Page 99 of Reading Between the Lines
“It’s true. She’s sucking face with that idiot while her boyfriend is technically still alive.”
Tallus couldn’t argue. I was right.
Londyn spotted us first and shoved Duke away. Duke spun and almost tripped on the backpack he’d left on the ground. Both stared at us with wide, mistrusting eyes as we closed in. Duke seemed to get over his shock first and stood taller, puffing his chest and lifting his chin in a failed attempt to intimidate.
Only when I was within ten feet of the pair did something dawn on me. The patch on Duke’s jacket. The snarling dog chewing what looked like a hunk of tree. The scrawled company name above it.Bark Boss.
My blood instantly boiled. A switch flipped inside me, and without thinking, flying on adrenaline, instinct, and rage, I caught the edge of Duke’s coat in my good hand, balled it around my fist, and backed him against the brick wall, landing him with athudhard enough to wind him.
“You son of a bitch,” I spat, inches from his face.
“Diem!” Tallus snagged my coat and tried to yank me away.
Duke’s attempt at smugness vanished, and he paled.
Londyn squeaked a small cry of surprise, scrambled to get her backpack off the ground, and ran.
“Stop her,” I snarled at Tallus.
“Dude, relax.” Duke held his hands placatingly, but I wasn’t in the mood to be placated. I was in pain, and if my synapses were firing correctly, I suspected this asshole might be part of the reason why.
“What the fuck is Bark Boss?” I growled.
Duke blinked a few times in apparent confusion, then stammered, “My dad’s company. It’s… He has a… They do landscaping.”
“A landscaping company?”
Duke furiously nodded, his hair catching in the rough bricks behind him.
“Do they do tree trimming?” I asked.
“Y-yes.”
“Is that so.”
“Diem.” Another tug on my arm, gentle but persistent. “Let him go. He’ll talk to you.”
But the acid in my core burned me from the inside out. Visions of that branch crashing played on repeat in my mind, only it wasn’t me in its path.It could have been Tallus, my brain kept saying.It could have been Tallus.
“Do you help your dad? Do you work for him during the summer when you’re not in school? Did he teach you to scale trees and cut away dead branches? Rig them with rope so you can direct their fall?”
“I don’t… What are you… Y-yes?”
A growl resonated in my chest.
“Diem.” Tallus wedged himself between Duke and me, wearing an expression of concern as he pressed his palms to my chest, urging me to step back.
Without breaking eye contact with the teen, I released his coat and stepped away, but I wasn’t finished. “Did you drop a fucking tree on my Jeep yesterday?” I roared.
“W-what?” Duke dashed a frantic look around, and that was when I realized Londyn was gone. Tallus had let her slip away.
I worked my jaw, leveling my temper. “Did you. Drop a tree. On my fucking Jeep yesterday?”
“N-no.” Duke shook his head, emphasizing his statement.
I moved to step closer, but Tallus remained in my path. My height and weight had never intimidated him. “Think, Diem.”
I spoke over Tallus’s head. “We know what you guys were up to in that cabin, and we’re going to prove Weston didn’t have an accident. We know, asshole. We fucking know, so I hope you’re ready to warm a cell for the rest of your fucking life.”
