Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I inch away from him in shock.
“And I panicked hard. My dad would literally murder me if I got arrested for crashing a car with a drugged-out dead girl at prom. And they’d say I roofied you or something. I mean, what the fuck was I supposed to do?” He makes a choking noise. “The water was coming so fast. And you were already gone. I thought you were, anyway. I checked for a pulse over and over, I swear. I never would’ve left you if I knew you were alive.”
He spares a desperate glance at me, tinged with sorrow. I stand plastered against the opposite wall of lockers, chest tight, breathing shallow. I’m glued in place now. Unable to move if I wanted to, thanks to the phantom sensation of the water climbing up my legs.
“My jacket got caught on the seat belt and wouldn’t budge, so I just took it off. I grabbed Gabe’s bag and got the hell out of there. Ran as fast as I could all the way to the main road and grabbed an Uber outside the Ballard gates. When I got back to the dorm at Sandover, the housefather caught me coming out of the stairwell. I was soaking wet and looking guilty as shit. He made me open the bag—and what can I say at that point? I told him the drugs belonged to Gabe.”
Lucas bites hard on his bottom lip. He looks like he’s about to cry.
“I wasn’t going down for that shit. No fucking way. But I knew Gabe would be furious with me, so I begged Dad not to tell him I was the one who ratted him out. I don’t know what he told him. Gabe was gone, and I was here. And you… I thought you were dead.”
“The red lights,” I whisper.
He looks up. “Huh?”
“Do you ever see the red lights?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I see them. Every night. Because you left me there.”
He scrambles to his feet and rushes at me. “I know. Fuck, I know.” Lucas puts his hands against the locker on either side of my face. “I’m so sorry, Casey. I messed up so bad. I panicked, I admit that. But I never wanted you to get hurt. The crash was an accident—”
“You left me to die, Lucas.” I shove him off.
“I thought you were already dead,” he insists. “You know me, Casey. You know I’d never hurt you.”
“But you did. And then you kept it a secret all these months! You let me torture myself obsessing over what happened that night. You even pretended to be helpful when I told you what I remembered! ‘Maybe it was a girl,’” I mimic, scoffing at him.
He grabs my arm before I can scurry off, keeping me in place. “I’m sorry. Please. Don’t go. I need you to believe me.”
“Let me go,” I say softly.
“You forgave Fenn,” he says, pleading at me. Squeezing my arm too tight. “That means you can forgive me too.”
“Let go of my arm—”
I barely get the last word out before he’s suddenly snatched away from me.
My heart is pounding as I watch RJ and Fenn restrain Lucas by his shoulders. Sloane rushes past them to wrap a protective arm around me.
Lucas doesn’t fight them. His entire body seems to sag, muscles giving out as he nearly collapses. RJ yanks him back up, but not violently. I don’t know how much they heard of the conversation, but I get the sense they understand that Lucas isn’t a danger to anyone.
Sadness grips my heart as our gazes lock.
“I’m sorry, Case,” he whispers.
“I know,” I say.
Because I can see his remorse, his shame, practically clawing its way out of his skin. His dazed eyes unable to focus as he sways on his feet.
He did a terrible thing to me. There’s no denying that. But I think I believe him when he says he wouldn’t have left if he thought I was alive.
Still, that doesn’t stop me from nodding when my sister says she’s calling the police. It isn’t until she tells me the cops are on their way that I release a breath and peel my fingernails from the red, punctured skin of my palm.
CHAPTER 50
SILAS
LOOKING AT HER NOW, I DON’T KNOW HOW I PUT UP WITH AMY FOR so long. She’s always been so insecure. Paranoid to a fault. Even tonight, weeks since we broke up, she still can’t resist the way her eyes wander in my direction. Sparing glances over her shoulder when she thinks I’m not looking. It’s so obvious. She believes she’s got the upper hand by avoiding me all night, but it’s not punishment when I know she’s obsessed with me noticing she’s ignoring me. It’s so high school, I want to gag.
“Are we ever going to come to one of these things where Casey doesn’t set off a manhunt?” I say to Lawson, who’s standing beside me next to the empty photo booth.