Trick Me Twice - Becca Steele Page 0,48

know who he is!” My voice grew louder and higher in pitch, and I winced at the sound, but I made sure I glared at him through the screen. “And also, why do you even care?” I added in a quieter tone.

“I wish I fucking knew,” he muttered, before the screen went blank, and he was gone.

21

The sound of laughter and talking filtered through my open bathroom window as I stood at the sink washing my hands, not loud enough to be an issue, but the sound carried through the still night air. Although I couldn’t see his house from the window, I knew the sound was coming from Carter’s. My aunt was working, and Carter’s parents were probably out, given the noise. While Carter had been adamant about not being behind the money theft, there were still doubts in my mind—after all, who else would have a reason to do that to me, or even have the means to? I stood at the window, hesitating for a long moment, before I made my mind up. I had to know.

Slipping out of the back of the house, I made my way down to the bottom of the garden, to the corner where it joined to Carter’s. Unfortunately, there was no convenient broken fence panel or gap to slip through to get into his garden. Instead, I dragged the recycling bin from its position by the back gate that led out into an alleyway and placed it against Carter’s fence. Then, I climbed up onto it, feeling it wobble beneath me, and gripped the edges of the fence and peered over.

It looked like I was in luck. The large panel of doors was wide open. Before I could think through what I was doing, or even how I was going to get back into my own garden, I was swinging my legs over the fence and dropping to the ground. I made my way up the garden as quickly as I could, thankful that the outside lights were on, meaning the security lights wouldn’t be activated. As long as I kept to the side of the garden, no one should see me.

When I reached the house, I peered in through the open lounge windows, seeing several of Carter’s friends sprawled out on the sofas, Black Panther playing on the giant TV screen. There was another cluster of people standing around and talking at the far side of the room, and I was totally unprepared for the jolt of pure jealousy when I realised that Carter was there, leaning against the wall with his arm loosely around Tina’s waist. I gritted my teeth, tamping down the inexplicable urge to scratch out Tina’s eyeballs, or maybe Carter’s, or both, although Carter barely seemed to be paying her any attention. Instead, I turned my attention to the open doors that led into the huge kitchen.

The kitchen was empty, and I knew I had to take my chance before anyone came in. My heart pounding, I slipped through the doors and ran for the hallway that led to the stairs.

It seemed that luck was on my side for once. I made it to the stairs and raced upstairs as fast as I could. At the top, I took a moment to catch my breath before I crept along the landing towards Carter’s bedroom. Turning the handle softly, I inched inside and closed the door behind me. The room was dark, but the blinds were open, and from the glow of the streetlights I could easily make out the features of the room. I had the torch on my phone that I could use, too, because there was no way I was going to risk turning on a light.

First up, I went for Carter’s desk drawers, flipping on my phone torch after opening the top drawer. Reaching inside, I shuffled the items around—pens, an old camera—

“Carter!” My head snapped around at the giggling word coming from outside the room. Shit! Where could I hide? Slamming the drawer shut, I dived for the door next to me, shoving my way into piles of material. Oh, bloody hell, I was stuck inside his wardrobe. I left the door cracked open, because who knew if it could be opened from the inside? I wasn’t about to be stuck in here all night.

“Mmmm. So this is what Carter Blackthorne’s bedroom looks like.” Tina strutted across the room as Carter flicked on a lamp, and I was suddenly unreasonably jealous. He