Joke’s on You by Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,20

and apparently Kerrie, walked with me.

He held back, though, typing something on his phone.

“Spare keys aren’t all that safe,” the officer observed as I slid a brick out of the building and pulled out my key.

I grimaced. “I know. But I lock myself out a lot. This door always locks behind me, and sometimes I don’t remember to prop it open. Plus, with the alarm, I figure if anybody does find it, and uses it, they’ll hit a snag with the alarm.”

The officer didn’t say anything.

So I chose to think he was reluctantly agreeing with me. After snagging the key and replacing the brick, I opened the back door with it and went to step inside, but the officer caught my arm. “Me first, please.”

I grinned and ducked my head, allowing him to go first.

I followed closely behind, and almost completely forgot about Kerrie.

But he brought up the rear.

I rolled my eyes.

I really wasn’t sure why he was in town, but I had a sinking feeling it had to do with me not answering his messages the night before or today.

He’d never liked Booth and Bourne and hadn’t bothered to hide that fact from Delanie and me.

Which honestly drove me nuts. He never even gave them a chance. How would he know if he liked them or not?

Though, technically, I knew why he didn’t care for them now. Me.

He didn’t like that I still had a ‘hang up’ as he called it over Booth.

Well, spoiler alert, my hang up had been well and truly in place since I’d seen him the day we first moved to town.

“Looks clear,” the officer said as we came to the main room.

Five minutes later, after locking back up and resetting the alarm, the officer went to his patrol car and got in.

He didn’t leave, though.

And, surprisingly, I was quite thankful for that.

The moment he was inside, he pressed his phone to his ear and started talking.

At one point, he’d turned to survey me and Kerrie where we were standing at the front of the building near our cars, and then he turned away again, still talking.

“I think he’s talking about you,” Kerrie said.

I snorted. “I think he’s probably telling Booth that everything is okay.”

Kerrie stiffened at my side.

“Why would he do that?” Kerrie asked stiffly.

“Because he cares,” I said softly. “And he couldn’t come with me.”

“Come with you?” Kerrie pushed.

“Come with me,” I confirmed. “I was over at his house talking about the night that…”I trailed off when Kerrie interrupted.

“The night that he fucked your sister and got her pregnant. When she was engaged to be married to me.”

I stiffened at the hostility in his tone.

“You didn’t want that marriage any more than she did,” I said carefully, a niggling of worry starting to take root in my brain. “That night…” A thought occurred to me. “Did you know that both Booth and Delanie can’t remember anything that night after you handed them both a beer? Literally. Their night shuts off right at that exact moment.”

See, I’d known Kerrie so long that I knew his tells.

I knew when he was lying. I knew when he was pissed. I also knew when he was about to lie.

He ran his tongue over his lips, looked at me, then away. And then he shifted on his feet.

“That’s really weird,” he said. “Both of them can’t remember it from that very moment?”

He. Was. Lying.

What. The. Fuck?

“You’re lying,” I said.

Kerrie stiffened more.

Both of us were standing ramrod straight as we stared at each other in a silent face off.

“Tell me the truth, Kerrie,” I said softly, hoping he would do the right thing. “You did something, didn’t you?” I asked. “It was you… what did you do?”

Kerrie sighed and turned away, his eyes going from me to the streetlight that was flickering at my back, then right back to me. Over and over and over again.

“What did you do, Kerrie?” I asked. “And the other question is… why?”

He laughed then. The sound was almost… harsh. As if the laugh was pulled from the depths of his soul.

“You want to know why I didn’t want to get married to that bitch?” he said then. “Because I love you, Dillan. Not Delanie. You. I fucking love you. Always have. Yet, all you can see is him. I’ve been trying to claw my way out from under the fucking pedestal that you placed Booth on from the moment that you met him.”

My mouth fell open.

“And you want to know the worst thing?