Page 63 of Wicked Games

“Right. Closer to what? They were working with someone who wanted or needed money? Because at that point, that’s all it was, right? She wanted to scare you, and she found someone who would take the money in exchange for the risk of doing that. Then something happened at the drop-off site, he kills Theo, and later he kills Hattie and maybe Brooke to cover his tracks? Brooke told them where the GPS was in the bag, and the guy got away. What would he need to cover up?”

Seth looks at me, his eyes sharp. “Who they are. Hattie knew—she watched them at the park. Brooke knew because she hired them. The plan went sideways and they were afraid she’d want to pay them back for killing Theo.”

“Would she admit that?” I ask skeptically. “She’d be telling on herself, and she’d be telling on Hattie who was her accomplice. Would Brooke do that?”

“I have no idea. Probably not. She got her divorce and my money, and she got Vale. Theo would have turned into collateral damage all because she wanted to punish me for working and having a friendship with Violet. She could have left things how they were and just prayed guilt didn’t eat her alive first.”

“But Theo’s kidnappers couldn’t risk it. You should talk to Detective LaSalle again. I doubt they’re thinking Brooke is behind this, or if they do have a theory, they’re not going to tell you that.”

“That’s true, but there’s one thing we’re forgetting. The gun that killed Theo and Hattie. Do you know for sure the same gun killed her?” He picks up the paper our tacos were wrapped in, balls it up, and throws it in the garbage.

“That’s what Bill said, but what if that’s just to throw us off the trail, or, not us. The police. Detective LaSalle’s been looking into the Reapers, so has Detective Mueller. What if they can’t find a connection because there isn’t one? What if one of the Reapers tossed it, forgot about it, and some nobody off the street found it? Or maybe they pawned it and an unlucky, or lucky, however you want to look at it, someone bought it. Now you have someone who isn’t connected to the Reapers murdering people, and the cops are looking at that gang for nothing? Using time and manpower? That’s a convenient diversion.”

“And Hattie just happened to have testified against Jenkins?”

I lift my hands. “And Hattie just happened to be my sister? And I just happened to have rented a house next door to you for the summer? And we just happened to—” I blush. “That’s a lot of coincidences.”

“Take out the coincidences then. No one knew Hattie was your sister, and I can understand why you kept that lowkey. No one knew that, and Brooke was smart to go to Hattie so she could build buzz for that community center. They very easily could have stayed acquaintances rather than turned into friends.”

“You only got rid of one coincidence, and you actually added one. That Brooke and Hattie were friends in the first place, and way before any of this happened, because she interviewed Brooke for her blog. Who put her in touch with Hattie?”

“She could have gone to Hattie on her own.”

I wilt. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Or Hattie could have contacted her to ask about the community center, and you. I think Hattie was more interested in Brooke spending time with Rowan than she was doing fundraising on Brooke’s behalf.”

A corner of his mouth twitches. “You have a very pragmatic view of your sister.”

“She was always like that, since we were kids. She’d be flipping through Us Weekly and In Touch, and I’d be in my room doing a book report on The Bell Jar. We always managed to stay close though.”

“How many years were between you?”

“Two. I was younger but that didn’t stop her from including me. Anywhere she went she made sure I knew I could go too. Sometimes that annoyed her friends, but she never let that bother her.”

“She sounds nice. How did she meet her husband?”

I shake my head in amusement. “She wanted to get a nose job and she met with Bill for a consultation.” I glance at him. I don’t remember if I told Seth what Bill does for a living. “He’s a plastic surgeon, and he told her she was pretty just the way she was and asked her out. They dated for a few years before they got married and were coming up on their second anniversary. He’s a good guy. Misses her a lot, obviously.”

“He didn’t mind she did what she did?”

“No. I think because she didn’t do it with any kind of malicious intent. She was like Robin Hood. Getting back at the bad guys, exposing them so they could be punished for being assholes. She didn’t gossip to be nasty, but people just didn’t like that, you know? Bill thinks this would have happened eventually, and maybe he’s right. After she testified against Jenkins, she hid out for a whole year. Didn’t leave her apartment, got her groceries delivered. The cops watched her building for a while, but they stopped after a few months because nothing happened. That was about the time she met Bill and when he wasn’t at work, he was with her. He respected her, and this stuff with Theo and Brooke . . . If we find out she was helping Brooke just to get back at you for something as silly as your friendship with Violet, that’s going to break his heart. It goes against everything we thought she was.”

He throws our beer bottles into a recycle bin close to our table. “Do you think it’s more than that?”

Reaching for my purse, I say, “I don’t want to, because that means something more serious than just petty revenge is going on, but I don’t want to think that of my sister, either. I’ll have no choice if we find evidence, but there’s no right answer here.”

The band starts to play a slow song, and he says, “Leave your purse and dance with me.”

The town turned a basketball court into a dance area, and Seth leads me across the grass. My purse and candles are in sight, and in a town this small, I doubt anyone would steal them anyway.

He cuddles me to him and blows out a breath. I wrap one arm around his waist, put my other hand on his shoulder, and rest my cheek against his chest. We aren’t really dancing, and I wouldn’t know how even if he wanted to, just standing here swaying. There isn’t anyone else on the makeshift dance floor, and with the sun setting and the sad notes drifting around us, everything just kind of falls away except for his heartbeat under my ear and his steady hand splayed across my back.

“When we met,” he says, his voice a raspy grumble, “I didn’t want this. I wasn’t ready, and sometimes I feel like I’m still not.” He leans away and holds my face between his hands. “But I love you, Avery, and maybe, if one day you can love me back, I’d like to have a life with you. That’s a long time away, I know, but I wanted you to understand what my intentions are.”

His words bring tears to my eyes, and I try to smile. “If I can love you back? Seth, I already do.”

A sigh shudders out of him and he kisses me, tangling his fingers in my hair. Deepening the kiss, he ravages my mouth, and I fall in. These past few months have broken him, but I’ll do all I can to put him back together.

“Tell me if I go too fast. I don’t want to crowd you.”