By the look on his face I can tell that he’s used to girls admiring him and that this whole situation just became more interesting. And I know this, because I would do the exact same thing. In some ways Ash is more similar to me than I would like to admit, and I want to tell him to step off my personality. I’m supposed to be a snowflake.

“I want to propose something to you,” he says, turning serious as he sits down on my bed.

I give him a wary look. “The last time you proposed something we wound up sneaking outside on the same night someone got murdered.”

“That’s exactly my point,” he says. “As of right now, I don’t know who killed Stefano or why.” I can feel him reading me. “But I do wonder about the timing. Strategia are never random, and I would bet anything that you were meant to find Stefano.”

My stomach drops like I’m on a bad carnival ride. “You think someone is setting me up?”

“Or me. I don’t know. I’m just saying that we can’t ignore that possibility.” He looks way less put out about the whole thing than I am feeling.

I brush some flyaway hairs back from my forehead. It’s suddenly hard to breathe. “I’m stuck here,” I barely whisper, thinking back on Blackwood’s refusal to contact my dad.

“Pardon?”

I rub my hands over my face. “Nothing. What are you proposing?”

“That we find Stefano’s murderer,” he says.

My heart thuds. I’ve always thought of myself as a thrill-seeker, but in less than one week here that’s been proven wrong in every conceivable way. “You want to actively seek out the person who stabbed another person with a knife and possibly has reason to set me up for it?” I pace back and forth. “Can’t we just, I don’t know, let Blackwood do her investigation? If she’s half as good as you are at reading people, don’t you think she’ll be able to sort it out? If we just keep our heads down and don’t break any more rules, as difficult as that might be for you, don’t you think it will get resolved?”

Ash’s expression turns hard. “I know you use your open and seemingly trusting demeanor to disarm people, but if you actually believe half of what you just said, you’ll without a doubt take the fall for this.”