Chapter One
Tristin
From Thea’s bed to the police station in less than thirty minutes. I should have known the contentment I’d experienced while nestled in her lemon-scented sheets was too good to be true.
Good things didn’t happen to me. Not anymore.
And if they did, they were fleeting.
I’d gotten one afternoon and one night with Thea. I should probably be grateful. But my old friend, bitterness, was rearing his ugly head.
Because a single afternoon and night would never be enough. I’d had a taste of her sweet body and healing soul, and I wanted more. But what I wanted—needed—didn’t matter. It hadn’t for a long time.
I should have listened to my instincts. My life was nothing but a wasteland, and Thea didn’t belong in it. If sitting in yet another police interview room wasn’t a wakeup call, nothing would be.
Detective Dyck—an unfortunate name if I’d ever heard one—pulled out the chair across the table from me, the metal legs screeching as they made contact with the concrete floor. He’d also questioned me about the incident at the football house, and his current expression told me he wasn’t any more convinced of my innocence than he had been four days ago.
Four days...fuck. Time was moving even slower than it had in juvie, because I could have sworn weeks had passed instead of days.
“I’d say it’s good to see you again, Tristin, but I’d be lying.”
I bit back a snort. “Same here.”
He tapped his pen on the table. “Tell me. Where were you last night, from nine o’clock on?”
“I was on a boat at the marina until almost midnight.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate, though I doubted that information helped me. From what the officers had said back at the house, Bodie’s accident had happened sometime early this morning.
But whoever had loosened his lug nuts had likely acted earlier. Which meant that Thea wasn’t the solid alibi she’d assumed.
Dyck jotted down a few notes. “After you left the marina? What then?”
“I drove to my house and went straight to Thea’s room, where I stayed until the officers showed up this morning.” I wasn’t the type to kiss and tell, but she’d already admitted as much, so there was no point in hiding that we’d spent the night together.
“Miss Gale was in her bedroom when you arrived?”
“Yes.”
“What, exactly, is the nature of your relationship with her?”
I crossed my arms over my chest to keep from doing something stupid. Like overreact. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
Detective Dyck leaned his elbows on the table, his narrowed-eyed gaze unimpressed. “It’s relevant if she’s lying to protect you.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but Thea is a hot chick who happens to be living in my house. There’s nothing more to our relationship than that.” I swallowed past the burn in my throat at the fiction spewing from my mouth. “She has no reason to lie for me.”
He wrote something else in his notebook, but attempting to read his chicken scratch upside down was fruitless. After setting down his pen, he looked at me again. “You’ve been out of juvenile detention for, what? A month?”
“Something like that.” It had actually only been twenty-six days, but who was counting?
“Okay. So, you’ve been out for a month, and you’ve already been in here as a suspect for two different crimes. Three, if we’d had any evidence of sexual assault. Do you see a problem with that?”
I gritted my teeth. This fucker thought he was so superior, and it was pissing me off. “I see a problem with you continually blaming me for things I didn’t do.”
Going to that damn party had been the second worst decision of my life. I’d walked into the football house, and a minute later, I’d found myself in a bedroom upstairs with a girl who had been given a date-rape drug. I hadn’t touched her, other than to help her to the bed to lie down.
Of course, no one had believed me. No one...except Thea.
Dyck inclined his head. “We now know you weren’t responsible for drugging Miss Stevens. I’ll give you that much.”
Well, that was news. Last I’d heard, I was still their prime suspect.
Laughing under my breath, I couldn’t resist baiting him. “Wow, you must be a much better detective than I thought. How did you solve the crime of the century?”
“Maybe you should ask your brothers,” he replied sharply before standing. “If you think of anything else that might be useful, be sure to give us a call.”
My only response was a flippant head nod as he opened the door and waved me through it. Thankfully, this interview had been much less painful than the last one. Probably because they had absolutely nothing to go on other than my perceived grudge against Bodie Jacobs.
In reality, I didn’t give a shit about that guy. I just wanted him to leave me the hell alone. Even if I hated him enough to fuck with his car, I wasn’t that stupid. Eighteen months in lockup had been more than enough for me. I had no intention of going back.
I’d foolishly believed that after my release from juvie, I would keep my head down and attend Harbor U for a year while I figured out how to get the hell out of this town.
The plan had sounded so simple.
But, then, Bodie happened.
Then, Thea and her crazy scheme for me to make amends with Violet at the party.
And whatever Leo and Hayle had been up to at the Backwoods Tavern last night.
What had sounded so simple was now more than complicated. It had only been twenty-six days, and everything was fucked up.
Maybe I’d been wrong...
Maybe I needed to escape this town sooner rather than later.
Maybe my disappearance would be better for everyone.
Chapter Two
Thea
No one was talking.
Leo had driven Tristin, Hayle, and I to the police station and back with no more than two words exchanged between us. And I didn’t like it. Shouldn’t Tristin be asking what the hell was going on? And shouldn’t Leo and Hayle be explaining whatever had gone down last night?
I knew why I was keeping my mouth shut. I couldn’t get Leo’s hurt expression and Hayle’s knowing, resigned one out of my mind. I’d blurted that Tristin had spent the night with me to protect him. But, as the detective had explained during my short interview, Tristin’s appearance at the Sharpe mansion around midnight didn’t put him in the clear.
Bodie’s car had been tampered with in the Backwoods Tavern parking lot sometime between ten-thirty and one. So, my confession had been useless. And now it seemed that all three of the Sharpe brothers were pissed at me.
I wasn’t sure what I’d done to incite Tristin’s ire, but the way he was keeping his entire body turned away from me in the backseat told me something was going on in that hard head of his. And I doubted it was good.
Leo parked in the driveway, which suggested he planned to leave again soon. To escape to the boxing gym he frequented in secret? I wouldn’t be surprised. Punching—bags and sometimes people—was how he relieved stress. And there was no doubt the morning had been full of that.