I take a step backward and my heart starts to pound. “Pippa thought highly of him,” I say in a hushed voice.

“Only another piece of evidence to prove my point,” Layla says. “Think about it—this guard had no choice but to report you the night of the murder because you saw him. But what if you were supposed to see him?” Layla says. “What if he was trying to get a message to you that night, only you closed the door too quickly?”

I fidget with my hands. “Oh god…you’re saying that he wasn’t threatening me at all, he was warning me? Keeping track of me?”

“Protecting you,” she says. “And if that’s the case, which I very much think it is, then there is every likelihood that’s how he died.” It’s as if her words have punched me in the gut.

“You’re saying someone may have been coming to slit my throat?” I can’t wrap my mind around the idea that it’s extremely possible that guard died for me. I feel sick and sad all at once.

“Yes,” Layla says, and by her heavy tone I can tell she feels the gravity of it, too.

Ash rubs his forehead.

“But why?” I ask. “Why would the guard decide to protect me?”

“I think she’s suggesting that he was likely connected to one of the faculty members, otherwise he would never have taken the risk to speak to you. That someone told him to look out for you,” Ash says, and I can hear the worry in his voice. “Which means whatever pieces we’re missing in this whole mess, whatever is going on here, probably goes beyond the students.”

For a moment we just look at one another, the heaviness of that conclusion sinking in.

“I was hanging out with Stefano the night before he was murdered,” Layla says, and her voice is soft. “He thought the Lions’ network in the school was expanding, that soon there would be no safe place for the Bears or any Family that opposed the Lions. Well…maybe this is a good thing. Maybe it means that someone, some faculty member, has decided to fight back against the Lions through the school.” I can hear the approval in her voice.

“You were hanging out with Stefano the night before his murder?” Ash says in such a strange way that I look at him. “And he was giving you intel about the Lions?”

“Yes, and yes,” she answers, and even though it’s dim, I can tell she’s blushing. She avoids looking at her brother directly.

As I stare at her, the dots suddenly connect. Holy shit. If Layla was hanging out with Stefano at night, it must have been after I went to sleep, because she was in her room at curfew. That means she snuck out. And they would have to have been close if he was telling her secrets, much closer than Ash realized. Was Layla dating Stefano? By the look on Ash’s face, he’s thinking the same thing.