Chapter 3

"I can't believe he is been in the Sates for weeks and having meetings with wanna be criminals" Spencer said annoyed. She looked at Aria when she said the wanna be criminals thing and looked apologetic "I'm sorry, I wasn't talking about your brother"

"We still have to consider the possibility" Emily said and then took a step back when we turned to her. She help up her hands "well I'm just saying that we should find out what he was doing having secret meetings with a sociopath"

"Nice one Em" Aria said before taking her jacket "Don't worry I'll have a talk with my brother, not need to throw him in jail yet"

Aria walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her. I kind of understood where she was coming from, it was like the time I had suspected my mom of having murder Wilden and it hadn't been easy. But Emily was also right, we needed to find out why Mike was having secret meetings with Wren and why he was acting so weird. We all knew that he had thought that Monna was alive, but he didn't suspect that anymore.

"I can't believe none of us knew Wren was back in the country" Emily said.

"I don't think we were supposed to find out" said Spencer while looking at the plane tickets "He came back from England a week before Cece returned.

"This is just great" Emily said sarcastically "like we didn't have enough problems trying to help Alison, now we have to worry about Mike, Wren and Cece"

"I think Ali knew" they looked at me, so I told them my theory "The day of the ice ball Ali disappeared. We never saw her again that night. There is no way Cece came back without Ali knowing"

"Why would she hide it?" asked Spencer "I get why she wouldn't tell us before, since we were all against her, but now that we are trying to help her. Why wouldn't she tell us about Cece?"

"Because she still doesn't trust us" Emily answered like it was most obvious thing in the world "After all we are the ones that helped put her in jail. She is not going to just give us all the information for free"

"I for once don't plan to sit around and wait" I stood up from the bed and grabbed my purse "I will leave, all this can wait until tomorrow morning. I think my brain is shutting down from all the puzzles and the thinking. I'll see you guys later"

I waited until I was out of Spencer's house before I pulled out my phone. I knew that my mother was not going to be home. She had texted me earlier to let me know that she would be spending the night with Ted.

I needed to find out why Mike was meeting with Wren and what was going on with red coat. I knew that if we didn't find out soon Aria would try to do things her own way and I didn't want her to have a fight with her brother based on suspicions. I knew that she was scared and didn't want to believe that he could be one of the bad guys. After all she had been wrong about him once before, and I knew for a fact she didn't want to make the same mistake again.

'Fine, you get one chance. Meet me at my house ASAP, we need to talk.'

I pressed send before I could regret it. He was the only one that could give me the answers I needed.

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I kept pacing back and forth, I couldn't stop myself, the not knowing was killing me. I now knew the reason why I liked all those mystery novels so much. I had always liked mystery, but just so I could solve it and when I couldn't it drove me insane and made me obsess over it.

The knock on the kitchen door made me jump and turned around, even thought I knew who it was. I walked closer and opened the door. He walked in without waiting for an invitation, but that was alright. I knew that we weren't supposed to be seen together.

"I'm here like you asked" he smiled and it kind of knocked my breath out of my chest and I scolded myself for it. Bad person, that's all I had to think about, he was a bad person "Did you find the gift I left you?"

"You know I did, otherwise you wouldn't be here right now"

"That's what I like about you, so much than just a pretty face" He moved toward the table and looked at the picture of Mike and Wren "I'm guessing you want to ask about your friend's little brother"

"Why was he there? I know that Wren is not the nicest person, or an honest one" I moved closer to him "Why was Mike meeting Wren? What could Wren have that could interest Mike?"

"Information about his missing, dead girlfriend" that stopped me right in my tracks "you have no idea what someone will do if you give them a little bit of hope, or tell them what they want to hear"

"Are you saying that Mike still believes that Monna is alive?" I realized what I said and resisted the urge to cover my mouth. I was sure that if we had found out about Monna's plan so had he "I thought he finally realized she was dead, that he had given up"

"Yeah, that's what he wanted you guys to think"

"What did Wren had that made him believe otherwise?" He didn't say anything and after a minute I let out a sigh "Please Gabe, I need to know why Mike is helping Wren"

To be honest the name slipped out and I didn't even noticed until Gabe turned around. I could see the surprised on his face and I couldn't help the blush that covered mine. I hadn't even been thinking before I said it and I was probably reading too much into his reaction. There was no way he cared what the hell I called him, but after a minute of looking at me he finally answered.

"To be honest I don't think Mike is helping him, yet" ok that sounded good, at least there was still hope "As you can see the pictures were taken from far away and it not like I could hear a lot of the conversation. They were arguing and none of them looked happy. I think that Mike won't do anything until Wren shows him some kind of proof that Monna is alive"

"Can he do that? Show him proof that Monna is alive?" I couldn't help but hope that for once Wren was right. I would give anything if they could bring Monna back "how can we be sure?"

"We can't and I'm not saying that Monna is alive, but Mike seems to think she is" he finally let go of the picture and gave me his full attention "I don't know what Wren told him, but whatever it was Mike didn't do it because Wren called Cece for help"

"So that's why Cece came back?"

"No, by the time Wren called her she was already here" he crossed his arms over his chest and I my gaze couldn't help get stuck there until his next words snapped me out of it "Cece came back because Alison called her and asked for her help"

"Her help with what?"

"With you guys" that kind of creeped me out. Gabriel looked at me like he was waiting for something and after a minute he confirmed my suspicions "Cece was supposed to help Alison deal with you guys"