Page 93 of Deadly Little Scandals

And she couldn’t shake the feeling that Lillian wouldn’t want her, not when she had a daughter like that of her own. Liv was popular—and fearless. She had pretty manners, but she decided when to use them—and when to break the rules.

Liv had a perfect boyfriend. Liv had perfect friends. Liv was just starting her Debutante year.

And Kaci had nothing.

Don’t think about that. Just watch.Kaci had gotten good at watching. It was easy. Liv wasn’t the type to worry or look over her shoulder. She took it for granted that the world was as it should be.

As she wanted it to be.

Just watch.Kaci pressed closer. It was dark enough that she could take some chances, late enough that there was no point in going home now.

Hours earlier, Kaci had watched as Liv and her friends—Julia and Charlotte, Sterling and J.D. and a boy called Thomas—had set up camp. Kaci had pushed back a snort of laughter when they’d been unable to set up the fancy tents Liv had bought and decided to just make use of the sleeping bags.

She’d watched them pair off.

She’d watched Liv with her boyfriend. The boy Kaci had recently found herself dreaming about, more and more.

J.D. Easterling.

As Kaci watched from the shadows, Liv disentangled her limbs from his. Kaci was torn. Now that Liv was awake, she should leave.

She should go before she got caught.

Then again, what harm was there in lingering a bit longer? In staying close and hidden and imagining herself lying down next to Liv’s boyfriend?

Don’t.The warning came from the snake part of her brain, the place where her fight-or-flight instincts lay in wait. Kaci hadn’t gotten away with watching Liv for this long by being sloppy.Stay very still.

Oblivious to her presence, Liv crouched next to one of the other boys.Sterling Ames.Kaci cataloged what she knew about him:wealthy, handsome, too charming for his own good—or anyone else’s.Liv’s friend Charlotte had been pining for him.

They’d kissed, just hours ago.

And now, as Kaci watched, Sterling Ames was getting up with Liv. Liv was pulling him toward the cliffs. It was dark, but Kaci could imagine the smile on Liv’s face almost exactly.

Kaci knew what was happening. She knew what Liv was doing.Why? Her life is perfect. Why does she keep trying her damndest to mess it up?

Kaci might have left then. She might have gone home and taken her lumps as they came. But then J.D. got up. He went to the bathroom.

Had he noticed Liv was gone? Would he look for her?

The next minute went by in a blur. Charlotte woke up. She saw J.D. The two of them heard Sterling and Liv.

J.D. and Charlotte went toward the noise.

And, keeping to the shadows, so did Kaci.

“What the hell?” J.D. had the kind of voice that carried. “Get off of her!”

J.D. was on Sterling Ames in a heartbeat. For a moment, Kaci’s heart pounded in her throat as the two of them exchanged shoves.The cliff. Watch the cliff, J.D.

And then Charlotte took a hesitant step toward Liv. “How could you?” At first, Charlotte couldn’t manage more than a whisper; then she escalated. “How could you?” she shrieked. “How could you…you…you…bitch.”

“Oh, don’t be a baby, Char.”

One second, Charlotte Bancroft was frozen, and the next, she’d hurled herself at Liv.

Neither one of them,Kaci thought as the two grabbed for each other’s hair,can fight worth a damn.

J.D. came between them. He pulled Liv back and held her when she struggled against his grasp, trying to get at Charlotte again, screaming like she was the one who’d been betrayed, like all of this was something that had happened toher.