Page 69 of Please Remember

"I think so, but I don't remember which one was yours. They were just numbered, and I think you got to choose to move up into a closer spot based on tenure and turnover. You mentioned once that you thought a few people were waiting for you to switch jobs just to get your spot," Sage says.

Moving towards the spot with the number six on it, I notice a chip on the parking curb. I bend down to touch it, and I stagger, my vision blacking as I fall to the ground.

"Allie?" Sage cries out. "Allie?"

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jax

Every minute Allie's away from me increases the anxiety flowing through me. This little gathering seemed like a good idea, but now I can't help but wonder if I'm pushing her too far again.

It felt like things were going well, but even I get annoyed with Benji's drunken stories. They become overwhelming and tedious to listen to unless I'm as drunk as he is, and I wonder if it started to frustrate Allie. They all start with "Remember that one time..."

I did what I could to get Benji to stop, but he's had more than enough to drink to allow the request to stick in his mind for a maximum of three minutes. In no time, he'd gone right back to his normal ways. And Allie has no idea this is just Benji, not his way of trying to push her to remember. Most of us don't remember what Benji does, either, thank God.

"Where's Allie?" Seth asks.

"She went outside with Sage for a breather," I say, glancing at the door for what feels like the hundredth time since the two of them left.

Laura bursts through the doors and storms over to us. "You!"

"What part of stay the hell away from Allie and me did you not understand?" I ask, glaring at her.

Her hair looks greasy, something I hadn't noticed this morning, and her shirt is buttoned incorrectly, leaving a tail towards the bottom on the left side. Red eyes glare at me, and I see the puffiness from crying. That, and the smudged makeup is a dead giveaway.

"You have a lot of nerve planting the idea with the cops that I might be the one who hurt Allie," Laura says and crosses her arms under her chest. "That hurts worse than anything else you could have done."

"What are you talking about?" I ask. "I never told them I thought you hurt Allie."

Her jaw sticks out as she glares at me, and she doesn't seem to care that everyone's staring at us. Not just my friends and family but the rest of the town. "They came to talk to me right after you left my house screaming at me that I was crazy. You expect me to believe that was just a coincidence?"

"Yes, because I didn't call them to give them a heads-up that I was storming over to tell you to stay the fuck away from Allie. And me, by extension. I don't think that discussion really shed a good light on me, to be honest."

"They served a warrant to take all of my electronic devices, including my phone, and then came back tonight to search the place. Looking for anything that could have been used as a weapon to bonk her on the head," she hisses.

"The warrant for your laptop doesn't surprise me, but they must've found something on it to issue another warrant tonight," I say.

Narrowing her eyes, Laura shakes her head. "What did you tell them to get them to take my phone and computers?"

"I told them I'm pretty sure you're the one who broke into my house, took a picture from my living room, and set up a camera in my bedroom," I say. "The one that was conveniently disconnected just as I was about to see where it was transmitting to."

"What?" Drew asks. "She put a camera in your bedroom?"

Her jaw drops. "I... I did not."

"Bullshit, Laura. The mistake you made was saying things to Allie that you couldn't have known. Unless you were watching and listening to us. In the bedroom."

"She watched you have sex with Allie?" Benji asks, dumbfounded.

Her face pales, and I chuckle. "That's how she found out about the cookout. I talked about it with Allie in bed. No one else told you, Laura."

"No one here even likes you," Drew says. "We sure as hell wouldn't have accidentally messaged you. We only talked to you because we had to. For years."

"You did this," she says. "You want them to believe I hurt her to take the heat off you. Is that why you spent two years fucking me? To get me vulnerable and willing to do anything for you?"

"You think Jax had anything to do with what happened?" Seth asks. "You really are nuts."

I shake my head. "You need to make up your mind, Laura. Did I hurt Allie? Or did Allie plan this whole thing on her own? You can't keep switching theories. I know why you planted the camera. You needed to see if we were getting intimate, but I don't get why you'd take the picture. What was it for? A dartboard?"

---