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We’d been listening so closely everyone jumped when the door re-opened. And this time a familiar face walked in. “Emily?” I said.

She stared like she’d been caught. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You’re in the right place,” Lacey said, standing again to welcome her in.

“Thanks,” she said, folding down to sit beneath a window.

I had to reassign everything in my head now. Here I was thinking Emily was just an awful person. Little did I know that the reason she was awful was because Danny had gotten her too. Which might explain why she was so keen on ‘outing’ Liam and me, and then me and Danny. Maybe.

“We were just talking about what happened to us,” Lacey went on. “And, fair warning, Mason’s going to be here in a bit. You can totally leave before then.”

At that, all the color drained from Emily’s face. Perhaps for her it was Mason, not Danny, who had something to answer for.

“I don’t want to talk about things,” she said, squeezing her knees in tight.

“Okay. That’s fine too,” Lacey said. But she couldn’t leave Shana’s confession hanging, so she didn’t, explaining everything that’d happened to her just two and a half weeks ago too. She skipped prom and electric-me, but left in the hospital.

“Jesus,” Shana exclaimed when she got to that point. Then Jenny walked through the door and joined the crowd.

I don’t want to say that it was like a party, because it wasn’t—but it did have a mood to it. Maybe it was closer to a good funeral—what’re those Irish-things called, wakes? Where everyone felt safe enough to cry and commune and be angry or still and by the time I’d ridden an entire rollercoaster of emotions alongside them. My mother’s phone buzzed at eight-fifty PM. I pulled it out of my pocket to flash it at them.

“He’s gonna be here in ten minutes, if anyone wants to go.”

Everyone looked from side to side. Alone, any one of them might’ve run away, and rightly so—but side by side on the couch, four of them against one of him?

“I’m good,” Jenny said first, and then everyone else quickly nodded.

“Okay,” I said. Then the door opened for one final time as Mason stepped in.

“All right. I brought it. I saw the cars. I’m not interested in talking to anyone.” His voice was robotic, he’d clearly practiced both his words and his poker-face on his way up the stairs. He saw me, and he pitched the USB over. I caught it, and then he deigned to look around the room. When he saw Emily he frowned.

“Why is she here? We never did anything to her.”

We all turned. She’d been quiet, but it’d felt like her right to be, not anything suspicious. And then whooping sounds and metal banging metal started outside.

“Shit!” Mason said, running for the door. It burst open as he reached it, revealing Danny right outside, shoving Mason back.

Danny took in the room. “You’re having a slumber party? And you didn’t invite me?”

Other voices laughed from outside on the cabin’s small porch.

Everyone else went jack-rabbit still. I thought we outnumbered them—and Darius was still outside, I knew it, I was sure he was weighing his options—when Emily jumped up.

“They were going to go to the cops! Mason gave her pictures!” she said, pointing at me. Then she ran to Danny’s side.

“Good work, baby,” he said, leaning in to grab her for a dramatic kiss.

Emily danced back. She hadn’t been running for him—she’d been running for the open door. She flashed us a fearful look, then sidled out.

Emily believed us now. Hoorays.

Danny chuckled at her fear, as though it gave him power, and then lounged in the door jamb, contemplating all of us. “All right. Whatever you’ve planned isn’t happening anymore.”

“Says who?” I said.

“Says me. Give me the photos.” He stuck his hand out, and all the girls looked to me.