I cringed and clenched my teeth together. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I turned the handle harder and the pipes gurgled and choked, spraying one violent blast before dribbling some more.
“I’m about to get myself electrocuted in this shower, you know,” I pleaded with it. “Give me something!”
It hissed and choked a few more times before hacking up a hunk of limestone, then the dribbling stream transformed into a vicious firehose.
“Thanks,” I said blandly. I might have whooped a little too.
I stepped into the shower and closed my eyes like I was soaking in all the luxury of a Ritz Carlton. Not that this moment right here didn’t feel just as good. Maybe better. I wasn’t working on prison time anymore. Here I was, taking a shower when I wanted and, most importantly, alone and without fear. I stayed in the shower for much longer than I needed to, longer than the warm water decided it wanted to stay with me. I did my best to avoid washing the skin clean off my body, only stepping out when my bones shook with an icy chill.
Chapter 4
“So, your boyfriend’s back.”
Lizzie’s voice nearly made me jump out of my skin. I’d been trying very hard to focus on putting books where they belonged without thinking about Kash. He’d taken up entirely too much brain space lately. I’d lost sleep over him the night before and had taken the long way to work that morning just to avoid the motel. I was sure he was staying there—it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go.
“Ex-boyfriend,” I corrected her. “Also, this is a library. Keep your voice down.”
She smirked at me and leaned against the bookshelf, flipping her blonde hair back. “So that means he’s up for grabs, then?”
The icy shock to my system surprised me. I whirled on her, nearly dropping my armload of books.
“Don’t you dare. You know he killed my brother,” I said, swallowing back the bile that rose from me saying those words. “Plus, what kind of friend are you, anyway?”
She chuckled. “Did he? Did he, really? Seems to me if he really killed Hunter he wouldn’t be walking free right now. Cops make mistakes, you know.”
I turned away from her and shoved a book into place. “Not this time.”
“Oh, really? So you were there when it happened?”
“You know I wasn’t.”
“Right, because you were with me. Hanging out, watching horror flicks—”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, come on, it’s not like you could have known it was happening. Let that guilt go away.”
That familiar twinge twisted my gut. Of course I couldn’t have known, not intellectually anyway. But I had known that something was wrong. I’d been uncomfortable the whole night. Lizzie had made fun of me for being so freaked out by old B-movie horror, but it hadn’t been that. I’d known Hunter was in trouble and I hadn’t done anything. I pushed it off as paranoia. Maybe if I hadn’t, he’d still be here.
“You know, being an observer to the whole situation gives me a sort of—vantage point.” She ran her finger over the spines in my cart.
“What kind of vantage point?”
“Well, see, the whole thing was very curious to me. Very curious. For as much as Hunter pissed Kash off sometimes, I never saw Kash as a killer. I never thought you would be stupid enough to hook up with a killer, for one thing. Plus, the two of them, Kash and Hunter, they were thicker than thieves.”
I stiffened, muscles knotting across my back. “I never claimed to be a genius,” I muttered.
“Yeah, yeah. But trust me. You’re not that dumb. So anyway, I went poking around after he’d been charged with murder. I followed the trial and kept tabs on the appeals. I assume you didn’t do the same.”
“What makes you think so?”
“If you had, you wouldn’t still think Kash was Hunter’s killer.” She paused, examining my face with her big blue eyes.
Apparently I was a better liar than I thought because she apparently couldn’t really tell where my beliefs sat. It’s not that I thought Kash killed my brother. It’s just that…if he hadn’t then he wouldn’t have avoided me the way he had. He would have at least sent me one damn letter back.
I wanted to ask Lizzie to elaborate, but I couldn’t bring myself to. If she knew something I didn’t, it would give me hope. Worse, it would mean that the years of simmering fury I’d held on to and fed in to were years of wasted energy.
She shrugged. “Well, I guess if you’re not interested—”
“Wait.” I took a deep breath and set the stack of books down. “I feel like I need coffee for this.”
I glanced at the clock. It was close enough to get away with an early lunch.
“Meet me outside in five minutes,” I told her.
She grinned wide and blinked slow like a cat. “There’s the smarty-pants I know.”
It took me exactly five minutes to get everything wrapped up before I could head to lunch. When I got outside, Lizzie was sitting in her violently red hatchback, tapping on the cracked steering wheel impatiently. I slid in through the open window on the passenger’s side—the door never had opened properly, so why put in the effort?
“So? You ready to hear?” Her eyes sparkled the way they always did when she was about to spill some gripping gossip.
“I meant what I said about coffee.”
“Ugh, fine.”
The coffee shop was close enough to walk to. Everything was, which was one reason why I hadn’t bothered to try and buy a car yet even though I’d gotten my license at fourteen. Rural laws and all. But Lizzie was determined to get her money’s worth out of the little red piece of junk, so we drove.
Only when I had my coffee in hand did I let her speak.
“Okay, so check this out,”
