“Or you can just stand there, I guess,” Owen said, unruffled. “So you’re saying Jonathan just showed up and they drove off and left you here. With me.”

“She didn’t leave me here.”

“And yet here you are. Instead of her.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Tell me, how do you think Jonathan knew to be here? Are you suggesting I told him?”

She was surprised that she could be surprised today. She’d just taken it as a given that Owen would jump up and follow her out on the rescue mission. How did John know? “Maybe he followed you,” she said.

“Maybe he didn’t need to.”

“Marcelline didn’t tell him.”

“And you know that how?”

“She wouldn’t.”

“You’re a mind reader, too?”

“No, she just wouldn’t and she couldn’t have.”

“She didn’t make any calls? Send any texts? You were with her every second?”

Of course Marcelline could have. Carly knew very well that they hadn’t been together every second. She searched for the words to explain why she knew it hadn’t happened that way. Owen, helpfully, gave them to her:

“They’re playing you.”

Her spine pulled her straight to her full height. She looked down on this man. Huge. Dismissive. And completely wrong. She leaned in, her indignation burning up through her without catching on any checkpoints of embarrassment. “I don’t get played.”

He pulled back just a little. She marked it with a soaring recognition that it had been automatic for him. He couldn’t help it. He saw her.

The victory gave her the okay to sit down. Her legs were tired. This day was hard. She pulled out the chair and dropped into it. A girl with a ponytail under a logoed ball cap put a drink in front of her, and Carly took a long pull of the bright, cold fizz.

“You’re a regal little thing, aren’t you?” Owen said.

“She didn’t set this up.”

“You do realize I’ve been in this position before with the two of them?”

“I don’t know what happened before.”

“Right. You didn’t even know your times tables back then.”

“She didn’t do this. You have to help her.”

“But I don’t.”

“She’s a good person. It’s your fault if something happens.”

“I can promise that you’re testing the wrong string if you think I’m worried about it being my fault.”

“You don’t care if something bad happens to her?”

Owen blinked at her.

Carly raised her eyebrows to answer him.

He cleared his throat. “Everything about this looks like an ambush. They wind you up and send you in here. I bet you a million dollars we get a message soon telling us where to meet them.”