Page 11 of Framed

Tuck:Turn on channel two news

Tuck:Right fucking now

Tuck:Jonathan Sinclair is being arrested for Naomi’s murder

What the fuck?I stared at my phone and reread the text. Once, twice and again for a third time, as if that would change the words on my screen. It didn’t.

Without thinking twice, I dropped the weight I was currently holding. A loud clank echoed throughout the workout room.

“Adams! You need to come pick this shit up. You may be the quarterback but you do not have maids,” Coach Williams bellowed from behind me.

But I didn’t turn back. It was like I had suddenly acquired tunnel vision as I made my way to the football team’s rec room.

“Turn it to the news,” I snapped, ignoring the look of annoyance on the freshman currently using the TV’s face. He was sitting on the couch, a remote tucked in his hands. “Turn it to the fucking news!” I roared, causing everyone in the rec room to jump.

The freshman flinched.

Half a dozen confused eyeballs stuck to me from all directions. I ignored them all, glaring at the freshman until he finally fumbled with the remote to change it to channel two.

Then I saw it.

I saw the headline that read:Jonathan Sinclair has been arrestedat his Tuscaloosa home in upstate Georgia in connection with a previously closed case involving Naomi Stewart, a local teen who was brutally murdered a few summers ago.

“What the fuck?” I muttered under my breath as I stared at the screen in disbelief.Jonathan Sinclair? As in, the man Naomi swore to me she’d stopped seeing?ThatJonathan Sinclair? My hand twitched, itching to pummel someone, anyone,him.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Naomi was always good at keeping secrets, even as she collected other people’s secrets like candy she was stashing away for a rainy day.

But JonathanFuckingSinclair? She promised me. Fucking swore on her life that she stopped the affair she was having with him. He was married. Not to mention he and his wife were both friends of our father’s. Hell, he would’ve disowned her if he’d ever discovered her engaged in such a torrid and highly inappropriate affair.

She promised me, but I should’ve known something was off. She didn’t seem all that broken up about it. Detached, yes, but never too sad, never too anything. Like her emotions were all being measured and calculated.

I figured that she’d just come to her senses. That maybe Jonathan had been a casual fling, someone she wanted to hook up with as a secret jab at our father more than anything serious. But I should’ve known better.

The signs were right there in front of my face and I chose to ignore them.

Red clouded my vision as anger vibrated and coursed through every vein in my body. It threatened to take it over if I’d let it.

I was pissed at Naomi for lying to me, angry at myself because I didn’t see it, and even more angry at myself for not pulling my head up out of my ass over the Scarlett situation.

Naomi kept this secret from me and it may have cost her her life. Maybe I could have prevented it if I wasn’t spending all of my time on football or trying to discreetly look after Scarlett and avoid Father at all costs.

“Hey, aren’t you from there?” the freshman hesitantly asked. He flinched again at the murderous glare I shot his way.

My phone vibrated from where it remained clutched tightly in my hand. I didn’t even lock the screen again after reading the text from Tucker. I glanced down at it and saw I had a new text message from Briggs.

Briggs:Got an assignment for you. Meet me at the gym.

For a second, I considered ignoring it. I did not want to deal with everything that came from associating with Briggs. I did not want to start a new assignment right now either. But ultimately, I decided that Briggs could be of some use to me. For starters, he could get me into a room alone with Jonathan Sinclair, given his title as chief administrator of various prisons and jails across the state.

I used the image of my fist knocking into Jonathan’s face repeatedly as fuel. As motivation. I stored it away for future use, anytime I was feeling demotivated. Jonathan Sinclair would get his day.

And I didn’t mean in a courtroom.

***

I assumed Briggs was bullshitting the first time he explained what my next assignment would be. He’d always been an asshole with me about Scarlett Rose.

Then again, considering I’d been begging him for updates about her constantly over the years, it was difficult to disguise my sick obsession from him. But at the time, I hadn’t cared what he thought about me. All I’d cared about was that he was the chief administrator at the prison where she was housed.

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