Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,129

I could feel him searching for the right description. “It was… different. First of all, I missed you all day. It felt wrong without you there.”

“You’ve been going to school there for over three years without me,” I reminded him.

“Yes, but that was before I knew what I was missing,” he retorted, lightly rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. “Aside from that, of course everyone was talking about Nell and wanted to know what had really happened. The rumors going around are pretty wild.”

I groaned. “That’s great. Just what I need.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll die down. But you should’ve seen all the people stopping by the lunch table—you know, just to ask about you of course.” He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t need to hear their thoughts to know what they really wanted.”

“What did you tell them?”

“The truth. It’s an on-going police investigation, and none of us are at liberty to say anything.” Michael smiled smugly.

“Good answer,” I said.

“Thanks. Like I said, pretty soon everyone will have something else to talk about and they’ll leave us alone.”

“How are Amber and Cara doing? And did Liza or Casey say anything to you?”

“Amber and Cara seem to be doing fine. I think they’re getting to be pretty good friends—I guess they bonded over this whole thing. And I only passed Liza in the hall. She made a point of not even looking my way.”

“Hmm.” We sat in silence for a few minutes, as I digested all the news. “They must be shaken up by this whole thing.”

“Amber said that Nell’s group was questioned by the police, so I’d say you’re right about that.”

“What about Ms. Lacusta?” I had nearly forgotten about the teacher until then.

Michael shrugged. “As far as I know, she was in school today. And I didn’t hear anything about her in all the talk going around.”

I leaned closer to Michael and lay my head on his shoulder. The night was peaceful; through the cooling air I could hear the chirp of crickets and cars in the distance. His fingers tightened around mine, and when he spoke, it was hardly above a murmur.

“Are you worried about tomorrow? Talking with that detective?”

I frowned. “A little. I think my parents are resigned to the fact that I’m going to have to tell him the truth.”

“Will you?”

“If I have to. I’m not going to lie and implicate someone else just to protect myself, and that’s what I’d be doing if I said I overheard Nell talking to someone. Even if I claimed not to know who she was talking to—they’d still think there was another person who knew. I can’t do that.”

“I know. What do you think they’ll do?”

“Will they believe me, do you mean? I’m not sure. It might make me sound more suspect. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

And the waiting was the hard part.I tossed and turned in bed that night; I hadn’t been active enough to be worn out, and my anxiety about meeting with the detective intensified when I was alone in the dark.

When I finally did fall into a troubled sleep, my dreams all centered around Nell. I was back in the woods, and she had the knife. My nightmares didn’t allow for rescue; instead, I was powerless as I watched Nell stab Michael over and over again. My own screams woke me, and my mother was immediately at my side, soothing me.

She stayed next to me the rest of the night, but I remained restless. When dawn broke, I was more tired than I’d been the night before. I dozed on the sofa in the living room, reassured by the familiar sounds of my mother preparing breakfast. In my half-asleep state, I could hear her thoughts and those of my dad, as they worried over me.

I roused myself mid-morning to shower, carefully protecting the bandages on my neck and avoiding the lump that still ached on the back of my head. The detective was scheduled to arrive at noon, and I was jittery as I tried to fill the time until the meeting. I sat in my mom’s office with her as she sketched; she kept up a constant chatter about her shortened visit to New York, describing the hotel, the buildings and the author with whom she was working.

“She was so understanding when I had to leave. I guess I’ll have to go back once everything is settled down here.” My mom cast a concerned glance my way. “No rush, of