NOT QUITE RIGHT

The four of us spent half the afternoon talking about the plans for the new Billings, and I forced myself to relax, but the second we zoomed through the Easton gates, the tension returned. By the time Noelle swung her Jaguar convertible into a parking space right in front of Pemberly and hit the brakes, I was filled with dread.

“You okay?” Noelle asked, noticing my sudden pallor.

“Yeah.” I unhooked my seatbelt and attempted a smile. “Just remembered I have a ton of work to do.”

“Well, hop to it, Junior,” Noelle said, patting me on top of my head. She twirled her keys around one finger and got out of the car. “I, graduating senior that I am, am going to ignore my work and head over to Coffee Carma for a latte.”

I rolled my eyes at her.

Noelle closed her door, then leaned against it, over the open expanse of the convertible. “Seriously, though, Reed. Thanks for today. I had fun.”

I smiled for real this time. “Me too.”

She headed around the dorm for the quad and I ran for the front door. Noelle may have been trying to rub my nose in her freedom, but I was kind of glad she was going elsewhere. It meant I could sprint inside and take the stairs instead of the elevator and be at my room in half the time.

I threw open the door to my room and stood frozen on the threshold, looking around. At first I felt a slight twinge of relief. Ivy was right. Nothing looked out of place. But as I stepped inside I realized that wasn’t entirely the case. Nothing was out of place, but something was missing. Namely, the Billings blueprints.

Leaving the door open, I lunged to the corner where I’d left the poster roll containing all Carolina’s blueprints for the new design. It was gone. I hit my knees to check under the bed, but there was nothing there aside from the usual under-the-bed storage and a stray pair of shoes. Cursing under my breath, I shoved open my closet and ransacked the floor, just in case I’d tossed them in there and forgotten about it. Which I knew I hadn’t.

There was nothing. The blueprints were gone. I shoved my hands into my hair as I turned around and my eyes fell on my computer. Had I left my laptop open like that?

“Sonofa—”

I leaned over my desk and booted up my computer. The Billings Construction folder was gone from the desktop. I checked the trash. Wiped out. I hadn’t had time to back up the files before I went out this morning, which meant they were just gone. Carolina had some of the information, obviously, and I had everyone’s numbers and e-mails stored in my phone, but all my notes were in that folder. All my ideas and whims and reminders. All of it had been deleted.

“No,” I said under my breath, lowering myself onto the edge of my bed. “No, no, no.”

I drew my knees up under my chin and clung to my shins. Suddenly all the old horrifying feelings came rushing back over me. All the dread and fear and sense of violation I’d felt back when Sabine stalked me last semester. That feeling that nothing was sacred, that nothing was safe, that nothing was mine. Someone had been in my room. Someone had rifled through my things. Someone had walked around this very space—my space—like they were entitled to it.

My heart clenched over and over and over until it felt like it couldn’t take it anymore. What else had they done? What else had they taken? What else had they tarnished?

And how had MT known they were here?

Someone passed by the open door of my room and I nearly jumped out of my skin. But it was only Josh. He did a double take, like he was surprised to find me here. My hands clutched the bedspread at my sides as I waited for my pulse to come back from its sprint.

Josh paused and looked down the hall, in the direction from which he’d come. My eyes narrowed automatically as he braced both hands against either side of the doorway and leaned his whole body forward into the room.

“Um, hey,” he said.

Um, hey?

“Hi.” I uncurled my legs and placed my feet carefully on the floor. Part of me didn’t want him to notice my terrified body language—didn’t want him to worry—but part of me was also wondering . . . how could he not notice it? Why hadn’t he immediately asked me what was wrong?

Finally he stepped into the room. “What’s up?” he asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looking around the room. Looking everywhere but at me.

My heart gave an extra-hard thump. He was acting really weird. He didn’t . . . he couldn’t . . . there was no way he had something to do with the missing stuff, was there? He wouldn’t try to sabotage Billings. Not when he knew how much it meant to me. Not when he knew how Sabine had tortured me last fall by infiltrating my room. But then why was he so blatantly keeping his distance from me?

“Nothing,” I said flatly.

“So did you have fun with Noelle and them?” he asked, looking me in the eye for the first time.

“Yeah. It was great,” I said. I tried to infuse my words with enthusiasm. “She was so excited when she saw Kiran and Taylor. It was awesome.”

Josh smiled and suddenly, just like that, he was Josh again. He sat down next to me and knocked my shoulder with his. “Told ya so.”

My heart relaxed slightly. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that everyone hates a guy who says ‘I told you so’?”

“Oh, right.” He reached for my hand and held it. “I think I have heard that somewhere.”

I looked down at our fingers, at the sparkling aquamarine promise ring Josh had given me for my birthday, and suddenly felt like a colossal jerk for suspecting him. Josh may have hated Billings in the past, but he would never do anything to hurt me. Someone else had to be behind all this.

Which, of course, made me feel gross and violated and paranoid all over again. I opened my mouth to tell Josh about MT and the thefts, but my throat closed over the words. I didn’t want to stress him out and make him worry. And maybe just the teeniest, tiniest bit of me didn’t want to see how he’d react, just in case he wasn’t surprised.

I was going to tell him eventually. I would. I just had to sort out a few things first for myself.

“I’m glad it all worked out,” Josh said, giving my hand a squeeze.

“Yeah,” I said distractedly, my eyes scanning the room for more items out of place, trying to discern if anything else might be missing. “Yeah, me too.”