It was alarming to see a plan form so quickly between the girls. I had very little to contribute to the discussion. Instead, I took to my task as was directed and thought upon the insanity of it all.

Throughout the strategizing, Charlie stole glances at Jenny. The admiration was still there. Dare I say, the love, and I felt more than ever how wrong I'd been to come between them. Their feelings weren't the same as mine and Beth's. It was quiet care, but no less real or valid than what was in my heart. In fact, I'd have gone as far as to say that it was a preferable way of feeling for another person when I considered the lengths that I would go to for Beth to be happy. I didn't know that Charlie would encourage Jenny to run across Rome haphazardly just to put her mind at ease.

'Will you've been here before, right?' Beth had asked me.

'Yeah. We have a house out here,' I replied. There was no reason to lie about anything. I'd committed to helping her the moment she'd taken that phone call. Sure, I'd rather we had the police involved for our safety, but I was in too deep to stop her now. All I could do was keep her safe during whatever followed.

'Of course you do,' she teased, not appreciating the dangers ahead. 'Look, I don't think Lisa and Gideon have gone as far as everyone thinks. Chrissy, where's the note?'

That my sister was eager to get in on the plan was a surprise. Mandy had always been level-headed and I'd admired that about her. Anything to do with Gideon made her crazy and, in a way, I supposed that this was her way of making up for her part in it. I understood that level of guilt. I, too, felt that if I'd been more open then all of this might have been avoided. Gideon would have been removed from the school, possibly forbidden from working for any school ever again, no one would have been in danger. Being reckless wasn't going to change the fact that he had taken Lisa along for the ride. Getting herself hurt wouldn't undo any of the damage our family had caused.

Yet, it felt like it was karma.

That we deserved to be put at risk because that was what we'd done to everyone else.

No, Mandy didn't deserve that. She'd been as much a victim as every other woman Gideon had preyed upon. I just didn't know how to stand up and tell her that when surrounded by people who seemed convinced that this was the best idea.

Beth handed me a red pen and asked, 'Gideon's a gambler, right?'

'Among other things.'

'Bars and casinos.'

'What makes you think I'd know where to find that kind of thing?' I asked.

'You're related to Freddie, aren't you? Don't act like you've never had a night out in this city. I wouldn't be surprised if your uncle owns some real estate here, too.'

'Fine...'

If she had noticed my reluctance, she didn't say anything. I bent over the map and circled any areas I knew to be popular with people like Gideon. He'd go for dark, noisy places. Anywhere that made it difficult to identify people by sight or sound. He was a habitual creature and liked to operate in seedy areas, where women were wealthy, drunk, and vulnerable. It was unlikely that he'd go for somewhere low-end. Clubs with poorer clientele were fine for one-night-stands, but he wasn't about to impress Lisa with those, and he certainly wouldn't catch the eye of someone whose bank account he might be able to raid.

While I worked, the girls speculated as to what might have already happened in Lisa's absence, immediately considering the worst-case scenarios.

Eventually, Jenny was the voice of reason and asked, 'Are you sure we should go on our own? You're the one who said we should bring in our parents. Maybe we should tell them the plan?'

If I wasn't certain that Charlie would punch me, I'd have kissed her. Aside from anything else, having more people to search for her would make our lives easier. We were one small group of students and couldn't cover all of Rome in one night. Not to mention that some of us had just gotten off a plane. Sure, it was a short flight from England to Italy, but it didn't make us any less tired. We weren't firing on all cylinders and that could hamper our efforts.

'They wouldn't listen,' Beth asserted stubbornly. 'It was the right thing to tell them what had happened, but they've already said we can't leave the hotel. Don't get me wrong, we'll let them know that we're helping. It's just that we'll have to do that after we've escaped.'

Someone knocked at the door and Beth folded over the map to conceal the scribbles. We all had the same thought; the teachers and parents had figured out that we were up to something and had come to stop us. Deep down, I truly hoped that this was the case. I'd only just realised that Beth might feel something for me. That my love wasn't unrequited as I'd feared. Now, she wanted to run out into the night and risk her life and my fragile heart. If Gideon was willing to bring Lisa to harm, then he wouldn't give Beth a second thought. She had no money, nothing at all to interest him save her body, and Gideon had so few morals left that I didn't doubt that he'd delight in breaking her.

When the door opened to reveal Georgia with almost every student in tow, I realised how passionately they felt about banding together to save one of their own.

It was admirable, if dangerous.

I was no more convinced of the sanity of the plan just because of the increase in numbers, even if it did mean we'd make better time in our search. Still, after spending years in one another's company, it was inevitable that there would be a sense of duty and comradery there which might not exist in a normal day-school setting. These girls had grown up together, had shared meals, tears, arguments, first crushes and heartbreaks.

They were a family of sorts, and those weren't bonds that were easily broken.

'Either you let us help, or we'll go out on our own,' Georgia declared in the face of Beth's lies regarding our plot. 'We're friends and classmates. We want to find her just as much as you do.'

Beth hesitated. At least she cared about the wellbeing of her friends even if she was blasé about her own. 'All right. But we're being calm and organised about this. Got that?'

Organised, yes. Calm? Nothing about Beth had been calm since Jenny had called her that morning. I'd never seen anyone less calm in all my life. She'd been shocked, panicked, terrified, and determined, but not calm.

There was, however, a strategic precision in the way she divided up groups and tasks. All the girls had one male student with them, they were large enough in number that they wouldn't be at risk should they be approached by strangers, and had been given well-lit, public areas to search. The reputable parts of the city belonged to the people that Beth cared about and I could see that this was a gesture on her part. As much as she loved Lisa and wanted to find her, she didn't want to force anyone else into danger for events that, I assumed, she considered to be partially her fault.

'Don't go out through the lobby,' she instructed when the plans were fully briefed. 'They'll be expecting that. We're going to have to stagger it so we don't draw attention to ourselves. There should be an exit through the kitchen, and another through the underground car park. Don't go through fire exits because that'll set off alarms. Any questions?'

'What do we do if we find her?' Georgia asked.

'If she's alone, convince her to come back to the hotel. If she won't come willingly, then drag her back if needed. If she's with Gideon, then don't approach them. Just keep them in your sights and text back a location. We'll let her parents know and they can intervene. Agreed?'

Relief flooded through me.

Don't approach them.

Immediately, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

All along I'd feared that Beth would run in with her fists flying as she seemed to want to do, screaming and kicking at Gideon until she had punished him for his actions. I should have given her more credit. Of course, she wasn't willing to engage with a grown, dangerous man in a strange city in the name of justice. She just wanted to locate them and help to resolve things more swiftly than they might otherwise.

'Jen',' Beth said once the other students had been dismissed to begin their searches, 'go with Charlie, Chrissy, and Meg.'

'What about you?'

'I'll go with Will and Amanda, and Chantelle if she's up for helping us.'

'No,' Chantelle said. 'I'm staying here.'

'Big surprise,' Beth muttered.

Chantelle bristled and fixed Beth with a glare. 'Because if our parents knock, one of us should be here to cover for everyone else.'

'That's... actually a good idea. Okay, you stay.'

Well, it was one less person for me to worry about. I didn't especially like Chantelle, but she was still Charlie's sister and had been in my life for a long time. I no more wanted her in danger than I did Beth or any of the other girls I'd come to know and like as classmates.

Charlie's group left ahead of us. If they were stopped, they could easily explain themselves away as wanting to get some air, grab some food, or anything innocuous. They all came across as the innocent sort. The kids who would never think to break the rules. Beth was another matter. She seemed to take pride in going against express instruction. While in school, she'd made it her mission to stand out from the other girls, to remind them and herself that she wasn't like them to the point that it seemed that she was lying to everyone. That she had to make this statement because she was afraid that she was, in truth, exactly like everyone else.

As if that was somehow a bad thing.

This was no different. She could have blended in with any one of the groups and snuck out into the night with them. Instead, she thought that she would stand out as different from them, that her presence alone would be enough to raise alarm bells and bring the plan to a halt. I hoped that one day she'd realise that she wasn't some black sheep of a figure amongst the students.

That she was entirely their equal, and that she should be proud of that.

'Ready?' I asked apprehensively.

I wasn't ready, but the sooner we began, the sooner Beth might see that this was a fruitless exercise. The moment we failed was the moment that she'd return to the safety of the hotel and allow the police to do their jobs without our intervention.

'I am,' Amanda confirmed. 'Beth?'

'To get into trouble? Always.'