Page 38 of The Engagement Party

“What the hell?” Will asked.

Mitch crouched down next to her. “Did you land on something?”

Her knee ached and every muscle screamed for relief but none of that explained what she was seeing. What they all saw. So much red. Too much for falling down. It puddled under her, making the grass extra slippery.

She lifted the hand she used to brace her fall. More red. Dripping down her palm. Oozing between her fingers.

The red flashed in her brain until she gagged. “It’s not my blood.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Alex

“Don’t panic. I needed to talk with you before I said anything to the others.” Alex held on to Cassie’s wrist. He didn’t want to scare her but the way she jumped when he’d looked at her suggested he’d failed.

She shook her head as if confused. “You were faking?”

“No. I was out but only for a few seconds. The rest of the time I was listening and trying to think around this killer headache.” A sharp pain sliced through his skull when he tried to shimmy his body higher on the pillows piled behind him. “Shit.”

“You’re really hurt. There’s blood.” Cassie switched back into nursing mode as she balanced on the sofa cushions beside him. “I don’t understand. Did you fall?”

He tried to think of a way of delivering the news without scaring her. The thick fog in his brain prevented that. “Someone hit me.”

“What?” She pulled back but didn’t stand. “But they were all in here with me. Except Will, but—”

“There’s only one possibility. Jake. This, all of this, has to be him.” Alex made the mistake of lifting his head or talking tooloudly or something because he got hit with a second shot of pain. “Damn. It hurts to move my head.”

“Just lie there.” She got up. “You could have a concussion.”

That was the least of his worries. He wanted to tell her that but shutting his eyes and staying silent won.

He could hear her moving around the kitchen. Then came a rustling sound. A familiar one. The sound of her searching through the giant bag she carried everywhere she went. When he opened his eyes again she stood over him with a damp cloth, a glass of water, and two pills he hoped were pain relievers. He welcomed all of it.

Her warm palm slipped behind his neck and steadied his head as he drank the water. The idea of letting her wrap him in comfort and drifting off to sleep tempted him, but he couldn’t risk the rest.

She made a face. “Are you going to be sick?”

“I sure as hell hope not.” He decided not to shift or look around, or even think while she cleaned the blood around his head wound. “Fucking Jake.”

He’d been their friend. One of the gang. They all hung out, they grieved... they made bad choices. But no one forced him to go along with the pact to stay silent. He might pretend now, but his right to revenge wasn’t based in reality.

She lowered her voice despite their being alone in the house. “Did you actually see him?”

“I thought I picked up on something. The wind feels like it’s hitting you from every direction out there.” It had been more of an impression than an actual sound. He sensed someone hovering nearby, hiding. “Next thing I know I hear this crack andmy vision blurred. I went down hard. I opened my eyes and saw men’s boots . . . I think.”

“You’re saying Jake is out there right now with the others?” Worry showed on her face.

Alex put words to the worse-case scenario. “Maybe he finally snapped.”

“This can’t be happening. Why now?” she asked.

Guilt.That had to be the answer. Alex spent his days mired in it, getting sucked down and battling his way out. Jake had struggled from the beginning. A few months after graduation, he begged them to let him break their pact. He promised to take the fall. Over the years, Alex would visit with him as he unraveled, listen to him cry, then try to put him back together again. Anything to reinforce their bond and that promise of loyalty to each other.

He and Cassie paid for Jake’s expenses during those extreme emotional downturns. That stopped when Jake cut off all contact a few years ago. After everything, being alone might have been too much.

Before Alex could lay out his reasoning Cassie started shaking her head. “But how do you explain Tyler? His murder links to Mitch, not us. Certainly not to Jake.”

“All of this links to us. Mitch is one of us. Killing Tyler like this, with Mitch here, is the perfect way to aim law enforcement at him. To put pressure on him.” Because Mitch would crack. He’d been through too much, wallowed in so much fear and confusion that when the truth finally slipped out it would rush out of him... and ruin them all. “The rest is obvious.”

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