Page 78 of Midnight Waters

“I looked along the cliff above where we found Tyler yesterday,” I said. “And there’s something I think you should know.”

Ben scowled at me. “Why were you up there?”

I tugged up a patch of long grass and tossed it to one side. “Well, I found clues in the water. I wanted to see if there was anything on the cliff that could help us.”

“And was there?”

“I didn’t have time to look. George was there.”

Ben stopped in his tracks. “George? What was he doing?”

“Nothing really. Just… looking,” I said, wincing as a bramble caught my thumb. “I know it isn’t much, but something about it just felt weird. Like he was back there for a reason.”

Ben dug his hands under a tangle of grass and felt around. “Actually, I found something out, too.”

“If it’s about his life insurance policy, I’ve all but ruled that motive out. Tyler implemented it.”

“No, it’s not that.” Ben extracted a rusty key from out of the weedy mess and stood, dusting his tracksuit bottoms off.

I stood up, frowning at him as he watched me out of the corner of his eye.

“What?” I asked.

“I just want to know that you’re not going to… somehow… use this against me if I tell you,” Ben said.

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

But then, hadn’t I just worried that he was going to set me up? When actually he just had really poor time management?

Gods. We really had to calm down if we were going to investigate this.

“Okay, can we pause for a second?” I asked, holding out my hands in surrender. “We need to remember why we’re doing this. It’s not about us, and it’s not about our families.”

“It’s about Tyler,” Ben said.

“Exactly. So, we’re at a truce, right? I won’t pull anything, and you’ll do me the same courtesy, okay? If we really want to go back to acting like our families when this is all over, it’s fair game.”

Ben snorted. “Like I’ve ever done anything to you.”

“Your brother ran me off a cliff, so don’t talk to me about personal attacks.”

Ben’s eyes widened. “I thought you said that didn’t happen?”

Oh crap.

Before my cheeks could flush, I grabbed the key off Ben and headed for the back door.

I gasped as he grabbed my arm and jerked me around. It didn’t hurt, but his grip was firm. His face was just inches from mine, but there was no anger there, only concern.

“I thought you said that didn’t happen,” he repeated.

“What’s it to you?”

“You could have told the police, and you didn’t. Why?”

I stared at him, careful not to blink too much. Didn’t want him thinking he was intimidating.

In fact, he didn’t instill any fear in me at all. I might have mistaken his concern for care if he wasn’t an Everhart.

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