making, even back then, weren’t you?”
The bitch wasn’t letting it go. And her trip down memory lane was a little twisted.
“I said shut up, Chloe!”
“You should have left Isaac Henry alone. He wasn’t hurting anyone. But you had to show Heather that you were worthy, didn’t you?” Chloe pushed and got in her face. “So what if Brenna liked him. Why did you have to mess with her, too? She hadn’t done anything to you. She wasn’t a threat to any of us.”
“Us? You’re not one of us. You never were.” Jade lashed out with anything that would sting, but Chloe was on a roll. She wasn’t listening.
“You heard someone sold him peyote. And you told Heather he’d be naked in that sweat lodge he was building. You knew she had the hots for him.” Chloe glared. “Hell, she had the hots for any guy someone else wanted.”
“So that’s it.” Jade laughed. “I always wondered if you knew.”
“What are you talking about?” Chloe’s eyes got watery. “Knew about what?”
“You found out that Heather screwed your precious Lucas, didn’t you?”
“What?” Chloe grimaced and walked away, but Jade followed. “Don’t…say that.”
“As I recall, she said he was a really good lay, too, but you wouldn’t know about that, would you? He doesn’t even know you exist.” Jade went on the offensive to get control and hit Chloe where she’d hurt the most.
“That’s not true.” Chloe shook her head and kept her nose to the wall. She was too much of a coward to turn around. “And Lucas wouldn’t have done that. He was too good for her.”
“No, you knew about them. That’s why you can’t look me in the eye.”
When the blonde didn’t say anything, Jade knew she was right. It was hard for her to understand a girl like Chloe, except that if the girl admitted to knowing Heather had screwed Lucas, she’d have to admit that Lucas had “betrayed” her, too, her twisted version of betrayal, that is. And that was something Chloe would never do.
“You are in serious denial.” Jade softened her tone, all part of the Chloe game. “The minute she found out how you felt about Lucas, that put a target on his sweet ass. As far as Heather was concerned, he had ‘Fair Game’ written on his forehead. Didn’t you get that? She did that to me, too. You remember Ethan?”
Talking about Ethan brought back bad memories. Jade still hated Heather for what she did. Any chance she’d had with Ethan had been ruined. And Heather had done the same with Chloe, who had gotten real quiet, the way she always did when she didn’t like what she heard. The blonde stuck a finger in her mouth and chewed a nail.
“That’s why we have to stick together, Chloe.” Jade closed the gap between them and rubbed her hands on the girl’s shoulders, pretending to be sympathetic. “Heather did that to both of us. That’s why I hate talking about her.”
Chloe turned around and hugged her. The move took Jade by surprise. She rolled her eyes and hugged her back until the girl quit crying.
“Why don’t you light up? That’ll chill you out. You’ll feel better.”
Grass had become a crutch for Chloe. And Jade knew how to use it. The girl nodded and slumped on the couch to light up a joint. When the smell of marijuana filled the room, Jade waited until Chloe got real mellow before she grabbed her purse.
“I’ve gotta pee. And I’m calling Derek again.” Jade made a show of grabbing her cell phone and heading for the bathroom, but when she was down the hall, she went up the back stairs near the kitchen. She wanted a closer look at Chloe’s secret drawer—and that damned journal.
She’d never thought about it before, but what if that idiot Chloe had stuff in her diary about the night Heather died. The girl was stupid like that.
And Jade had too much at stake not to find out what Chloe had written.
Without saying a word, Matt Logan drove his nephew out to the trailhead that led to the old bridge over Cry Baby Creek. Derek didn’t say anything, especially after he saw where they were going. Matt parked the cruiser and turned off his headlights.
“Get out.” He glared at his nephew.
The boy did as he was told. He looked scared, but he kept his mouth shut. An innocent kid would have protested real loud by now. Matt kept his face stern, but inside he ached for his