Page 80 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“No one will ever believe me. Everyone’s already made up their mind. I just wanted one person to believe me. I needed you to believe me, Tucker.”

“I do believe you. And the gun will help prove your innocence. There are so many ways to get you out of this. We can clear your name. Where is the gun, Violet?”

“That gun isn’t going to fix it. I’ve cleaned it so many times.” So much fucking blood. “I know I should have called the police right away, but I didn’t have a choice, Tucker. Everyone had already made up their mind about me after Joel left. They were calling me a slut to my face. No one would talk to me. I lost all my so-called friends. I didn’t have anyone to ask for help. And it looked bad. There were three dead bodies in my house.

“I knew no one would side with me. My peers had already made that clear. I was worried everyone else would believe the rumors going around about me. I sat there for a long time, trying to figure out what to do. When it got dark, I thought maybe I’d drive the bodies out of state. I put one of them in my truck, but I freaked out. There’s too many tolls. Too many places where they could be seen. So I…I wheelbarrowed their bodies through the woods, lined their pockets with rocks, and dumped them in the lake. It made the most sense at the time. My mother always liked the lake.” The crack in the ice had almost reached me.

“When any neighbors would ask, I just said they were on vacation. When they never came back…more rumors spread about me.” I could see it on his face. He didn’t understand. “I hated Henry. But Zeke? I knew I was going to love him so much. He was already a part of me. And he was going to be so good. He was going to be everything his father wasn’t. I needed to protect him. If I got locked up, who was going to protect my son? I didn’t want him to become the monster that his father was. He needed me.”

“I understand why you did it, Vi. I understand.” His eyes were focused on my feet instead of me. “We’re going to get you off. Everything’s going to be fine. Just…just get off the ice and tell me where that gun is.”

I looked down as the thin crack reached my feet. “It’s with all the bodies. Underneath me.”

Chapter 28

Tucker

The cracking noise reverberated through the woods. I was already running onto the ice as she fell through.

“Violet!” I ignored it cracking beneath my feet, shoved off my jacket, and dove into the part of the lake that wasn’t frozen over. She wasn’t allowed to die. She wasn’t allowed to drop that on me and then leave. For six years she’d let everyone in this town convince her she was a monster. She wasn’t. She was just a kid when it’d happen. She was scared. And alone. She wasn’t alone anymore.

My eyes stung as I opened them under the water. I didn’t see her anywhere. I swam underneath the ice, trying to find her. Farther. I was running out of air.

I couldn’t actually promise her that I’d be able to clear her name. If there were really bodies in this lake…if she really took the time to secretly put them here? That was fucking bad. That made her look guilty. But I didn’t care about clearing her name. That was what backup plans were for.

I turned around in circles searching. The last air bubbles escaped my lips. Where are you?

I swam back out to the middle of the lake and barely made it to the surface in time before I inhaled water instead of air. I took a huge gulp of air and was about to dive back under when I saw her. Her head was bobbing above the water a few feet away from me. Her lips were blue, but she was fucking alive.

“You scared me half to death,” I said as I swam over to her.

“I’m sorry, I…”

I silenced her apology with a kiss. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about any of it. She could have killed them and I didn’t think I’d care.

She clung to me like I was her lifeline. And maybe I was. Maybe all she needed was one good person in her life to take away all the bad.

“I threw the gun into the lake.” Her breath was hot against my neck.

That gun wasn’t going to get her off. I was just trying to tell her whatever she needed to hear to get her off the ice. And now I needed to get us both out of this water before we froze to death. “We’ll get it later, okay? The water’s too cold to search right now.” She didn’t resist when I pulled her back over to the ice and hoisted her up, hoping it wouldn’t crack again. We both made it back to dry land and I draped my dry coat around her shoulders.

“I lost another freaking coat,” she said. It sounded like she was trying to make a joke, but I didn’t have time to react like a normal guy with a crush on a girl. We were running out of time.

“We need to get going.” I grabbed her hand and pulled us through the woods.

“Going where? I thought you said you believed me.” She was shivering. “That the gun was enough evidence…”

“Yeah, well we both confessed that we’re liars, Violet. I was just trying to get you off the ice.”

“You think they’ll put me away?” Her walking had turned into a jog to keep up with me.

“I think justice isn’t as black and white as people think it is. And that you shouldn’t go down for something just because there’s rumors that you’re guilty. We’re going to skip town.”

“We’re? I could never ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking me. It’s my choice.”

“But I just confessed. I’m tired of hiding. If it wasn’t for Zeke, I would have turned myself in a long time ago. You’re a detective and I’m guilty of…”

---