flinched and took a step backward. “I can’t believe you said that to me. How could you? You know how much—”
Andie bit back the words, her eyes flooding with tears. She started past Raven, intent on grabbing her binoculars and heading home. At the same moment, Julie jumped to her feet. Andie knocked into the other girl, unbalancing her.
As if in slow motion, Andie watched as Julie swung her arms trying to rebalance herself. A cry on her lips, Andie grabbed for her friend; she wasn’t fast enough. Julie went over the side of the platform.
She landed on her side with a sickening thud. She lay there, eyes open but completely still.
“Julie!” Andie cried, her heart in her throat. It didn’t look as if she was breathing. “Are you okay?”
She didn’t reply, and Andie and Raven rushed down the ladder to their friend. They knelt beside her. “Are you all right?” Andie asked again, voice shaking. “Please … please … tell me you’re okay.”
“I … I think I am,” Julie said, beginning to shake. “But I’m afraid to move.”
“Then don’t,” Andie said. “Give yourself a minute to catch your breath.” She met Raven’s eyes. She saw her own concern mirrored in her friend’s gaze.
“I can’t be hurt,” Julie whispered. “If I am, my dad’s going to find out what we’ve been doing. He’ll kill me.” She started to cry then, softly, heartbreaking mewls of despair.
“He won’t find out.” Raven squeezed her hand. “I won’t let him. I promise.”
“Okay,” Andie said. “Let’s see if anything’s broken.”
Carefully, they tested Julie’s arms and legs; they had her move her head, fingers and toes, then helped her sit up. She was fine, they realized. Just shaken.
They all were, Andie decided. Even Raven.
Andie swallowed hard. “I’m really … really sorry, Julie. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“I know. It was an accident.” Julie drew in a hiccoughing breath. “No more fighting. You’re supposed to be best friends. Best friends don’t hurt each other like that.”
“Julie’s right, Rave.” Andie looked at her friend, a lump forming in her throat. “Now do you see what’s happening to us? Ever since this started, we’ve changed. We’re at each other’s throats all the time. Either that, or not speaking at all. This thing’s tearing us apart.”
Raven stared at her for long moments, then looked away. “I just wanted to figure this guy out.”
“I know,” Andie said softly, touching her arm. “But it’s hurting us. And I don’t want to lose you two.”
“Please, Rave,” Julie said, her voice quivering. “I want to go back to the way we were before.”
Raven moved her gaze from one to the other, then nodded. “Okay, guys. Starting now, none of this ever happened.”
12
But Raven wasn’t about to forget about Mr. and Mrs. X. No matter what Andie said. Andie was wrong. She and Julie didn’t understand. They didn’t see how important what had happened to them was. They had been given an opportunity, an open door.
To the secrets. The way.
But she saw. She understood.
And that was okay. She was the strong one; she always had been. Andie was a do-gooder with a weak stomach. She worried about everybody, but didn’t have the backbone to take a stand. Julie, on the other hand, was a boy-crazy space cadet and would follow whoever was stronger.
In this case, Julie would follow her.
Raven had decided that she and Julie would continue their late-night stakeout of number twelve Mockingbird Lane. They would watch; Raven would learn. And someday she would need those lessons to protect the three of them, to keep her family together.
Raven didn’t know when or against whom they would need to be protected; she only knew, deep in her gut, that they would.
It would mean lying to Andie. She hated to do it, but it was for Andie’s own good. That made it okay, she reasoned. A necessary evil.
Raven called Julie. And as Raven had known she would, Julie hesitated briefly, then fell right in line with Raven’s plan, promising to keep their activities a secret from Andie.
They agreed to meet that night.
13
After her family had all gone to bed, Julie sneaked out of the house to meet Raven. They had agreed beforehand that they would wait for Mr. and Mrs. X for two hours. Two hours hadn’t seemed that long to Julie then, but now the minutes ticked past with agonizing slowness. She could hardly sit still. It was as if someone had plugged her in and turned her on, and she couldn’t find her Off switch.
Her mind raced; her thoughts whirled. She thought of Andie, Mrs. X, her nightmare, her father. The devil. She was torn between excitement and guilt, shame and arousal. She worked to hide her feelings from Raven, though a couple of times she had caught the other girl looking at her, her expression strange.
Julie swallowed hard. She couldn’t bear it if her friends found out the truth about her. If she kept this up, they would. They would figure it out.
“They’re not going to show,” Julie whispered, then glanced guiltily over her shoulder, as if someone stood nearby, listening. “Let’s just go.”
Raven released a frustrated breath and lowered the binoculars. “It hasn’t been two hours. We agreed, remember?”
“I know, but—”
“Shh. Look, a car.”
Sure enough, a car rolled down the street. It pulled into the driveway of number twelve. The automatic garage door slid up; the car eased in. The door shut.
Julie’s mouth had turned to dust. She fought to speak around the knot in her throat. “Was it him?”
“Her,” Raven corrected, lowering the binoculars, frowning.
“Her? Where’s Mr. X?”
“Late, maybe. Let’s hang a minute, he’ll come.”
They waited. Five minutes. Ten. Raven shook her head. “Something’s wrong. If he was coming, he’d be here.”
“Maybe he was in the car, like hiding in the back seat.”
They looked at each other, then scrambled off the platform. They made their way through the wooded lot and around the back of the house.
They found Mrs. X. She was alone, blindfolded and naked. She stood motionless in the center of the great room, waiting.
Julie
