Sara Shepard - Deadly

For the millionth time in the past hour, Aria wished she hadn’t agreed to this. But she was here now. The damage was done. She took a deep breath. “Can I speak to Noel for a few minutes?”

Mrs. Kahn backed away. “I don’t think so.”

Unbelievable . Aria grabbed the door before Noel’s mom could shut it. “My mom is right there. It’s fine.” She gestured toward the curb, where Ella was waiting in the Subaru. Aria was surprised Ella had said yes about bringing her to Noel’s, given that Aria had disappeared from graduation. But maybe Ella figured that there wasn’t really anything worse the cops could do to Aria that they weren’t already doing. Her mother had spent a good deal of time crying over the last month, but now she just seemed kind of spent and exhausted.

“We’ll talk out here, and she’ll watch us the whole time,” Aria added to Noel’s mom.

Mrs. Kahn squinted at the Subaru but didn’t wave—she probably thought Ella was a criminal by association. “Five minutes,” she said tightly. “Then we have to get to a graduation party.”

She shut the door halfway. When it opened again, Noel stepped out. “Aria,” he said. His voice cracked. He was holding his graduation cap in his hands.

“Hey,” Aria said softly, her heart pounding fast.

It felt like ages since she’d talked to him. Suddenly, here they were, standing within inches of each other on his porch. Part of her wanted to give him a huge hug. Another part worried he’d push her away—she hadn’t heard from him since the arrest. Another part, an angry part, yearned to run.

When he met her gaze, his eyes were soulful, concerned, and uncertain. The bruises on his cheeks had faded to yellow, and the stitches on his jaw were no longer puffy and Frankenstein-monster-like. He had a cast on his arm, too, but he was mostly the Noel she remembered. Aria glanced at the Nike lacrosse T-shirt, feeling an ache. He’d worn it the day she’d returned from Iceland, the first day they’d sort of talked. Did he remember that? Was he wearing it today on purpose?

“Are you . . .” Noel started.

“Have you . . .” Aria said at the same time. She stopped. “You first.”

“No.” Noel swallowed. “You.”

She stared at the basket-weave brick pattern on the porch floor. All at once, she had no idea what to say. “Congratulations,” she finally mustered, pointing to the cap.

“Thanks.” Noel set it down and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. A hawk screamed loudly in the sky overhead. “I don’t believe it, you know,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what happened, and you don’t have to tell me, but I think I know who’s behind this. Am I right?”

Aria nodded, her insides twisting. “That’s why I need your help.”

Noel’s brow furrowed. “ Me ?”

“You were her friend. Are you sure you don’t know where she could be?”

Noel shook his head vehemently. “I have no idea.”

Aria sighed. Above them, bronze wind chimes knocked together. The sun came out from behind a cloud, making slanted stripes across the vast front lawn. “Okay, then,” she said, turning. “I guess I’ll go.”

“Wait.” Noel’s voice was like an oar cutting through water. Aria turned, and there was a strange, tortured look on his face. “There was no e-mail or phone at The Preserve, so we used to have a secret code for when she needed to talk.”

Aria sucked in her stomach. “Have you used this code recently?”

“Of course not. Even if I did know she survived the fire, I would have done everything in my power to hurt her, not help her.”

Aria walked back to the porch. “Could you use it now?”

Noel glanced around the front yard, as though he thought Ali might be watching. “I don’t know. She might not fall for it.”

Aria wrapped her hands around the railing that surrounded the porch. “We’ve been getting A notes—from her . But no one believes us. We’re grasping at straws. Believe me, I didn’t want to ask you, but you’re our last hope. We don’t want to go to Jamaica.”

Noel slumped against one of the Adirondack chairs. “ I don’t want you to go to Jamaica.”

“Then help us.”

The door opened behind him, and Mrs. Kahn stuck out her head. “Noel? We need to get going.”

Noel glanced at his mother, annoyed. “One sec, okay?”

Mrs. Kahn reluctantly shut the door again, though Aria could tell by the light through the window that she was hovering close by. Noel pulled out his cell phone, then called up an electronics website on his browser. Aria watched as he ordered a single package of AA batteries. On the order page, he listed his name as Maxine Preptwill and that his address was the Rosewood Public Library. In the special instructions section, all he wrote was: 9 PM tonight .

“Who’s Maxine Preptwill?” Aria whispered.

Noel shrugged. “I don’t know. Ali suggested it.” He gestured to his phone. “It’s a dummy site. Somehow it always gets to her.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “It’s done. We’re meeting up tonight at nine at the Rosewood Public Library.”

Aria’s heart thudded fast. She was at Byron’s tonight. It would be easier to sneak out. “Will you be able to get away from your graduation party?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

Aria nodded. “Okay. We’ll be hiding nearby, waiting.”

Noel looked alarmed. “Just you guys? Shouldn’t you call the police, too?”

Aria shook her head. “She’ll never come if a bunch of cop cars are there. We’ll all ambush her. Jump on her. Throw her in my car. And then we’ll take her to the police station.”

An uncertain look clouded Noel’s face. “That sounds so dangerous. And violent.”

Aria swallowed hard, hating that she’d become someone who even considered throwing another person into the back of her car. “I know,” she admitted. “But I don’t know what else to do. This might save us.”

“Okay. I’m in.” Noel nodded, then turned for the door. His mom shifted inside. “See you tonight.”

Aria nodded, too, pivoting toward the waiting Subaru. She was about to step off the porch when Noel called, “Why didn’t you tell the cops what I knew about Ali?”

Aria whirled around and looked at him. His eyes were wide. His face was open and vulnerable. His beautiful, kissable, pink lips were parted just slightly.

“I-I couldn’t,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Noel stepped toward her. When he was close enough to give her a hug, he reached out and touched the edge of her chin, tilting it up. “I miss you so much,” he whispered. “If I could take all of this back, I would. I wish they’d find Ali. I wish they’d kill her. And I wish, when it is over, that we could be together again.”

His green eyes met Aria’s, and the look brought back hundreds of memories. How hard they’d laughed in cooking class. How Aria had had to hold Noel’s hand on the Batman roller coaster at Great Adventure because he was secretly terrified. The look on his face when he’d picked her up for homecoming. The first time he said he loved her.

She reached out for Noel, but she hesitated before taking his hand. Her fingers remained open in space for a few long beats, just inches from his. All sound fell away. All Aria could see were Noel’s thick eyebrows, his square jaw, his strong shoulders.

“I wish we could, too,” she blurted. And then she ran to her mother’s car as fast as she could. If she’d have stayed on that porch for a second longer, she would have never been able to leave.

Later that same night, as the digital clock in the bank across the street clicked to 8:56 PM, Emily, Aria, Spencer, and Hanna stood behind a line of bushes at the Rosewood Public Library, a stone building in the same complex as the King James Mall. A spotlight illuminated the library’s front walk. Another light shone on the book return slot, which had been decorated with a blue-and-white banner that said, CONGRATULATIONS, ROSEWOOD GRADS! Inside, the place was locked up for the night. The aisles were empty, the desks unoccupied, all the seats pushed in. Not a single car was in the lot; Noel had picked the girls up in his Escalade then parked it by the mall. Now, a few paces in front of them, Noel sat on a bench in the shadows, knocking his cast-bound arm against the wooden seat again and again.