Chapter 5

Spencer kept looking at me like she could see right through me and it was making me nervous. It had been a week since I had talked to Gabe and he still hadn't call me. He had texted me once to let me know that he was working on what I had asked him, but he needed a bit more time. I had actually kept my promise and tried not to do anything dangerous, but my friends were starting to think something was wrong. I had been the more interested and finding out who A was and now all of a sudden I had stop investigating. That had to raise some suspicion.

Aria had been trying to talk to Mike, but he was not talking to her, he had refused to say anything about Mona, Cece, or Wren. Aria was losing patience and she was at the end of her rope. I hoped that Gabe would have found something by now.

"He just stares at me like he doesn't know who I am" Aria's voice snapped me out of thoughts "I have no idea what to do or how to talk to him"

"Did you show him the pictures?" Emily asked, we all wanted to know the answer to that "or did you just asked him why he was meeting with Wren and Cece?"

"I didn't show him the pictures, I couldn't" Aria answered looking at me "Hanna kept the pictures"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that showing him the pictures would help" I told them, there was no way I was letting Aria take the pictures to her house. Someone could steal them, or even Mike and I didn't want him incriminating himself because he was being an idiot "The pictures are in a safe place, that way there is no danger of anyone finding them and Mike getting in trouble"

"Since when is anyplace safe from A?" Spencer asked me "We have tried before and she always finds whatever it is that we are trying to hide"

"Believe me, she won't find this" nobody knew about the safe place and I wasn't telling anyone "I will keep them until we find why was Mike meeting with them"

"I don't like this, we are always keeping secrets and it always ends bad for us" Emily stated the obvious, none of us liked to keep secrets, but most of the time we didn't have a choice "My mom doesn't trust me anymore, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells all the time"

"I know what you mean" Spencer sighed "my parents treat me like a criminal and I'm not even going to mention Melisa"

"I thought things with her were better, now that you knew about what she did" I said knowing that the relationship between Spencer and Melisa was a lot better than it had been six months ago "Did something else happened?"

"No, but is really hard to look my sister in the face when I'm keeping secrets about her boyfriend" she answered and even if I didn't like it I had to agree with her on this "I have no idea what to say to her half the time. Is a good thing that our conversations are only by phone, I have no idea what I would do if I had to talk to her in person"

"Weren't your parents thinking about sending you to England" Aria asked.

"Yes, but that's not a sure thing yet" Spencer had been trying to make things better since she didn't have a lot of chances getting into a good college thanks to A "My mom is still working in getting me an interview"

My phone beeped and I looked at my friends before looking at it. Their attention was on me and I had to work very hard not to show any emotion. It was a text from Gabe and for once I was happy and at the same time nervous. I couldn't say it was A because then I would have to show the girls and I couldn't say it was Gabe because then I would be in the inquisition.

'I have some information that we should look into. If you don't want to meet at my apartment find out a place we can meet and talk without anybody overhearing us'

Finally, of course I didn't say that out loud, but I couldn't help letting out a sigh. This was the first clue in a long time and I was dying to know what it was. I typed back my answer to him.

'I think my house will be safe because my mom is supposed to be out with Ted, but I'll talk to her to make sure and then I'll let you know'

I didn't have to wait for the answer for very long. A second after I sent the text my phone beeped again.

'OK'

I put my phone back in my purse and looked up to see the girls looking at me expectantly. If I didn't say anything it would be weird and make them suspicious. So I smiled at them.

"It was my mom, she wants me to pick up something for dinner" I was really hoping they would believe me "she is going out with Ted tonight"

"Then, do you want to meet at my house?" Spencer asked and I resisted the urge to flinch "we have to plan what we plan to do about Mike. We need to make sure we follow him next time he meets with Wren and Cece"

"I would love to, but I have a lot of things to do" they all looked at me like I was high or something. Damn it, this was harder than I thought it was going to be "I have to prepare some stuff for the college financial aid office. Now that my dad is not going to help me pay for college I have to apply to every scholarship and loan program that I can find"

"You are ditching a chance to figure out what's going on with my brother for financial aid applications?" Aria asked like she couldn't believe it.

"I'm sorry, but this is important" I felt bad, really bad for lying to them, but I had to figure out what was happening before any of us could get any deeper into this A trap "This school is my only chance to get out of Rosewood and I'm not about to give that up"

I really felt bad about lying to them, but I didn't want them involved in this, they were already in enough trouble as it was and if this went down the toilet there was no way I was taken them down with me.

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I had to admit that after having seen Wilden's apartment Gabe's was not what I had been expecting. It was super clean and it didn't have any pictures or any personal stuff. He was standing in front of the fridge starting at something inside.

"Are you one of those clean freaks?" the question was mostly out of nervousness than anything else. I couldn't help but flush when he turned around and raised an eyebrow, an amuse look on his face. I wanted to smack myself "Is just that your apartment is so clean and you are a guy"

"I'm a guy" the way he said sounded like he was making fun of me and I just wanted to stick something in my mouth to make myself stop talking. He shook his head "Does the fact that I'm a guy mean that I have to be pig?"

"No" I needed a topic change, fast "What did you wanted to show me?"

He walked to the desk against the wall and opened one of the drawers. He moved some stuff around and then pulled out an old fashioned tape recorder. He sat down beside me and put the tape on the coffee table.

"What's that?" I asked him.

"This is one of the tapes found in Mona's room" he pressed the eject button and there was a cassette inside the recorder "it was very well hidden"

"Did the police found this?" that also didn't make sense. If the police had found this why did he have it? "Why do you have it?"

"The police didn't found the tape, but this can prove Allison's innocence"

"What? How did you get this?" he pressed the play button and Mona's voice filled the room. She was talking someone else, but it was hard to recognize the voice. He pressed pause and looked back at me "Who is she talking to?"

"She was talking to A, or one of her minions"

"How can this prove that Allison is innocent?"

"Whoever Mona was talking to was talking to her about how the police was investigating Allison for her death" my eyes widened "They talked for a while and then the conversation ended abruptly"

"What I don't get is how this got back to Mona's room?" it didn't make any sense that she had just went back to her house "let's say that she had a reason to go back to her house. How did she get in without anybody seeing her? After her supposed death the police were all over her house, especially in her room. Why would she leave this?"

"I don't know and I have no idea why she went back to her house or even if she was the one that went back?" I reached for the tape, but he grabbed my hand before I could reach it "Cece was the one who had this"

"Then how do you know she got it from Mona's room?"

"She told me" my gaze snapped back to his face. He took a deep breath "I supposedly still working for A"

"What do you mean you are supposedly working for A?" I pulled my hand away from his and stood up. I needed space "How can you be working for A? After all that bitch has done to my friends and me? After all the torture we been through"

"Hanna, I'm not really working for A" he stood up and moved until he was standing in front of me so I was forced to look at him "I need to make A think that I'm working, for her or him. That's the only way to find out the truth"

"That's even worse that really working for A" he was insane and I wanted to kill him "Do you know what A does to people that double cross her? Well, let me tell you that is not fun. I can't believe that being a cop you would do something so stupid. You could end up dead like Wilden"

"I'm not going to make those same mistakes" he grabbed my shoulders before I could turn around and I tried to stop the tingling that spread from where he was touching me "but is nice to know you worry about me"

"I worry about everybody and you are helping me so it would be bad if all of a sudden you disappeared" and maybe if I kept telling that to myself I would actually start believing it "I need that tape. That's the only way we can prove that Ali is innocent"

"I know but you can't take to the police"

"What? Why not?" was he insane? This was what all the investigating was about "Of course I can. I need to"

"No Hanna" his hands tightened a bit on my shoulders, it wasn't painful, but the fact that his face was now really close to mine "If you take this to the police you would have to explain how you got it and believe me when I tell you that they wouldn't believe it"

"That's not…."

"Hanna" now I could feel his breath on my face "no, you are not taking this to the police and that's my final decision. I'm not letting you put yourself in A's spotlight. You are not putting yourself in danger any more than you already have"

If I leaned just a bit then we would be kissing. This was dangerous, he had lied to me once and there was no proof that he wouldn't do it again. I seriously needed to get a grip. I leaked my lips and saw his eyes follow the movement. He leaned forward and I almost fell on my ass trying to get away from him.

"I will find a way to cut some of the tape out. Some of the stuff there could be used to incriminate you and your friends" he cleared his throat "Once I have doctored the tape I will figure a way to make sure the police gets it"

All I could do was nod. I really needed to get away from him, at least for a little bit. Next time we were going to meet in a more neutral place, where I didn't have to be alone with him and be afraid of doing something stupid, like jumping him. What the hell was wrong with me?