Page 73 of Pretty Poisoned

"Yep."

She stares straight ahead. Sunglasses cover her eyes, but a tear runs down her cheek.

The doors open, and she steps out. I follow, grabbing her by the arm. "Well, wait! Why? They'll be upset."

"Will they?" she asks. She shakes her arm free of my grip and lowers her voice to a whisper-hiss. "I'm leaving because I don't want to end up like Layla. I'm in love with him, and I don't want to fucking die, okay? And if you were smart, you'd leave, too. He's moving on to you, you know. I can see it. Irecognizeit. It fucking happened to me, too."

"What are you talking about?"

"Declan," she says. "God, are you stupid? I'm talking about Declan."

"Declan isn't moving on to me," I tell her. "He can't stand me."

She raises an eyebrow, looking me up and down. "I suggest you start paying attention. Declan won't just fuck you and cage you like Luca; he's in it for the mindfuck. He'll work his way under your skin, so slowly at first that you won't even notice it—not until he lives there. And then you'll be in trouble because once he knows he owns you, he'll get bored, and he'll want the same thing he got from Bridget and Layla."

But she's wrong, right? Declan isn't trying to get under my skin.

But my mind replays the events of the past week—the times when he singled me out, when he got me alone and shared secrets with me, when he threw that guy out of the party after he knocked me over.

When he brought me down to the library and talked to me about books.

When he spanked me in the dining room and then told me if I stayed, he could give me what I really wanted.

"Putting it all together now, aren't you? Maybe you're not as dumb as you look."

"No," I tell her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure, you don't," she says. "I'm leaving. Thisfamilyis a lot smaller than the one I joined. You're dead if you stay. Luca is going to kill you…or Declan is going to make you kill yourself."

Behind me, I hear the elevator ding. Alana looks over my shoulder and whatever she sees makes her turn and almost run toward the front doors.

Behind me, Hazel, River, and Brady step out of the elevator.

"Hey," Hazel says. "Where's she going?"

"Um…she said she's leaving…like for good."

"What?! Why would she do that? Alana, wait!" she calls as she runs out the doors after her.

"What happened?" River asks. "Did she say anything?"

"Um, no," I lie. "She didn't say anything. She just…said she was leaving."

"Well, Brady, you should go after her!" River says. "You're her best friend! She'll listen to you."

Brady shakes his head, stuffs his hands in his pockets, and walks off. "No."

"What? What do you mean? Why not?"

"I can't," he says.

"But…" Tears well in her eyes, and I watch her run out the front doors, too. Once they close behind her, I follow Brady into the hotel restaurant. I fill a cup of coffee, pile some food onto a plate, and then spot him at a table in the back corner.

"Can I sit here?"

"Of course," he says. "Why would you even ask?"

I pull out a chair and sit down. "I'm not sure if you like me."

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