Page 79 of Twisted Minds

“What?”

“The Blue Lotus, it’s on fire! Blew through one of the windows and the place went up.”

“What are you talking about!?” I smell it, though—the smoke. Then I see behind the trees. Light. No, not light. Fire. “We need to call the fire department. Now!”

“I did. What the fuck!” Derrick yells at us.

“It was Mark! It wasn’t us. He grabbed the wrong one.”

“You handed it to me,” I scream.

Derrick shakes his head. “You need to get out of here. Go!”

“We need to call—”

“I did! Now get the fuck out of here!” I don’t know why, but I run, so fucking confused. I call a ride home, running down the street when I see it arrive. I also hear the sirens in the distance. None of this makes sense. How could a firework do that? Hell, how the fuck did it fall through the window? The possibility of the trajectory going through the trees and into the restaurant . . . There’s no way.

Sliding into my ride, my heart hammers against my chest.

No. No way.

Scrubbing my face with my palms, I freeze at the weight . . . or lack there of. I pull back, wanting to scream, and my blood runs cold. Fuck. No.

My watch.

“After that, I found out my watch was at the scene in the grass. I’m the one person who they could connect there at the time of the fire. Derrick knows it. He has a picture of me wearing it. He’s blackmailed me at every chance.”

The only thing I know is that I didn’t do it. I know he’s responsible somehow. I need proof or his father would just get him out of it. None of it matters now, though. “So . . . firework? That’s what he said it was?”

“I lit it. Didn’t think anything of it. They’d been setting off cherry bombs and tiny rockets all night, and I just assumed it was the same. It wasn’t.”

“A firework.” Sawyer’s black brows scrunch.

“I’m sorry.” My excuse now for why I didn’t tell anyone feels so fucking weak. “I just . . . I knew if I told someone, it’s his word against mine. I’d go away for something he did. I knew noone would believe me. I’ve tried to figure out a way to get him to admit it. I know he had something to do with it. It’s fucking selfish, I know, but—”

He holds a hand up. “We have a problem.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t a firework that made it go up like that. That actually sounds fucking dumb.”

“Right! That’s what I was thinking.” I calm down, Sawyer is not my friend and he looks like wants to punch me. “What do you mean?”

“There was gasoline found at the scene. The back of the building was soaked with it. It went up fast. It was set intentionally. That’s why my mother’s been a fucking mess since.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’re an asshole, Mark, but you’re not an arsonist,” he says. “We never disclosed the details of the fire, hoping to catch whoever it was.”

Jesus. “I’ve tried to catch him. We used to be friends, but I wanted to stop talking to him. It was him that night. I knew it was, I just didn’t know why. Derrick’s been blackmailing me since because the watch they found at the scene is one of a kind made by my grandfather. He took a picture of me that night wearing it, placing me at the scene.”

“Convenient.”

“I know. He set me up and I’m trying to catch him. He was pissed that night because I sent the girl he wanted to hook up with home. She was fucking wasted, which . . . knowing now what happened to your sister, which I did not know about, okay?! I didn’t. I think he drugged them too. He left to take a piss, then came back and said the place was on fire. I’ve always known I didn’t do it, but I have no proof and you know what no proof means.”

“The police will do fuck all.”

I nod. “When Hunter got him kicked off the team, Derrick told me I had to hurt him or he’d turn me in to the cops. I refused. I couldn’t do that. I suggested I try to fake date him and break his heart instead. I know it sounds stupid. I didn’t even know it was Hunter until I’d already agreed, then I looked up the roster. I didn’t want to do it, but it gave me more time. I just needed him to admit it. I needed someone to slip up somewhere. We used to party all the time, but I can’t even stomach being around him now.”

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