Page 104 of The Silent Note

“No, I don’t know him at all.”

“Right. Right.” His tone says he doesn’t believe me but, thankfully, he changes the subject. “So you’re heading to the hills?” He taps on his tablet to verify the location.

I hesitate. There’s no way I’m returning to The Kings’ mansion, but going to mom’s is off the table too.

Sloane tilts her face toward mine.“Go home. Married couples shouldn’t go to bed angry.”

“Just take me to the nearest hotel,” I say.

Sloane rolls her eyes.

At that moment, my phone buzzes.

I ignore it.

Sloane arches both eyebrows.“Aren’t you going to get that?”

I quietly shake my head no. It’s probably all the people I don’t want to talk to. Right now, that list is comprised of Zane, mom or Jinx.

Ugh. Jinx.

No doubt, the anonymous hacker is itching to ask why I ran off with Zane today. Someone probably saw our car parked onthe highway too. It’s not like we were that far from Redwood Prep when we….

I run a hand over my face. It was downright foolish of me to do anything with Zane so close to Redwood. If I’d been in my right mind—which obviously, I had not—it never would have happened.

My phone keeps ringing.

Even the driver looks back at me with a question in his eyes.

Sheepishly, I take out my phone, intending to cancel the call.

But the number isn’t Zane’s or mom’s or Jinx’s.

Warily, I answer. “Hello?”

“Miss Jamieson!”

I sit upright, recognizing that voice immediately.

“Please!” The junior who assaulted me on the back steps of Redwood Prep and broke Zane’s wrist after the dance shrieks in my ear. “I need your help. Please.” Footsteps pound desperately in the background. “Please.”

“Theodore, what’s going on?”

“I’m s-scared. I don’t know who else to call.”

I exchange a concerned look with Sloane.

She shakes her head and mouths,“don’t do it.”

I squeeze the cellphone tight and wrestle with myself. Hall might be a brute, but he’s still my student, my responsibility.

“Theo, slow down and tell me exactly where you are.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

ZANE

Rain lashes against the windshield, raging faster than the wipers can bat them away. I slow the car to a crawl.