Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Yeah.” I felt her gaze on the side of my head. “Why was he desperate to talk to you? You never said.”
“Guilty conscience. Between the truth lists, his car getting blown up, his money stolen, Gabriella, Annika, and expulsion hanging over his head, he realized karma was catching up to him. He came to admit what he did to Winter.”
“That’s it? That’s what was so urgent he had to crash my party and end up dead in my pool? Seems like he could’ve called you.”
“Maybe he wasn’t such a complete shitbag because he knew this was a conversation to have in person. Although, he wasn’t making any sense.” I purposely didn’t meet her eyes. “He said something about a dare club and a high prize. I think he was trying to tell me someone dared him to do it, but that doesn’t make any sense, does it? He had two girlfriends at the time. Why would they sit quiet while he slept with my sister for some stupid dare?” Then, I looked at her—narrowing on her normal expression. “Do you know what he was talking about? Ever heard of a dare club on campus?”
Katie shook her head, lips pushed out. “No, nothing. But I wouldn’t be surprised. The guys around here get up to all kinds of disgusting shit. We just found out thanks to those lists that they’ve been passing locker room nudes of the girls. Some nasty-ass club where they dare each other to treat women like trash?” she snorted. “Doesn’t surprise me.”
I analyzed every line of her speech. Nothing rang as false but still... I couldn’t say that I knew Katie long enough to tell when she was lying or hiding something. “I just wish I got a chance to ask him about it. We were attacked before he could say more. You know Giovanni’s friends. Think I could get one of them to talk to me?”
“Doubt it.” Katie turned her back and slid off the bed. “They think you killed him, no matter what the cops say.”
“What about Annika? Giovanni had to give her some kind of explanation for why she had to be cool with her boyfriend dating my sister. She must know about the club. Is she still in the hospital? If I could get in to see her—”
“We’re overthinking this again,” Katie said, picking her phone off the nightstand. “Everyone was bullying Winter and outdoing themselves with how horrible they could be. Annika said it was cool because she’s just as sick and twisted as her boyfriend. Whether they started giving each other prizes for it doesn’t make a difference.”
I nodded slowly. “So you think the dare club is a dead end? Even though Giovanni rushed here to tell me about it?”
“I think he was high and looking for redemption, but he didn’t deserve it, and don’t try to give it to him now that he’s dead. It’s even fucking worse if he did those things to Winter because someone dared him to.”
That we agreed on completely.
“I—”
“Hello,” Katie said into the phone. “Luna is going to be staying the night, so bring two dinners. LuLu, what do you want?”
It was news to me that I was staying the night. If I leave now, I leave with nothing. It wouldn’t hurt to spend more time looking closely at the tapes. At the very least, it’s showing me who definitely did not do it.
“Your chef has never let me down. I’ll eat whatever she puts on the plate.”
“We’ll have your pan-seared salmon with tomato pesto. Light on the oil,” she said. “Send up caffeine too. Lots of it.
“What? What are you talking about? What other guests?”
I glanced up from the laptop, catching her frown.
“I didn’t invite them. I—”
A knock sounded on the outside door. Katie looked toward the exit, then at me. Oh no.
“Yes,” she said. “Send over six plates—”
“No.”
“Thanks, Maria.”
“No, no, no,” I cried as she hung up. “Tell me that four plates are for Dean and the guys he brought for the orgy.”
Katie laughed. “We’re not that kinky, LuLu. Sorry but it’s Saylor, Piper, Everleigh, and Gabby. I didn’t know they were coming, but they know I’m here. If I don’t answer, they’ll think we’re still fighting, and I’m over the drama for a lifetime.”
“But if they see me here, drama is exactly what you’re going to get.”
“Not in my house,” she said, gliding out to my internal screams. “If they cause problems, I’ll throw them out. And you know what? This is a good thing. It’s past time you and Saylor buried your beef.”
My teeth clenched hard. Visions of Saylor painted blue and dripping wet battered my mind. We weren’t burying anything. Saylor Burkhardt would suffer for what she did in that classroom. That was the last time she mocked my sister’s memory.