Page 68 of Deadly Little Scandals
“Are you sure you want to go to this party tonight?” I asked Lily.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’d told her everything—about Two Arrowsandthe plans under way to find Ana’s baby. Her only, muted response had been to tell me that Lillian had never mentioned a sister, let alone a twin—no emotion, no real reaction. The fact that neitherOur grandmother has a secret twinnorThe boy you just broke up with is hatching plans with another girlhad penetrated the fog of her emotions was, in a word, concerning.
Nick’s right,I told myself.Lily will be okay. She has to be.
Maybe I’d believe it when he told me in person.
“Ana might be there tonight,” I reminded Lily, since she hadn’t replied to my question about the party. “Are you sure you want to go?” When she didn’t respond, I came closer. “Lily?”
Still no response, so I pulled one of her earbuds out of her ear. “Will you just talk to me?”
For months, I’d been afraid of losing Lily. I’d imagined her shutting me out. I hadn’t imagined her shutting out the world.
Lily forced her eyes from the ceiling to me. “Tonight isn’t just a party, Sawyer. The White Glove text was very specific.” She closed her eyes again in a slow-motion blink, like opening them was harder than it should have been. “This is the last event before they decide who makes it and who’s out.”
Of everything Lily could have chosen to care about, why the White Gloves?
Everyone needs a place to belong,something inside me whispered. I wanted to tell Lily that she didn’t need a secret society. I was right here.
But instead, all I said was: “Okay.”
I sat down beside her. She went to put her earbuds back in, and as she did, I heard the music she’d been listening to.
Only, it wasn’t music.
It was the conversation where Aunt Olivia and Uncle J.D. had argued about the body, on a loop.
ily’s instructions from the White Gloves had indicated that she should arrive at the Gutierrez lake estate an hour early. Mine had specified two hours. If I’d thought it would have done any good to stay home with her and go later, I would have.
But nothing I said or did seemed to affect Lily at all, so I ended up driving through the gates of Rustic Mesa by myself, two hours before the social event of the lake season was set to begin. The fact that Victoria’s family didn’t just have a lake house, but an estate—and the fact that the estate had a name—should have merited some sarcastic mental commentary on my part, but all I could think as I approached the main house was that this night had the potential to go badly on so many levels.
Ana could show up. She couldnotshow up. The White Gloves could cut Lily.She could—
Someone answered the front door before I could finish that thought. I’d been expecting Victoria, or possibly a housekeeper.
I hadn’t expected her father.
“A young lady such as yourself should never be made to wait.” Victor Gutierrez had salt-and-pepper hair, features that had aged well, and the type of charisma that didn’t age at all. “Especially in this heat,” he continued. “My apologies. Please, come in.”
I stepped over the threshold into a foyer with soaring ceilings. “Is Victoria…”
“My daughter will be down shortly.”
Before I knew what was happening, I was being escorted to what Lillian would have referred to as a Baptist bar—one that normally hid behind pocket doors. Today, in preparation for the party, they were open.
“Could I get you something cool to drink?” Victor Gutierrez made a study of my expression. “No? Ah, well. You won’t mind if I have a little something myself.”
He let go of my arm to walk back around the bar.
“I can wait in the foyer for Victoria,” I said.
“Keep an old man company,” he told me, filling a glass with ice. “Perhaps I might convince you to reconsider some of the ideas you have been putting in my daughter’s head.”
He was still smiling, so it took me a second to process what he’d just said. “Excuse me?”
He took a sip of his drink and closed his eyes. “I am well aware of why this party is happening and who you are hoping will be in attendance. I suspect the Ames girl has something to do with it, but she is not here, and you are. You will forgive me for asking you to pass the message along.”
What message?I thought.
