Page 59 of Created in Chaos
“Tell us how you planned it and who else was involved,” Lucian encourages as he takes a seat across from her.
“I…” She trails off, looking between the two of us as if she’s uncertain she should admit to it.
“Go on… Unless it was someone else’s idea and you just went along with it.” I add an edge of disappointment in my tone.
“No, we were talking, you know, about her showing up with such an attitude, and we just started throwing ideas around, and that one kind of stuck. We weren’t trying to kill her.” She dismisses the beating as if the fact that Nova almost died was her own weakness. “It just happened really fast. One second, we were standing around, and the next, she was running right at us and…” She does this shrug thing, failing to put what they did to her into words.
“How many?” Lucian’s voice is tight, but Grace doesn’t notice.
“There were five of us that day,” she admits.
“Five that day?” I question, picking up that there might be more to it than she’s confessing.
“I’d been watching her for a little bit, and I noticed she used that bathroom after class, but I couldn’t be sure if she would that day or not. Astor shut down the cameras for us the night before, just in case, and when she went in, all five of us followed.”
I take note of Astor’s name before asking, “Did more people know than the five of you?”
“There were eight of us in the chat.”
“What happened to the other three? Did they chicken out?” Lucian questions.
“Astor wasn’t down for anything but the cameras.” She rolls her eyes. “Meg and Hannah were in class at the time, and there wasn’t enough notice for them to get out.”
“All girls?” I feign interest.
“No, Vincent and Caleb were with us.”
“No founders were involved?” Lucian rises slowly to his feet, moving closer to Grace.
“No, I know they are all a bunch of punks from you.” She watches him take the seat beside her. There’s something in her gaze. It’s not quite panic, but I don’t think she’s as dumb as I assumed. I think she knows this isn’t going to go her way but is playing along in the event it might.
“I need you to do one more thing for me, Grace. I want to see this chat and know the names of the people who were in it with you. Then we can move forward.” Lucian is surprisingly calm. Maybe it’s because we finally have some answers, or maybe it’s because he knows he’ll be able to get rid of her in a few minutes, but he doesn’t look like a man who is about to commit murder.
“I don’t have the chat anymore. I deleted the thread.” She fidgets with her purse in her lap.
“That was smart, getting rid of evidence.” I probably should have kept my mouth shut, because Grace looks over at me with uncertainty, and I’m sure it has something to do with my pissed off tone.
“Are you sure you deleted it?” Lucian asks, drawing her attention.
“Uh…” She hesitates.
“You don’t have anything to hide, do you, Grace?” I’ve noticed he’s used her name more this evening than any of the other times he’s spoken to her combined…probably to make her feel important or some shit.
“No, I told you the truth. I really wasn’t trying to kill her. I simply wanted her to leave, just like you wanted. I did it for you guys.” She trades glances between the two of us.
She’s self-serving, even now. Lucian stares her dead in the face like he can’t believe she said that before blinking slowly then focusing on his phone.
“Put everyone’s name down.” He hands her his phone with a note app open.
“Why do you need me to write it down? It’s not like I’m going to forget.” She’s trying to get reassurance, or at the very least get him to admit she’ll be around to tell him the names again if necessary.
“Are you worried their stories won’t match yours?”
“No.” She shakes her head.
“Write the names down. I need to be sure.” He motions toward the phone.
After a brief pause, she finally begins thumbing the screen, then hands his phone back.