Page 85 of The Dare

“I said fuck it. Let’s do it.”

He shakes his head, letting out a deep sigh. I can feel the anxiety wafting off him, how hard it is to admit all of this. How far he has to reach into himself to find the courage.

“I gave Kai the alarm code and told him Max always keeps three grand in cash in his desk drawer for emergencies. I said I didn’t want to know when it’s gonna happen.It’d be months before Max would even notice it was missing, and besides, that kind of money is nothing to the man. He’d spend that in a week on dinner and wine. Nobody gets hurt.”

“But…?”

Conor looks at me. Finally. For the first time in a week, he really looks at me.

“So one weekend we all go to Tahoe. I wanted to stay behind but Mom gave me a guilt trip about spending quality time together. So the house is empty for a few days, and Kai makes his move. He was probably high or wasted on some shit—the kid never had a fucking dimmer switch, you know? He slips in quiet enough, but then he trashes the place. He grabs one of Max’s golf clubs from the garage and smashes up Max’s office and the living room. We came home a couple days later and it’s obvious the place has been robbed. The messed up part is, Max blamed himself. Figured he must have forgotten to set the alarm. But whatever, no big thing, he says. Insurance will cover the damage.”

My forehead wrinkles. “They didn’t wonder why nothing else was stolen?”

Conor barks out a sardonic laugh. “Nope. The cops decided some teenagers probably just wanted to trash the place. They said they’d seen it a million times, a crime of opportunity, and that maybe the teens got scared off by something.”

“So you got away with it.”

“Yeah, but that’s the thing, right? The guilt tore me up from the moment we stepped inside the house and I saw what Kai did. What I did. Somehow in my head I convinced myself that it’d feel good to see the look on Max’s face. Butit fucking hurt. What kind of asshole trashes his own house? My mom was terrified for weeks afterward that whoever did it would come back. She couldn’t sleep.” His voice cracks. “Idid that to her.”

My heart hurts for him. “And Kai?”

“He found me at the beach a couple weeks later and was asking, you know, how’d it go. I told him I couldn’t hang out with him anymore, that he’d gone too far and it was a bad idea to begin with. And that was it, we were through. In his head he thought he was being a good friend, like he was sticking up for me or something. That’s probably the best example anyone could give you of how his brain works.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t take the break-up well?”

“Nope. I think more than anything he was worried I’d rat him out. But I reminded him that doing so would be mutually assured destruction. And we went our separate ways.”

“Until Buffalo.”

“Buffalo,” he agrees ruefully. “Then Saturday at the beach. He followed me there, gave me the same old story. He owes money to bad people and they’ll kill him if he doesn’t get it. Except this time he needs ten grand.”

“Shit,” I say under my breath.

Conor laughs sadly in response. “Right?”

“You can’t give him the money.”

He cocks his head at me.

“No, I’m serious, Conor. You can’t give him the money. This time it’s ten, next time it’s fifteen, twenty, fifty. He’s blackmailing you, right? That’s what this is all about? Mutually assured destruction? And the contents of that envelope…I bet you didn’t get the money from your family.”

“I don’t have a choice, Taylor.” His eyes turn angry.

“Yes, you do. You can tell Max and your mom the truth. If you come clean, Kai has no more leverage. He’ll leave you alone and you can finally get on with your life without worrying about the day he’ll show up again to derail your whole life.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have no—”

“I know that because of this shame and embarrassment you feel, you’ve blown me off, fucked your family over, and done who knows what to get that money. When’s it going to stop? When is it enough?” I shake my head at him. “There’s only one thing you can do to fight back, or you can be a slave to this secret forever.”

“Yeah, you know…” Conor gets up. “This really doesn’t concern you. I told you the truth and now I’ve gotta go.”

I jump up and try to intercept him, but he sidesteps me with little effort on his way to the door. I grab his hand as he turns his back on me. “Please. I’ll help you. Don’t do this.”

He snatches his hand away. When he speaks, the coldness and detachment has returned. “I don’t need your help, Taylor. I don’t want it. And I definitely don’t need some chick telling me what to do. You were right. We shouldn’t be together.”

He doesn’t look back. Down the hallway and out the door. Not a single hesitation.

He just leaves me there with the poisoned memories of this room, with my makeup smeared and hair falling down.

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