for those tests?”

“Sounds good.”

We headed out to the parking lot, chatting about a TV show we both liked. I hated that I couldn’t speak openly with her about all the shit I actually wanted to discuss, but I couldn’t risk making the slightest mistake in a situation like this. Not without risking Amerie’s life.

The Prescotts—and the other high-level Rosmerta members—couldn’t find out that she knew or even suspected anything about what they’d done to her, and they could be listening to us through her phone at any given moment in time. They had eyes and ears everywhere else too, so if I wanted to keep her safe, I had to play dumb ninety-nine percent of the time and use the other one percent to steal little moments together.

When we reached my car, I unlocked it and motioned for Amerie to hand over her phone. “Hey, do you mind waiting in the car for a minute?” I asked. “I need to take a leak.”

“Sure. I’ll get started on those history readings while I wait,” she replied, watching as I tucked her phone behind the right rear tire.

I opened the passenger door to let her in, and then I went around to the other side and joined her in the front of the car.

She blew out a frustrated exhale and slumped back in her seat. “God, this is already getting so old, having to hide my phone and stage a fake conversation every time we want to talk,” she said.

“I know.” I reached over and squeezed her hand. “But it’s what we have to do for now. We never know who’s listening, or when they’re doing it.”

“Yeah, I know. It just sucks,” she said glumly. “Every single thing about this situation is shitty. And to top it all off, I feel sick as hell.”

“I’ve heard ginger helps with nausea,” I said, lightly stroking her forearm. “Ash used to eat entire chunks of the raw stuff whenever he had a hangover.”

She grimaced. “I’ll pass on that. But thanks for the idea. Maybe ginger tea would work,” she said. She tilted her head. “Anyway, did you find out more about the party?”

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