Chased by Piper Lawson Page A

better. What do you have?”
    “Macroeconomics seminar and principles of civil law. This is better, trust me.” Her eyes sparkle. “What’s your favourite color?”
    “Until last week it was green,” I say solemnly. “Now it’s your eyes.”
    “Seriously?” Ariel looks at me like no one’s ever complimented her.
    “Scout’s honor.” I lean over to drop a kiss on her lips.
    She twists away, laughing. “Were you a Scout?”
    “No, it’s my turn.” I grin. “Why did your parents name you Ariel?”
    She pauses, thoughtful. “It wasn’t after the Disney princess. It was after the poem. Sylvia Plath.”
    “It was about a girl named Ariel?” I push her hair back behind her ear. It slips through my fingers like silk.
    “Actually, there’s some argument about what the poem’s about. But a lot of people think it’s about her horse.”
    My hand freezes. “So you’re named after a horse. That takes the magic out of it.”
    Laughter bubbles up from her. “I might be named after a horse. Get over it, Chase. I have real questions. What happened with your dad?”
    Her words catch me off-guard. Tension forms in my chest. “You mean what happened that sent me to jail.”
    Ariel nods slowly.
    “I’m trying to figure out whether to tell you the short version or the long version.”
    “I’m ready for the long version, Chase,” she says quietly.
    “Yeah but I’m not sure I am.” I take a breath. “He hurt Drew. It never happened when I was in the house. I made sure of it. But I moved out when I came to school. I found out it’d started. That’s when I took it out on him. I wound up with six months because of the severity, plus counselling and probation.  Tor helped get me back into school. Staying in class is one of the terms of my probation.”
    “Where’s your dad now?”
    “Jail. Fortunately hitting his sons wasn’t the only bad thing he did. It caught up to him.” It makes me think of something else. “You said you were getting threats.”
    Ariel rolls onto her back, looks up at the ceiling. “It’s not a big deal, Chase. I overreacted last night.”
    “Show me the emails.” I think she’s going to push back but I bend my head to press another kiss to her frowning lips. “Please.”
    Her face softens. “OK.”
    I get my computer off the desk and hand it to her.
    “They’re all from different addresses,” she explains as she logs herself in. “I tried to have them traced, but it didn’t work. They all were sent from public computers.”
    She clicks on one of them.
    You stupid bitch. You don’t deserve to live. Another. You’re going to pay for what you did.
    My skin crawls as I read them. I’d never imagined it would be this bad. “Public computers where?” I push off the bed, pull on shorts and stand.
    “In the summer it was all over. But most of them have stopped. This week there’ve been three from this area. Probably messed up film buffs that saw the anniversary special on my mother. Chase, what are you doing?”
    “Huh?” I stop, turn toward her.
    “You’re pacing. It’s freaking me out.”
    I force myself to stand still.
    She goes on. “Dad doesn’t want me to take the internship because he thinks it’ll draw more attention. As if just being in the industry makes me a lightning rod or something.”
    I turn it over. “He’s right, Ariel. You can’t be in the limelight more if you’re already getting threats. It’s tempting fate.”
    Her eyes search mine. “That’s the last thing I’d expect you to say.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “This whole week you’ve been teaching me to be stronger. Tougher. You’ve made me braver, Chase,” she accuses. “You can’t take that back.”
    I shake my head dismissively. “That’s running. Running might save you but it also won’t get you killed.”
    “You’re saying you shouldn’t fight for what you believe in?”
    “I’m saying some things are too precious to risk.”
    She stands up, reaching for her clothes.