Page 45 of The Engagement Party

“What kind of answer is that? What happened to Sierra out there?” she asked.

Will dropped the wet towel on the floor like a teenager who assumed other people would clean up his mess. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and sat on the coffee table in front of Alex. “Did you really slip and fall?”

Truth or no?Alex decided he needed to trust someone other than Cas. “I thought I heard someone then got hit in the head before I could turn around. It felt like a deliberate strike.”

Will nodded. “The fireplace poker was out there.”

“Where?” Cassie sat on the sofa’s arm. The move put the three of them in a tight circle, but they whispered anyway.

“On the ground. I saw it a few feet away from Alex’s body but was too busy checking on him to grab it.”

Made sense to Alex. It never occurred to him that Will would take a swing. He didn’t have a reason to. But there was one person who could have done it, and it was time to clue Will in. “Do you think Jake hit me?”

“Jake?” Will shouted the name, earning a round of frantic shushing from Alex and Cassie.

“It’s the only explanation,” Cassie replied.

Will frowned. “You’re absolutely wrong.”

Alex’s head pounded hard enough to force his eyes closed.“I know you don’t want to hear this or think about graduation night, but it makes sense.”

“Listen to me.” Will leaned in closer. “Jake is dead.”

Cassie’s face fell. There was no other way to describe it. All animation vanished along with most of the color in her cheeks. Her mouth went slack, and those bright eyes dulled.

Not asking seemed safer but Alex didn’t have that choice. “What are you talking about?”

“He was in the shed. He’d been...” Will made a strangled noise. “Someone cut his head off.”

Cassie jumped to her feet. She paced along the back of the sofa without saying a word.

The pain in Alex’s head turned sharp and stabbing now. The combination of surprise, sadness, andwhat the fuckhad him reeling. “That’s not possible.”

“Trust me. We saw him. Sierra lost it and tried to swim off the island after, so yeah. Beheaded.” Will’s shoulders slumped. “But how did you know he was on the island?”

“We didn’t,” Cassie said.

“We assumed he tracked us down. That he couldn’t live with what we did back then.” Alex spent most days trying to forget. He didn’t deserve forgiveness, but he craved it. Hoped like hell to earn it one day.

“We all live with it.” The snap had returned to Cassie’s voice. She stopped moving around and faced them down. “If Jake... God, I can’t believe...” She shook her head. “The point is, if he hasn’t turned on us and isn’t running wild on the island, then who’s doing this?”

“Whoever killed Tyler and later moved his body.” Will’s words slowed as he watched Cassie shake her head. “What is it?”

“I moved the body. By accident. Alex watched while I snuck out there to make sure the guy was dead. Because I thought maybe he followed us here and was torturing Mitch by pretending to be dead. Now I wish that was the answer.”

Alex listened to her deliver the excuse and it rang hollow. The problem could be the thumping in his head or the fogginess of his thinking, but he would have sworn her explanation made more sense hours ago when she told him to cover for her.

“When was all of this?” Will asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Cassie waved off the question and drove right to the topic she wanted to discuss. “The point is, there was no one else out there. Not that I saw. I picked up the fireplace poker at the garage. Sierra must have dropped it. I put it on the back porch. Then it disappeared.”

Alex didn’t understand that part. Why would a roving killer be looking for new weapons for his attacks? He should have what he or she needed on him. “Until someone struck me.”

The entire house whirred to life as the lights clicked on.

“There’s some good news.” Cassie went over to check her phone but shook her head after pressing a few buttons. “Still no signal, so that damn signal jammer still works fine.”

“The lights in the shed were working earlier. That means we either overloaded the circuit and tripped the switch or someone flipped it on purpose to keep us in the dark. Literally.” Will suddenly frowned. “I was going to go check the breaker, but Ruthie must have done it.”

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