My stomach drops from beneath me and a feeling of sickness washes over my skin.

"I'll let you know what I find," he stands, shaking hands with Winston before heading toward the door. As he walks past me he winks and I glare at him. Then he's gone, and it's just Winston and I.

"You brought me lunch again didn't you? Winston asks with a smirk.

"Yeah," I set the food down on his table distractedly. "Who was that?"

"Oh that's Xavier Roma. He works for Sub Rosa. They're a private investigative company."

I cross my arms. "You hired private investigators? Is this about the embezzlement case?"

"Yes," he sighs. "But I don't want to talk about that right now."

He doesn't know what I know, and I'm tempted to push him for more info, but I hold my tongue. "So what, he works for you now?"

"Yes Kennedy, he works for me," Winston chuckles.

"For how long?"

"I don't know, until the case is solved," he gives me a quizzical look. "Is everything alright?"

I blow out a breath. "Everything's fine," I push out. Out of all the private investigators in the world, it had to be him. Is this some sort of cruel joke?

Okay, I just need to calm down. Nothing happened between us, and unlike last time I'm not gonna make the mistake of telling Winston. We're finally in a good place, and admitting the truth could fuck everything up.

I force a smile. "Well I just wanted to make sure you got something to eat. I know you're busy so I'll go now."

I start to turn away. "Wait," Winston says. I turn back around. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired from tennis," technically this isn't a lie. We had another match today, and I'm exhausted. That, the stress of school, and the shock of seeing Xavier is too much for my poor brain to handle right now.

"Okay..." Winston trails off. I can tell he doesn't quite believe me, but he doesn't say anything more. I smile and give a small wave before hurrying out. I just want to go home, take a hot shower, and sleep.

I make it outside and breath a sigh of relief. That relief is short lived when I'm accosted by none other than Xavier himself.

"So we meet again," he gives me a charming grin. I frown.

"Yeah. Hi."

"You know, when you told me you were seeing someone, I had no idea that someone was Winston King."

I give him a tight smile. "Small world I guess."

"Did you ever figure out the answer to my question?"

"What question?" My tone comes out a lot more harsher than I intend it to be.

"Is it serious between you?"

"Of course it's serious!" I snap.

"That's too bad," he smirks. "You're a beautiful girl. I felt like we had a real connection at the club."

I scoff. "You're delusional. The only connection we had was you being a typical creep and hitting on me."

"But you liked it," he touches my waist gently and I take a giant step back.

"Listen. I don't know what you thought this was, but nothing is going to happen with us. Nothing happened between us. I was drunk. So just keep your mouth shut and don't you dare mention any of this to Winston."

Xavier grins. "If you've got nothing to hide, then why are you lying to him?"

"I'm not lying!" I'm simply omitting the truth. I shake my head. "You think I'm doing this just for me? What about you? Let me remind you that my boyfriend is now your boss. So think twice before you do anything stupid."

Xavier's grin dampens and I cross my arm. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I really like Winston okay? So just...stay away from me."

I turn to go but he grabs my arm. I shake him off. "And stop touching me!" I shout.

"I'm sorry," Xavier runs a hand through his hair. "I'm not trying to come off as pushy or like I'm trying to force myself on you.

"Well you're doing a terrible job."

"I know, I know," he sighs. "I get it. You like him."

"I do," I whisper. "So please don't ruin this for me."

A look of guilt crosses Xavier's face. "I'm sorry. Look...let's just start over," he sticks out his hand. "Hey. I'm Xavier."

I squint at him. He seems genuine but still. It could all be just an act. Guys like him can't be trusted.

"Kennedy," I let out eventually. "Just keep your stupid comments to yourself. And stop being so grabby."

Xavier breaks out into a broad smile. "You have my word. Scouts honor," he holds up three fingers. I raise a brow.

"You were a Boy Scout?"

"Yep. Proud Eagle over here."

"Figures," I mutter under my breath.

"So I'll see you around Kennedy?" Xavier gives me a cheeky grin.

I turn away on an eye roll. "Don't count on it."

...

"Winter formal themes, go." I press the start on my stopwatch

"Winter Wonderland."

"Parisian Night."

"Snowflake Soirée."

"Moonlight Cotillion."

"Let it Go."

We all pause at the last suggestion and turn to Luca. He shrugs. "What? My little sister loves that movie."

I shake my head. "Why don't you stick to your area of expertise and tell us the budget."

Luca shuffles a few papers around. "Well according to my calculations, we're looking at about five thousand dollars."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. I could try allocating more funds-"

"No, that should be plenty," I start writing on the board. "Isiah?"

"I've already compiled a list of possible venues along with a DJ and catering."

"Svetlana?"

"Sketching out poster designs as we speak."

I slowly spin around and tap the board with my marker. "This. This is our theme." I underline what I wrote thrice for emphasis.

"A Midwinter Night's Dream," Svetlana reads slowly while nodding. "I like it."

I began to pace while making grand gestures. "My vision," I begin. "Is big. Maybe too big. Nonetheless, we're going to make it work. I want fantasy. I want enchantment. I want beauty, I want romance," my movements halt. "I want this to be the best fucking winter formal this school has ever experienced."

"You got it," Isiah nods.

"Good. Now fly my pretties, fly and make it happen."

This is my dismissal of them and the conclusion of our meeting. Everyone starts packing up to go and my phone rings. Cecilia's name flashes on the screen.

"Hey," I pick up with a smile on my face. "What's up?"

"I found something," she whispers.

I laugh. "What'd you find?"

"It's about the embezzlement case."

Immediately the smile drops from my face. Not this again.

"Cecilia, we've done everything we could. I thought we agreed to leave it alone and let Winston and your father handle it. Besides, Winston hired a private investigator. They've got it under control."

"I know, and I was, but I got curious and went back down to the archives-"

"Cecilia! What the hell? You need to stay out of there, it's way too dangerous, especially by yourself!"

"I know, I know-"

"You keep saying that but I don't think you do."

"Would you just let me finish!" Cecilia shouts. I pinch the bridge of my nose.

"Fine. What did you find?"

She huffs. "Anyway I went back down to the archives, just to check and make sure we didn't miss anything. As I was looking around, I found a pin."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "You found a pin," I repeat dryly. "And that helps us how?"

"It wasn't just some regular old pin! It was a lacrosse pin. And it had the initials G.W. engraved on the back."

Silence.

"Hello? Kennedy? Does that mean anything to you?"

My hands were shaking. I could barely hold the phone to my ear. "I'll call you back," I manage to choke out. Cecilia starts to say something but I hang up and collapse into a nearby chair just as my legs give out.

G.W. Gabriel Warren.

I didn't know what to do with this new information. My brain was scrambling trying to fit the pieces together. Nothing made sense. There was no way Gabriel had been the one who broke into the archives that day. I would have recognized his voice. But yet the real culprit had left behind an important clue. So that left one question.

Who would be carrying around Gabriel's lacrosse pin?

...

"Ugh, this is so frustrating. Anyone could be carrying around one of those pins!"

Vienna shoves another handful of mini pretzels into her mouth, then while chewing that scoops up more popcorn and tears off another strip of beef jerky. This is what she does when she's overly stressed. She binge eats.

Maybe I shouldn't have told her. But I couldn't just not tell her. I rushed over to her house to update her on everything as soon as I pulled myself together. It's now late evening, and we're no closing to figuring anything out than we were two hours ago.

I shake my head. "No, he wouldn't just give a pin to anyone. It has to be someone important to him."

"He gave you a pin."

"Yeah, when we were dating."

"Okay fine. But why are we sitting here wondering these useless things, when we could just ask Gabriel himself?"

"Too risky. What if he's involved somehow?"

Vienna scoffs. "You're kidding right? The guy is way too dumb to pull off something like this, even with help," she pursues her lips. "If only we could place a face to that voice. I just know I've heard it somewhere before."

"I know," I sigh. "Maybe we should just tell Winston what we've found out and let him and that private investigator handle it."

"Absolutely not!" Vienna bangs her fist against the kitchen table.

"Why not? Winston is paying him a lot of money for this." Plus the sooner the case is solved, the sooner Xavier can leave.

"Because I have a feeling we're so close," she uses her thumb and index finger to demonstrate how close we are. "We're just missing...something."

"Like what?" I ask frustrated. "This isn't Mystery Incorporated, we're not some ragtag gang of wannabe detectives, and this isn't some silly case about ghosts! This is real, and we need to let the authorities handle it."

Vienna's eyes pinch and her brows furrow deeply, indicating she's deep in thought. "You said everyone within the accounting and finance department was fired, correct?"

I sigh. Clearly everything I said passed through one ear and out the other. "Yeah."

"And those are the only people who would have access to company funds right?"

I have no idea where she's going with this. "Um, I assume so."

"But what if you're wrong?"

"What do you mean if I'm wrong?"

"What if those people aren't the only ones who can access money?"

Now I'm confused. "Well if not them, then who else? I'm pretty sure sensitive information like that wouldn't just be left out in the open for any random employee to see."

Vienna stands and starts pacing around the room. "You're right, but that wouldn't stop someone who's really determined to find a way."

"So what are you trying to say? That someone managed to get unauthorized access to the company accounts and somehow embezzled almost a quarter million?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to say. And you know what else?"

"What?"

"Because it's someone in another department, that means they weren't fired."

Slowly it starts to click. "So that means-"

"The rat is in the building!" Vienna exclaims. "That little sneaky bastard managed to wiggle right under our noses! All we have to do is find out the owner of Gabriel's pin-"

"-and we have our thief," I finish in shock then stand up. "We have to tell Winston!"

"No, what we need is a current record of every single employee within the company along with what department they work in. Then we can narrow down our list to possible suspects."

The both of us look at each other. "The company archives!" We shout.

"Private investigator my ass," Vienna scoffs. "Mhmm, maybe I could pursue a career in detective work behind my parents back-"

I'm already grabbing my phone and shoving my shoes back on. "Come on!" I get a text message notification and check the screen.

Cecilia: meet at archives ASAP

I hurry Vienna along as she shoves in one last mouthful of popcorn. "Come on. Cecilia's waiting for us."

...

The office for King Hotels looks much more menacing at night, even with the hustle and bustle of the city around it. The tall building looms before us, like a dark glass prison. I check the time. It's almost nine pm.

"Maybe we should come back tomorrow in the daylight," I bite my lip.

"Don't be a pussy," Vienna cracks her knuckles. "We're so close to solving this. Come on."

She starts walking toward the entrance and after taking several deep breaths I follow her. The lobby is empty. Everyone must have already gone home. I wonder if Winston is still here. I hope not. He already works enough as it is, he needs to rest more.

Vienna puts a finger to her lips and gestures for me to follow her as we sneak through the building. We only narrowly avoid bumping into the night janitorial staff. At the basement entrance, I notice the door leading down is partially open. I frown.

"Hey wait," I grab Vienna's shoulder as a feeling of unease starts to fill me. "Why is the door already open?"

Vienna rolls her eyes like I'm stupid. "Because Cecilia is already here."

"Yeah but why would she leave the door open?"

"Obviously so we can get in! What's wrong with you? Do you want to figure this out or not?"

"I do, but something doesn't feel right," I fish my phone from my pocket. Vienna crosses her arms.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling Cecilia."

"Why would you do that when she's already down there!"

"I just want to make sure," I hit call and the phone rings and rings before she finally picks up. I put the phone on speaker so Vienna can hear.

"Hey," she answers. Is it me or does her voice sound slightly off? She clears her throat. "Are you guys here yet?"

"Yeah we're at the basement door...did you leave it open?"

"Um yeah, so you guys can come down," Vienna shoots me an 'I told you so' look.

"Okay. Why did you wanna meet again?"

"I found something else that might help. Hurry down so I can show you."

"Alright we're coming."

She quickly hangs up and I pocket my phone. "See?" Vienna rolls her eyes. "You're being paranoid for no reason."

She starts heading down and I follow, even though that uneasy feeling hasn't left me. In fact the further we get down, the more it intensifies, and when the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, I know something is wrong.

"I'm calling Winston," I whip out my phone again and press his name in my contacts. Just as I reach the bottom step and the line is ringing, I bump into Vienna who suddenly just stopped.

"V what the hell-"

My blood turns to ice as my eyes land on Cecilia's unconscious body laying on the ground. A figure steps out of the shadows and cocks his gun, aiming it right as us.

"No one move."

...