Page 20 of Caught Up

I shoved his shoulder. “Would you shut the fuck up? There could be campers out here.”

He wisely shut up, and we got back to shoveling, our game forgotten. It felt like an hour had passed while we worked, enough time for me to get annoyed by how long this was taking. I’d planned to go back to Lauren’s tonight but it looked like that wouldn’t be happening.

“Why does he always order us to bury shit for him right after it rains?” I asked.

“Because he’s a bastard,” Alec said. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Might as well. We’re going to be here all night.”

“What’d you say to Lauren earlier that made her threaten to tase me?”

“Told her to look at your mole,” I said. “She was probably offering to remove it for you.”

He threw a handful of dirt at me. “I’m being serious.”

I sighed, wishing I was out here with Stefan instead. Blessedly silent Stefan. “No idea,” I told Alec.

“Quit lying.” He shot me an annoyed look as he stabbed his shovel back in. “You must have really pissed her off. I’ve never seen Lauren so mad.”

“You see her a lot?” I asked, eyeing him in the lamplight.

“Just every now and then when I go to church with Mom.”

“And whyexactlyhave you turned into such a choirboy all of a sudden?”

He shook his head. “Uh-uh. You’re not turning this around on me. What’d you say to Lauren?”

“I don’t know,” I lied. I knew exactly what I’d fucking said. “Something about how much she wanted me back in high school?”

Alec groaned. “No, you didn’t.”

I went back to shoveling and ignored him.

“Please tell me you didn’t,” he repeated.

I shrugged, feigning ignorance. My relationship with Lauren, past, present, and hopefully future, was none of his goddamn business. I knew he was probably judging the shit out of me, but I’d said what I said to see how she responded to being provoked, and even though it might have pissed her off, I was pleased with the results. Because it gave me the answers I’d been looking for.

“God, you’re fucking thick sometimes,” Alec said.

“What do you mean?” I asked, playing into the conversation for his sake.

“You ruined her fucking life.”

I stopped digging. “No, I didn’t. I thought so, too, at first, but she’s fine now. Lives in some fancy neighborhood and pulls in nearly as much cash as we do.”

He frowned. “And how do you know that?”

Careful...“I checked up on her.”

“Checked up on her how, exactly? You get Josh to do some side work for you?”

“Yeah,” I said, because Alec thinking I’d asked our cousin’s boyfriend for help was preferable to him finding out what I’d really been up to.

My brother eyed me. I kept my expressionstone-cold. He was almost as good at sniffing out bullshit as I was, and nearly a minute passed in silence while he waited for me to say more. I knew better than that.

Finally, his attention returned to the hole between us. Down went his shovel. I picked mine up, and we got back to work.

“It doesn’t matter how well she’s doing now,” Alec said. “You still destroyed her back then. Telling people you never touched her was fucking low, even for you.”

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