Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
I stared into his eyes. It was crazy to imagine that he’d thought of this situation—but I wanted to believe him, and so I did.
“Okay. I’ll let you do what you need to do.”
“Thank you.” He kissed me softly. “I have to go. Head inside and pretend like nothing’s different.”
“Nothing and everything’s different.”
“Exactly.” He smiled, kissed my cheek. “Now go. I’ll see you soon.”
So I went. My parents ignored me when I headed into my room and curled up in my bed. I wanted to go watch Jarrod play football, but I didn’t have tickets, and I felt sleep dragging at every inch of me.
Detective Bates was getting closer. She’d find us eventually, and then what? Jarrod claimed he has a plan—but how could he possibly beat the police?
I closed my eyes and tried to push it from my mind, but only returned to that trailer again and again and the night I spent with him, the night I owed him, and all the nights I wanted to give him willingly and for nothing.
27
Jarrod
The campus was buzzing with rumors.
Detective Bates wasn’t joking. She stormed Blackwoods like a banshee, cornering everyone I’d ever spoken to and grilling them about my life, my association with Cora, and all my personal bad habits.
I handled the attention. I was used to this sort of shit from being a Horseman. You didn’t get to the top of the social hierarchy at a place like Blackwoods without enduring a lot of gossip and lies.
But Cora had never been the center of attention, and I could tell it wore on her. People whispered, said terrible things—that she was fucking me for attention, that she was whoring herself out to the whole football team, that she killed Dr. Silver in some sick and twisted sex act (which nobody believed because it was the most outlandish but it was weirdly the closest to the truth). I saw the way she suffered, how she hurried from class to class with her head down, with Robyn by her side warding off the evil stares of everyone they passed, and I could do nothing.
If I got involved, it would only make things worse.
“I know you want to help her, but you can’t,” Calvin said a few days after everything started in earnest. It was a chilly Thursday, a brisk fall afternoon. “If you start changing your patterns, it’ll look suspicious.”
“I know that.” I watched Cora from across the quad as she scurried to the library, staring at the ground. “But these vultures—” A group of girls walked nearby, giggling and staring at me. I gestured at them dismissively. “They’ll feast on Cora’s bleeding carcass.”
“And you still can’t help her. Not right now anyway.”
I paced back and forth like a caged lion. I wasn’t lying to Cora when I said I had a plan, but it was slow to unfold. My head spun with different scenarios, each one worse than the last.
I had to rush things. There was no other choice.
“Is there a way to send the cops an anonymous tip?”
“I’m sure there’s a number you can call.” Calvin eyed me warily. “What are you going to do?”
“Find it for me if you can, and if you can’t, I need your connections again.”
“You know you’re pushing my good will.”
“I’m aware of that.” I glared at him. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“You know what I want.”
Robyn. My cousin. I looked away.
“I need them to search my uncle’s office. Not the one at home, but the one at work.”
Calvin ran a hand through his hair and frowned at me. “What will they find if they do that?”
“Can you just make it happen?”
“I’ll try.”
I felt bad pushing him into helping, but I needed his connections. We hadn’t all been born absurdly wealthy.
“Des and Addler are getting suspicious,” I said, not looking at Calvin. “Des asked me if I needed anything. And Addler said he knew a good lawyer that’d take my case if I wanted.”
“They mean well. Don’t tell them anything.”
“I won’t. Goddamn detective. She’s not going to learn anything interviewing all these people.”
“She’s doing it to flush you out.”
“I know.” I groaned and stretched my back. “She’s going to find some things out though. About my fighting.”
“You’ll look violent. It’ll be another strike against you.”
“Not much I can do about it now.”
“Don’t worry. You’ve always been a troubled youth.” He gave me a tight, lopsided smile, then gestured with his head. “Come on, let’s get to class. I hate the way everyone’s staring.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I muttered, but I followed him.
I kept my distance, despite my overwhelming need to be close to Cora. I kept thinking about our time back in my trailer, her body against mine, her breath in my ear, her skin on my skin. She looked heavenly wrapped in my sheets, wearing nothing but a thin sheen of sweat, grinning like she’d never been so happy before in her life—I’d never seen something so perfect.