Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“I know.”
I wrap my hand around her thigh and squeeze softly, because I can sense her resolve weakening, and she’ll punish me less if I remind her why she stays with me.
“Fine.” She sighs resentfully. “Yes, if he hadn’t been there, she would have died in the car.”
She’s offering a small amount of grace for a guy she’d still very much like to dismember with her bare hands. It’s enough, though.
“Thank you for acknowledging that.”
“All right. Talk to him first. Try to get his side of things.” Sloane rises to her feet, done with me for the moment. No one likes hearing don’t kill anyone yet less than Sloane Tresscott. She’s a fighter to her core. “But if he won’t come clean…”
I nod grimly. “I know.”
She’s giving him one chance here, and one chance only. For his sake, Fenn better grab this lifeline before it becomes a noose.
CHAPTER 5
FENN
“MR. SWINNEY?” CASEY SAYS WITH HER JAW JUTTING OPEN. “THAT guy who looks like an old moth-eaten wool coat that’s fallen off its hanger in the back of the closet?”
It’s an apt description, and I almost choke myself laughing as we find a nice shady spot to throw down our picnic blanket Saturday afternoon.
“It’s the perfect cover,” I answer. “Who’d suspect, right?”
The Sandover Prep campus is deceptively large, extending for hundreds of acres beyond the main facilities. Much of it is untouched woodland that most of us have barely explored. Today we wandered off one of the walking trails to discover a hollow among the evergreens. Autumn is in full swing. Everywhere else on campus, the leaves are starting to turn in an array of reds and oranges, the ground becoming crunchy and brown. Here, there’s still a lot of green to be seen.
We sit, and I begin setting out some snacks I brought. I found a small gourmet grocery about a half hour away that I paid to put something together. Had it delivered to the dorm this morning. Best of all, I got them to procure two raw marrow bones from the butcher shop in Calden, the small town closest to the Sandover campus.
I waste no time tossing the bones at Casey’s two salivating golden retrievers, who snatch up their respective bones and race off to find a quiet place to gorge. Good. That’ll keep them busy for a while.
“So, you followed him?” Casey says with a laugh.
“Yup. And this place was not easy to get to. Which, you know, makes sense. RJ and I spent the night traipsing through the woods in the pitch-black. Getting cut up and tripping over rocks every other step.”
“I would have been terrified,” she says nervously. “You could have found his murder shack or something.”
“The thought did occur to me.”
I’m having the hardest time concentrating on the conversation, not entirely sure the words are coming out in the right order. Casey is beautiful against the backdrop of sunlight filtering through the trees. I get distracted by her strawberry-blond hair catching in the breeze and the way she licks her fingers after biting into an orange slice. The simplest things about her get me all weird in the head. I’d consider it a sickness if I didn’t prefer to spend time with her than do just about anything else.
“The real fun was hauling ass out of there thinking we were about to get caught by a bunch of heavily armed drug traffickers who were going to cut off our fingers and send them to our parents.”
“All that so RJ could keep seeing Sloane.” Casey smiles to herself. “He’s a piece of work.”
I pull a bottle of prosecco out of my backpack along with two glasses I stole from the dining hall. For some dumb reason, I struggle to pour because my fingers are shaky.
“Are you okay?” She watches me with amused concern. “You’re kind of shaking a lot.”
“You make me a little nervous,” I confess.
Casey cocks her head. “I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s true.”
Lately I’ve made it a point not to lie to her. Any more than I already have and no more than necessary. I’m trying this new path of absolute uncomfortable honesty. Sort of. It’s complicated. I don’t know. I guess it feels like I’m trying to compensate for all the other ways I’m about to screw her up.
“That’s ridiculous.”
I hand her the glass I’ve somehow managed not to spill all over the blanket. “Trust me, you’re well out of my league.”
“You’re cute when you’re full of crap.”
She laughs off my comment as an attempt at being charming. For some reason, this girl’s got it in her head I’m a catch. I don’t know whatever gave her that idea. Sometimes I wish I could tell her all the rotten secrets that would send her running.
“Here, try this one.” Casey pops a cheese cube in my mouth and watches me for a reaction.