Page 61 of The Lie
“No, don’t touch me. Just in case. I need you to take Roman to your house. You need to shower and burn the clothes. Or at least bury them until we can burn them. Where the treehouse was meant to be—take them there. The cops will come question you. So, be the best actors you have ever been.”
I look around again, and Hunter nods as he helps Roman up.
“You have to stick to your story. The closest to the truth is always best. I came here because Roman called me. You came because…” I wait for Hunter to answer me.
“Sadie and Cadence told me you got a call from Roman and came here. I tried to call you, but you didn’t pick up, so I grew worried.”
I nod. “That’s what happened. But…my phone was on silent. I didn’t hear it ring in my bag when I got here. You came and took Roman in your car. I was leaving just after you and said I would meet you after I went home and changed out of my dress.”
“And then what happened? How do you explain why Damon’s dead?” Hunter asks, confused.
“You don’t know. Why would you? You’re taking Roman home to help him. His dad beat him, and he’s sick. You’re taking care of him at your house.”
I watch as he nods slowly, then he looks me in the eye. It clicks. He gets what I’m saying. Hunter doesn’t need to know more. If he says anything more, things he shouldn’t know, then we will get caught. The rest is up to me.
Icount in my head to a hundred and then search the floor where I’d dropped my keys. My head feels like a million bees are buzzing in there and stinging me. I find them and scramble up, not looking over at the body and the pool of blood under it.
I open the trailer door, trying to make sure nothing I do will come back to bite me in the ass if there’s an investigation. As I open my car door, I look around, but I don’t spot anyone. If someone heard what happened, they didn’t even bother to find out what was going on. I reach into the car and grab my bag before closing and locking it.
Each step I take toward the trailer door, I shake a little more. I don’t want to go back in there with him. I don’t want to be in there with his body. But I also don’t want to be out here with whatever lurks in the dark. I close the trailer door behind me and sag against it.
I count slowly to a hundred again and pull my phone out of my bag. There are a ton of missed calls from Hunter, one from Cadence, and two from Sadie. I ignore them as I dial 9-1-1. My thumb hovers over the call button as I panic again.
Have I done everything right? My phone would be tracked here too. Same as Hunter’s. That’s why he had to go with Roman. I was here longer.
I look over at the knife covered in blood.
“Fingerprints,” I whisper out loud.
The knife doesn’t have my fingerprints. It has Roman’s and Damon’s.Fuck.I’m going to have to touch the knife. I’m going to need to cut myself with the knife. So many criminals got caught because they cut their hand when they stabbed someone. Roman didn’t, luckily. That’s why I checked. But I need this to be believable.
I crawl over to where it lays, my hand shaking as I pick it up with two fingers. I can’t wipe off Damon’s fingerprints. Mine can’t land on top of his either, or they will know I’m lying.
Fuck, fuck. I can’t do this. My hands shake so much, I can barely hold the knife as I move it to where I would hold it. I bite the inside of my cheek as I slice my finger. I drop the knife and hold my hand to my chest while I scan the room one last time. The adrenaline has run out as I reach for my phone.
I unlock it, the numbers still glowing up at me, and I press the green call button.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
TWENTY-SIX
JACE
How can he stand to look at her?
Mila Hart killed his dad, and he’s holding her hand at his funeral.
His father’s fucking funeral. With the girl who killed him!
The turnout is very small, and there is nothing but dry eyes. Damon Valentine wasn’t a good man. But the killer…at his funeral. If that isn’t a stab in the back—pun intended.
She stabbed him in the back. That’s what everyone is saying. I tried to ask Roman, and he refused to talk to me. Last week, I thought we were getting better. Closer. But now I see that all it takes to be his friend is to kill his father.
Though the guy was a grade-A asshole, he was Roman’s only living relative. That’s it. Roman lost everything because she, what? Forgot her phone.
Everything we’d built in the past four years has crumbled in weeks. This was our year for football and girls. Having fun and partying all year. Now, it has all been destroy by a petite blonde with a wicked tongue.
She uses that tongue to wreck her enemies and lure in her lovers.
