Fire with Fire (Burn for Burn #2)

She tickles me again with a feather. It must have fallen off her purse. The purse looks like a pink baby chicken, tiny and covered with feathers. “Um, just curious, but does Rennie know you’re here?”

I stare her down. This freaking bimbo. Is she seriously that dumb? Does she think I would show up here if I wasn’t specifically invited?

But I haven’t seen Rennie tonight. Not yet, anyway. I get a knot in my stomach. I wonder if this isn’t a trick about to blow up in my face That midnight surprise she wanted me here to see.

Suddenly I see Reeve and Lillia push out the front door.

What?

And then Rennie’s behind them, running after them. She’s quiet, not saying anything, but I can tell she’s upset. Reeve and Lillia are gone, and Rennie stops in the center of the dance floor. Nobody even notices her. Nobody except Ashlin and me.

Rennie magically turns to us and walks over, looking suddenly unsteady on her high heels. As she gets closer, her chin starts to quiver, and I know tears are about to drop. I take a step to the side to give her room to approach Ashlin.

“Ren!” Ashlin says brightly, because she’s an idiot. “Let’s dance!”

Rennie pushes right past Ashlin and practically falls into my arm. I glance behind me, trying to look out the window to see where Reeve and Lil went, but it’s fogged back up.

Ashlin is next to us, swaying drunkenly and looking confused. And then I see other people, people around the room, starting to notice us. Notice Ren.

“Kat. Lillia did it. Lillia’s the one who drugged him.” She can barely make the words. She is grabbing me tight with her fingertips. And she is shaking.

I pull her toward the bathroom. “Come on.”

On our way, we pass Alex. I smile politely, but Rennie spots him and says, “Your girl is a two-timing slut whore!” And Alex looks dumbfounded.

In the bathroom, I lock the door. I pour out what’s left of my whiskey and fill the cup full of tap water and hand it to her. “Now what the hell is going on?”

Rennie takes a few small sips, but with her tears she almost chokes. “She knew. She knew I loved him and she stole him from me. That bitch gets everything she wants! How is that fair? How is that at all fair?”

I swallow the urge to tell Rennie about our plan. To confess to her that Lillia doesn’t actually want anything to do with Reeve. It would make it all better, stat. But I don’t say anything because . . . has Lillia gone rogue? I thought we were done with that shit after Lillia stood Reeve up for his mom’s open house. Did she figure out a new, better way to hurt Reeve? Maybe she hasn’t had a chance to tell us what it is yet.

“Calm down, calm down,” I say. “What were you talking about out there? What about . . . drugs?”

She looks up at me from the floor of the bathroom. Her eye makeup is two huge black smudges. She opens the bathroom sink cabinet and pulls out a stack of pictures. And there it is, a picture from homecoming. Two girls, arm in arm, smiling together. It takes me a minute to notice what’s happening in the background.

It’s Lillia slipping the liquid E into Reeve’s drink while he looks in the other direction.

I grab the towel rack to steady myself.

“I told him and he didn’t even care! He wants to be with her. They freaking ran off hand in hand!”

My head is spinning, and it’s way too f**king hot in here. “Ren, I don’t know what this proves,” I say, even though it basically proves everything.

She lets out a bitter bark of a laugh. “Look close. She’s got some kind of vial in her hand. It’s got to be liquid E. There’s only one place to get drugs like that. That piece-of-shit skank Kevin. He sells to the guys at the restaurant. I bet if I ask him, he’ll remember selling it to some Asian girl.”

Except Kevin didn’t sell it to Lillia. He sold it to me.

Oh f**k.

I check my phone for a text from Lillia. Nothing. Does she not realize that everything’s about to blow up in our faces?

There’s a knock on the bathroom door. I scream out, “Damn! Someone’s in here!”

“Kat?” It’s Alex. “Um, is Lillia in there with you guys? Or did you see her leave?”

Rennie throws her head back and explodes. “Alex, Lillia doesn’t give two shits about you! Get it through your thick skull, you dumb-ass! She’s with Reeve. You’re just her lapdog!”

Rennie opens her mouth to scream at him again, but I cover it with my hand and open the door a crack. Alex is standing there, mouth hanging open. I say to him, “Sorry, can you just give us a minute?” and then I close the door again.

Rennie wipes under her eyes. “Lillia’s so done. If Reeve doesn’t care about what she did, everyone else here will. They’ll all hate her just as much as I do. Where’s Nadia? Did you see her out there?”

Oh shit. I’ve gotta contain this.

“Let’s just get out of here,” I say. “If we hurry, we can catch up to them.” I expect her to fight me, but she doesn’t, and that makes me feel sad for her. She holds out her hands, and I pull her up like a rag doll. “Where’s your purse?”

“I didn’t bring one.”

Shit. I didn’t drive here. Pat dropped me off. But I don’t want to waste the time it’s going to take to text him to pick us up. “Did you drive?”

Rennie nods. “My Jeep’s parked out back. The key’s inside it.”

I open the bathroom door a tiny crack and peek out. Luckily, it’s near midnight; people have started moving into the main room of the gallery. Ashlin is handing out noisemakers. Alex is standing in the party, but his eyes keep moving from the front door to his cell phone.

I take Rennie by the hand and run for the back door. We go outside and it’s bitter cold. I stop her from getting into the driver’s seat. “You’re too upset,” I tell her. “I’ll drive.”

The air seems to be rousing Rennie. Her eyes are dark with anger and her fists are clenching and unclenching. She stares at me, but thankfully she doesn’t fight me.

I turn the car on and blast the heat, even though it’s cold at first. The whooshing sound makes it so neither of us has to talk. I gun it out of the parking lot, and as I turn past the party, I look again for Mary. Where the hell is she?

Rennie says, “Where do you think they went?”

“I don’t know,” I say truthfully. “Let’s swing by my house and regroup. We’ll figure out what to do.”