don’t want anyone seeing it in the lot and thinking someone is targeting you.” Breaker checks both ways before crossing through the intersection leading to the hill. “Might want to ask your girlfriend to keep her mouth shut about it.”
“One, she’s not my girlfriend, and two, who the hell do you think she’s going to talk to? We did a pretty good job of making it clear that she’s a pariah.” I lean against the door and glare at him.
“Her best friend, Delaney.” He shrugs, turning into our driveway. “I don’t know, man. Someone.” He parks out front and inspects me.
“She’ll be quiet,” I say as we walk inside the house.
“She better be,” Byron finally speaks. “Because we have a plan.”
Byron and Dixon are in the living room, watching the cameras. Byron leans forward, his arms on his knees, studying the top left screen. He watches her in her dorm like she’s something to be handled, not protected.
“We’ll get your truck fixed tomorrow,” Byron explains.
“Cameras didn’t show much. Whoever fucked with you is smart. They didn’t show their face, wore a black hoodie, but if I were to guess . . .” Dixon allows his thought to trail off.
“What’s the plan?” I ask, knowing damn well what happened tonight has given Byron enough reason to push the plan into place. Breaker avoids my eyes like a coward. “Let me guess, I’m not going to like it.”
“We need to drag him out. Now. If he’s still lurking around campus, then this plan should bring him out. At some point, he’ll slip up,” Dixon explains, watching Byron for direction.
“And if he doesn’t slip up, then what? We’ll have put an innocent girl in harm’s way, for what?” I argue. “Can you live with Palmer’s blood on your hands?”
“What about Reed’s blood, huh? What about her?” Byron flies from the couch, pressing his chest against mine. “Three hundred and sixty-five days she’s been gone. A year tomorrow. No leads. No closure for us or her family. Let’s remember where your loyalties lie, Marek,” he growls, taking a step away only to shove me backwards. He believes this will show who has the upper hand. When it comes to power, Byron will always believe he has the most. “Reed was yours, too.”
I hold up my hands, frustrated. “Let’s not get it twisted, Byron. She was always yours, whether or not she played with the rest of us.” More lies.
“Is that right? Because last time I checked, that girl had your back more times than not. Maybe have hers one last time.” Byron storms out of the living room with Dixon following him in silence.
“Whatever he wants to do . . .” Breaker starts.
I silence him with a pointed stare. “Yeah, I know. We live by, we die by.”
“Now, tell me how tonight was.” Breaker leans against one of the chairs. “It’s the least you could do for making me play a part in your scheme.”
My mind runs back through the night’s events. Palmer in the cafeteria. The way the light flickered on her cheeks from the lamp. Her boldness at the pool, stripping in front of me.
“She dragged me into the pool.” I rub my hand over the back of my neck. Whenever this comes up, I’m instantly dragged back to a place I’d prefer to keep in the past.
“But you can’t swim,” Breaker acknowledges.
I sigh a heavy breath, practically feeling my lungs filling with water again. “Weakness doesn’t come easy to me, and she somehow figured mine out in a matter of a day.”
“Something tells me you’ll get your strength back in her eyes very soon.” Breaker’s knowing tone is a reality check. “Try not to think of her as a girl who you care about, if that’s even what this is all about, Marek.”
“I don’t know what this is.” I stare at the screen. Palmer is undressing, then she slips between the sheets.
“It’s something, though”—Breaker’s eyebrow lifts, questioning the bullshit I’ve started with this girl— “and if what we think is right, then in the end, she shouldn’t care what we’ve done to get to the truth.”
“That’s how we’re going to justify it, then?” I face him, completely surprised by how the reality settles roughly on my conscience.
“We do whatever we have to do to survive, always, and for each other.” Breaker walks out of the living room, and I fall back into the couch. “Reed was one of us.”
My head pounds with the unknown. We could have this all wrong. Chasing