Page 25 of Reckless at Westbrook High

Callie scrubs her hands over her face like she’s about three seconds away from losing her shit, then she takes a deep breath and moves for the sink to wash her hands, angrily tossing the towel on the counter before grabbing the bacon from the fridge.

I’m not hungry anymore, and I don’t think anyone else is, either, but if she wants to cook to keep her hands busy and away from Freya’s throat, I’m not about to stop her.

I pour her a coffee from the pot and place it down on the counter in front of her, smiling to myself when she grabs the instant hot chocolate from the cupboard overhead to add a couple spoonfuls to it. I pass Kai his coffee and look at Damon, shutting my mouth when he glares like I’m stupid.

Right.

Damon hates coffee, but that’s not why he’s mad at me.

“You can stand there and stare at me all you like, man,” I mutter, pouring a shit load of sugar into my cup. “I’m not tellin’ you shit.”

He glares some more and snatches a bottle of water from the fridge, dropping down at the island opposite Kai. “Do you at least know who she’s got on her side?”

“No,” I admit, leaning back on the counter to face him fully. “Derek, probably.”

“It’s not Derek,” he shakes his head, glancing off towards the stairs. “Someone had to have given this to her to get her to come back today, and there’s no fuckin’ way he’s had this on you for fuck knows how long without using it already.”

I nod because yeah, he’s right about that.

“My money’s on Katherine,” Callie says, cutting the bacon with a helluva lot more force than necessary.

“It can’t be Katherine,” I tell her, dropping down in my seat beside Kai.

“Why not?”

“Because she wasn’t even in Westbrook that night.”

“Where was she?”

I hesitate, dropping my eyes to my hands when three heads turn my way. “The Bahamas.”

“Goddamnit, Wren!” Damon snaps, making Callie jump when he smacks his water off the counter, only just missing the lit fireplace in the middle of the living room.

Her mouth parts and she blinks, staring at him in shock while she struggles to put the pieces together. “What..?”

“This happened the night you caught her fucking Derek?!” he shouts, jumping from his seat to step closer to me. “The same night you decided to go off on your own instead of calling us to come back and get you?”

I nod once, chewing the inside of my cheek when he looks like he’s ready to strangle me.

The summer before junior year, I came home from vacation three days early to surprise her. We’d been gone for almost two weeks, Katherine was pissing me off and I was losing my mind. I just wanted my fucking girl, so I caught the first flight home and drove straight to her house to find her. I walked right in on her and Derek mid fuck, knocked the stupid fucker out cold and left her crying her heart out on the bedroom floor.

I didn’t call my brothers.

Instead I found a dealer and bought a bag of weed – something I’d never touched in my life – then I went to the first bar that would let me in and swallowed half a bottle of vodka.

Then Levi found me, and then shit got complicated.

We might not have been the ones to do it, but it doesn’t really matter. We helped him bury the body, and if the body’s ever found, we’ll go down right alongside him.

He made sure of that.

“Wren.”

“What, Damon?”

“Tell me.”

“I told you I can’t–”

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