Page 6 of Kings & Chaos

Rock nodded. “Cooks some of the time too. That’s the best time to come, but you never know when he’ll be on the grill, so it’s a roll of the dice. We got lucky.”

Lucky. Right. I wasn’t exactly feeling lucky these days, but right now, sitting in the bar with Rock across from me, I felt safe.

That was something.

I relaxed a little, taking in my surroundings at Screamin’ Syd’s and half-heartedly reading the ticker headlines on the news while we waited for our food. It took less than ten minutes for Honey to bring out two plates holding the biggest burgers I’d ever seen and a tower of onion rings so high I was worried they might topple to the floor.

“There you go, sugar,” she said, putting the plate down in front of me. “I have a hunch you’re going to make quick work of this.”

“Oh, she’ll wipe that plate clean,” Rock said proudly.

“Hey!” I protested, laughing.

“It’s a compliment,” he said. “I love a girl with an appetite.”

I knew he meant it. He loved watching me demolish the food he made at the house.

We dug into our burgers and I closed my eyes with a moan as the juicy meat melted on my tongue. “Oh my god…”

When I opened my eyes, Rock was shifting in his seat. “Yeah, uh, mind toning that down a notch? Otherwise I’m going to have to bend you over the sink in the bathroom, and they arenastyhere.”

“Sorry,” I said, wiping the grease from my chin. I was sorry — sorry that I now had the image in my mind of Rock banging me from behind.Thatwas a distraction I didn’t need. “You were right. Best. Burger. Ever.”

“Told you.” He bit into his own burger, and for a while, I forgot about everything outside of the dimly lit bar, the amazing food, and Rock’s big baby blues staring at me adoringly from across the table.

We talked about my progress at the shooting range (faster than he’d expected), the upcoming quarry party when the second game would be announced (he refused to tell me what it was), and if/where we would all go for Thanksgiving (he was going to see his sister, I had no idea how I would spend the holiday).

I was polishing off my last onion ring when someone in the bar shouted at the bartender. “Turn it up!”

Everyone was focused on one of the TVs displaying the news, a banner screaming at the bottom:BREAKING: Alleged Murderer of Bellepoint Student Found Dead.

The bartender fumbled with the remote, and a second later, the bar was filled with the sound of a reporter, clearly on the scene in front of a house sectioned off with yellow crime scene tape.

I stared at the TV, my heart beating like a trapped bird.

Had they found the person who’d taken Emma?

The reporter, a fresh-faced woman with black hair, was talking into a microphone and staring at the camera. “Blackwell police made a gruesome discovery this morning when an unidentified man was found with self-inflicted gunshot wounds at this house on the south side of Blackwell Falls. The victim hasn’t been identified, but an unnamed source has said that a note was found at the scene confessing to the murder of Bellepoint student Nikki Wells.”

I stood up so fast my chair tipped to the floor behind me. Everyone turned to look, but I hardly noticed. All I could think about was the man who’d confessed to killing Nikki.

Had he killed Emma too? Was he the man who’d been with Dean Giordana at the cabin on the night of the Bad Ball? The man who’d been digging my grave?

I was paralyzed, my feet rooted to the floor.

“Come on,” Rock said, his voice gentle as he took my arm. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Chapter3

Willa

Oscar was pacing the kitchen, clearly agitated, when we stepped into the house from the garage. He was wearing ripped black jeans and aJawsT-shirt that readNeeding a Bigger Boat Since 1975.

It would have made me laugh under any other circumstance.

“This is bullshit,” he said as Rock closed the door behind us.

“Which part?” I asked. I had no idea what he was talking about, and Neo, standing at the window and staring out over the house’s lawn, no longer the verdant green of early fall, was no help at all.

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