Empire High Betrayal(32)

James raised his left eyebrow at me.

And I nodded.

“New plan,” James said. “I think we all know what we really want here.” He tossed his notebook to the side. “We want to make Isabella disappear for good. What do you say, Rob? Got something in your evil genius mind for that?”

“Now we’re talking.” Rob rubbed his hands together. “Oh! We’re going to need pizza for this. Nothing like pizza to plot murder.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text. “So what are we thinking, cheese or pepperoni?”

How could Rob think about what kind of pizza we wanted when he just said we wanted to kill someone? Disappear was different than kill. Right?

“Cheese sounds good,” James said. “Unless you want something else?” he asked me.

I shook my head. James wasn’t freaking out. Apparently he’d meant kill too.

“Perfect,” Rob said. “Cheese it is. Now how do you want to kill the troll?”





Chapter 13


Monday

Rob didn’t need to ask us our opinion. Because before we even had a chance to respond, he told us his whole plan. A plan that was clearly well thought out because it was so detailed. And graphic.

“The key is making sure every inch of her burns so that they can’t trace anything back to us,” Rob said. “Unless you’d rather use lye. But I really like the idea of fire. It seems like a more graceful way to end it, you know?”

I finally found my voice. “What the fuck, Rob?”

He started laughing. And then laughing some more. He pointed at me, barely even able to breathe. “You should see your face right now.”

How was I supposed to look after hearing that?

“Your pizza, young Robert,” someone said and poked his head through the hole in the floor of the treehouse.

I almost screamed. After hearing Rob’s murderous plan, it almost looked like the man’s decapitated head was on a platter.

“Thanks, Eric,” Rob said and grabbed it from him. “Could we have something to drink too?”

“Already on top of it, sir.” The butler slid a tray of sodas into the treehouse with his gloved hand. “Will that be all?”

“Yup.”

“Will you be attending classes after lunch?” Eric asked.

“Nah. We need the whole day off. We’ve had a stressful weekend. Right, James?”

James nodded.

“Very well. Let me know if any of you need anything else. Good to see you again, Miss Sanders.”

“You too.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. Help me, Rob’s a murdering psychopath probably wouldn’t work with his butler.

Eric disappeared down the hole.

“Pizza?” Rob asked and lifted up a slice.

“We can’t kill Isabella,” I said. “I just meant…make her go away.” Twenty four hours ago, I’d wanted her dead. But after talking to Matt… I swallowed hard. I didn’t want him to ever think I was a monster too.

Rob laughed. “I know. I just wanted to see your face. I like it when you blush. It’s so freaking cute.”

What?

“Like you’re doing right now.”

“You’re both ridiculous,” I said and shoved his arm.

“Mhm. You’re the one that can’t keep your hands off me. Do you need me to call Mr. Hill to put a ruler between us again?” He smiled. “See…blushing.”

I shook my head. “Okay, this has been super fun. But I really should get back to Matt’s house.”

“After lunch,” James said. “You need to eat.” He picked up a slice and handed it to me before I could protest. “Come on. You’ve lost weight the last few weeks. You gotta eat something.”

I pressed my lips together. He’d noticed that I’d lost weight after my uncle passed away? I looked down at my pajama bottoms. I wanted to blame it on the baggy material, but that wasn’t it. I’d been sad. It was hard to eat when all I wanted to do was cry. And then everything that happened between Matt and me on top of it? I’d barely had an appetite at all. I never would have guessed James would notice though.

“Please?” James asked. “We won’t make any more murder jokes. We’ll just plan a prank veering on the edge of revenge that may or may not make Isabella run away from home. I promise.”

“Yeah,” Rob said. “We’re not going to kill anyone. We aren’t Pruitts.” He lifted his hand for a high-five, but I just stared at him. “Suit yourself,” he said and grabbed a soda.

I ate my slice of pizza as they went back to the pudding idea.

“Matt has a really big kitchen,” I said. “It would be the perfect place to make that much pudding.” I could still fix this.

Rob laughed. “We’re going to buy it, Sanders. Who has time to make pudding?”

“I don’t know…most people?”

“You’re not thinking big enough,” he said. “We need a lot of pudding. And maybe some dead frogs. That way Isabella can’t kill them.”

Gross. “Where do you plan on getting dead frogs from?”

“She’s super uncreative,” Rob said and looked over at James.

“No,” James said. “She’s just too sweet to think as evilly as us. One of the many reasons I like her.”