46. Logan

46LOGAN

Everything stops. The crash of the waves, the warm breeze blowing, everyone breathing next to me—all of it washes away so there’s nothing but her, waiting.

Lacey Warren, the girl standing in front of us. The girl who was so desperate for someone to recognize her that she made her own name the password to her safe. That’s what Kira told us after she knocked on the bathroom door, the safe successfully stolen while we were all looking for her body. Back from the dead.

The dead. There’s so many dead. The waves lap against the shore, and I can almost hear Jenna’s laugh, all mixed in with her muffled screams that night. The night I couldn’t save her.

I look up at the sky, scanning the dark. Lacey follows my gaze.

“They’re not here yet.” Seeing my surprise, her eyes sparkle. “I’m not dumb. If you figured me out, I’m guessing you got into the safe and called for help, too, right?”

Cold fear snakes through me. Caught.

Lacey smirks.

“But see, that’s the beauty of a private island. It takes time to get out here, especially with a storm moving through. We’ve got, what, ten minutes? Five?” She looks at Kira’s gun, her smile stretching wider. “Anything can happen in five minutes.” Her gaze shifts to me, suddenly sad. “I can tell them if you want. I just thought you might want a chance to get your story straight.”

And something about her sadness, her pity, is all it takes for the dam to break, for my voice to come hurtling back to me.

“This is your fault,” I tell her. “You gave me the peanut oil.”

Everyone else draws in a sharp breath, and I wince. Now they know. Now they’ll never look at me the same way again.

Lacey just shrugs. “I didn’t make you use it. I just gave you the idea.”

The idea.It all clicks into place, and oh my god, how did it take me so long to see? Her kind words, the wine, our bonding over the shitty ways we’ve been treated by older men and the world.

“But you wanted me to,” I tell her, my chest burning. “That whole conversation in my room, when you said guys like Zane always get away with it … and spin the bottle. You only wanted to play because you wanted me to do what I did. There was never even a Derek, or whatever his name was, was there?”

Lacey’s face falls, looking genuinely hurt. “Everything I told you was true.”

Hot tears wet my cheeks, and my chest feels like it’s caving in.

“You were the first person who made me feel like I wasn’t so alone with all this,” I force out. “But you’re just like everyone else. Like him.”

“No, I’m not.” Lacey shakes her head sharply. “Logan, I wanted to give you your power back. I meant what I said. Zane would have gotten away with it. Like, yeah, he might have gotten canceled once people found out, but he would have found his way back. He’d find a lawyer good enough to get him a reduced sentence or even get him off completely. He would have been fine, and so will Max.” She shoots him a vicious look, and then turns it back to me. “I wasn’t sure if you’d do it, but I’m glad you did. Zane got what was coming to him.”

“He didn’t deserve to die!”

Even as it comes out, I don’t know if I believe it. Zane had taken advantage of countless girls and killed two people just to save his own ass, and he hadn’t shown one shred of remorse. And looking at Lacey, that same sad look on her face, I get the feeling she knows exactly what I’m thinking.

“Then why’d you put the peanut oil in the wine, Logan?”

“I didn’t even know if it would work.” My words come out panicked, matching time with the frantic beat of my heart. I look at the rest of them, begging them to understand. “I didn’t think he’d drink so much. I didn’t even know if he’d take it from me. But once he did, I couldn’t stop it. I…”

I didn’t want to stop it. The truth is like the flash of a blade. I let Zane die because I wanted him to. Because Lacey’s right: even if Zane got exposed for everything he did, it wouldn’t be enough. His career would be ruined, maybe he’d even rot in jail, but all of those girls would still be scarred from how he treated them. Jenna and McKayleigh would still be dead. And Zane still wouldn’t be sorry. Everyone always talks about holding people accountable, letting them own up to their shit and live with the consequences, but what happens when people like Zane don’t keep their end of the deal? Isn’t there a point where we stop waiting for them to take accountability and do something instead?

The sad smile on Lacey’s face turns up into a full-on grin.

“See, babe? We’re not that different.”

And that’s when I start to snap. Because I never would have done this if it weren’t for Lacey. She’s the one who slipped poison into my pocket and whispered venom in my ear, letting me get blood on my hands so hers would stay clean. Lacey turned me into a killer just like Zane, and as good as revenge felt, it didn’t come without one last victim. Me. The person I thought I could be.

“I am not like you,” I snarl. “You did this. You took Zane’s EpiPen, didn’t you? We could have saved him if you hadn’t taken it.”

“Yeah, and he would still be alive if you hadn’t poisoned him.”

“This is your fault!” My voice rips out of me like its own creature, sharp-toothed and clawed, adrenaline pushing me toward her. “Who the fuck do you think you are, bringing us all here? Making us kill each other!”

“I didn’t make you do anything,” Lacey says calmly. “It was your choice.”

“But you brought us here,” Corrine cuts in. “You manipulated us. You knew what you were doing.”

“So did you.” Lacey’s eyes flash. “You couldn’t wait to bring McKayleigh down, could you?” Her gaze tracks from Corinne to the rest of us. “You all knew what you were doing. I didn’t make you come here. I didn’t make you choose this career. I didn’t make you kill people or hide their bodies or ruin their lives!”

“Fine.” Max stumbles toward her, dropping his hand from his arm, his palm slick with blood. “We all made shitty decisions. We all did bad things. But not Kira. What did Kira do to deserve this?”

Lacey smiles, but her eyes shoot daggers. “Goddamn it. You really are obsessed.”

Kira steps forward, her arms outstretched, her grip firm on the gun.

Lacey’s smile drops, leaving her bare with hatred. “Fine. You want to know whose life perfect little Kira ruined? Mine. And you want to know the worst part?” Her face twitches, a crack in the armor. “You don’t even know you did it.”