Page 98 of Reading Between the Lines
“I know.”
“Nicholas’s old man has been haunting the woods like he’s protecting a secret.”
“I know, Tallus. I’ve been along for the ride this whole time.” And the dots were connecting, but we still didn’t have the whole picture. “It’s fucking hot in here.”
Tallus shifted in his seat and brushed my hand away from the controls, punching a few buttons and stopping the hot flow of air streaming from the vents. Facing me, he tugged off my beanie and brushed his fingers through my sweat-dampened hair.
“How’s the pain?”
Excruciating, I wanted to say, but went with, “It’s fine.”
“Are you lying?”
“Tallus.”
“Okay. Never mind.” More calming strokes over my scalp. Cool air brushed my heated cheeks.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“What do we do from here, Guns? We know something. We’re on the right track, but how do we break it all open? How do we find and prove the truth about Weston’s… attempted murder?”
I’d been asking myself the same question since leaving the kennel. “I still want to chat with some of these teens, preferably Atlas.”
I wanted to corner Abercrombie, too, but his attitude the last time we spoke made me think he wouldn’t be cooperative and might cause trouble, even if we could prove his teenagers were up to no good. Parents didn’t always take kindly to someone suggesting their teens were troublemakers. Instinct put them on the defensive, and they refused to listen to reason. Chances were, Hugh would side with his kids no matter what we told him.
I checked the time on the dash. It was closing in on two, so I suggested a late lunch before hitting the high school.
***
We arrived at the school early. I parked on the opposite side of the street, confident the new vehicle wouldn’t draw suspicion, and encouraged Tallus to get out. All was quiet in the neighborhood, and the bell wouldn’t ring for another ten minutes. We had time to explore.
“Where are we going?” Tallus hustled to keep up.
I motioned to the student and staff parking lot and grunted something indecipherable.
Food had helped, but the throb in my shoulder persisted, making me cranky, and I’d been unnecessarily short with Tallus all day. The ache traveled down my arm to my fingers and up my neck into my jaw. Four more pain pills at lunch had dampened the worst of it, but a tension headache had joined the parade. I wanted to lie down and sleep it off, but we had things to do.
Tallus seemed to sense my vacillating mood and eyed me more than usual as though monitoring my pain levels. I wasn’t fooling him. He knew every groove on my face and was intimately aware of every muscle contraction in my body. Wisely, he also knew not to hassle.
I located the twins’ SUV in no time and checked the doors. All locked. Shielding my eyes, I pressed my face to the tinted windows to look inside. I didn’t know what I was hoping to find. Rope? A chain saw? A fucking ladder? Proof of some kind that they were involved in this mess.
I found none of those things. The car was pristine inside and out as if it had recently been detailed. I scanned the lot, noticed Atlas’s beat-up Civic a few rows over, and headed toward it.
Tallus stayed close.
Before I reached the car, he tugged my sleeve, drawing me to a stop. “D, look.”
Tallus pointed to an alcove off the main building, where two teenagers were busy playing tonsil hockey and groping one another. The angry dog gnawing a hunk of wood on the back of the guy’s leather jacket told me it was Duke. Whose face he was sucking to oblivion remained a mystery for only a few seconds longer. Their kiss broke, and Duke pulled back, revealing a pink-cheeked and rumpled Londyn.
“Son of a bitch.” I changed course, figuring that if they weren’t in class, we might as well start with the lovebirds.
Tallus chuffed as he scrambled to keep up with my long-legged stride. “She’s got a lot of nerve.”
“Right? Doesn’t even wait for Weston’s mother to pull the fucking plug on her kid.”
“Tact, D.”
