“This has been a difficult week. But we’re going to get through it, aren’t we, Lexie?” Sadie squeezed the teen’s hand before shifting her attention to Ethan. “It’s nice seeing you again.”
“I wish we were meeting under more pleasant circum-stances.” Ethan was still amazed how much Sadie had changed from when she was a teenager, trying to make her older brother’s life miserable. When she’d eloped with Harris Blackburn, it had devastated Cord. At the time, he wouldn’t talk about it to anyone—even him.
“Are you going to the Montgomery house?” Sadie asked.
“Yes.” Ethan spied the Montgomery family shaking friends’ hands as they filed by and offered their condolences. “Right now they have enough people wanting their attention. I’ll catch Bradley and Annabelle later.” When the sight of the casket wasn’t fresh in their minds.
“Uncle Ethan, can you give me a ride to their house? Mom isn’t going, and I want to be there for Kelly.”
“She’s going?”
“Well, yes. She was his girlfriend,” Lexie said.
Ethan scanned the people still in the sanctuary, but she’d disappeared. “Where did she go?”
“She was leaving out the side door with her mother, at least that was the plan before Carrie and Missy joined her.”
He recognized disapproval in his niece’s voice. Interesting. Why? Jealousy or was there something else going on? “Sure, I’ll take you. I probably won’t stay real long. I just want the family to know how I feel about what has happened.” And he wanted to talk to Kelly even if he had to bring her down to the police station from the reception at the Montgomery’s house.
“Lexie, if you want to stay longer, I’ll take you home.”
“Thanks, Ms. Thompson. I’m only going to stay as long as Kelly does, in case she needs me. She’s taken this very hard.”
Ethan looked around the sanctuary again, in case he’d missed Kelly earlier. Still no sign of her or the two girls his niece mentioned joining Kelly. But he did find Mary Lou waiting to talk with Bradley and Annabelle. Something didn’t feel right about all of this.
“I’d rather not go to the Montgomery Ranch. I can’t act like you want.” Dumb and innocent. None of them were. Kelly rubbed her fingertips into her chest over her heart as though that would stop the racing of her heartbeat. She inhaled one deep breath after another, but it became more difficult the nearer Carrie drove to Jared’s home.
Missy shot her a narrow-eyed look. “You need to act like you’re grieving Jared’s death as his girlfriend. If you don’t show up, people will wonder why, what you’re hiding.”
“His parents don’t want me there.”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
“They wouldn’t even acknowledge me at the funeral.”
“Well, duh. They’re mourning their son. That doesn’t mean you don’t act as you should. To the world you were the last person to see Jared alive when he dropped you off at home.”
“That’s a lie. I can’t do it anymore. I wasn’t the last person who saw him alive.”
“Then who was?”
“I don’t know.” The thump-thump of her heart sounded in Kelly’s ears like the one from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Telltale Heart. “All I remember is he was passed out on the floor near me. When I woke up, he was gone. Did you all do something?”
Missy sent her a glare. “No way. Jared was a good friend to all of us. To tell you the truth I got sick and left early. You and Jared were still there.”
Panic gripped Kelly. “I didn’t do anything to him. I didn’t wake up until morning.” Tears blurred her eyes. “I can’t say anything to his parents. I . . .”
Carrie pulled over to the side of the road and twisted toward Kelly sitting in the back by herself. “They’ll want to talk with you, and you’ll say what we rehearsed. Do you want to take the blame for Jared’s death? The group is prepared to put the blame on you. Remember there are six of us to your one. Who do you think they’re gonna believe? Us or you? We’re prepared to say we left you two at the warehouse and the next thing we hear is that Jared is dead at the lake.”
The sneer that curled Carrie’s lip flash-froze Kelly. Swiping her tears away, she dragged her gaze from the pair in the front seat while she continued to try and calm herself enough to breathe decently. But her chest hurt, and her heart wouldn’t stop racing. “But he wasn’t there. He was gone. I was alone.” A hazy figure leaning over her flickered into her mind. Blue eyes like Jared. Did he wake up, get in his car, and drive away from the warehouse, leaving her alone there? How could he? He had been out cold.
“No one murdered Jared. They’ll find out Jared was disoriented and drove into the water.” Carrie glanced at Missy, then retrieved her purse and rummaged in it until she found a bottle. She shook two pills into her palm. “Take these. They’ll calm you down. You look like you could use them.”
“No.” The sleeping pills last night she’d taken from her mother’s stash had left her so groggy she’d stayed home from school like she had on Monday.
“That wasn’t a request. Take these tranquilizers. You need them.” The steel in Carrie’s voice drilled through her.
Kelly swung her attention to Missy, hoping to find an ally but the teen’s harsh expression only confirmed she’d better take the tranquilizer or else . . . “I don’t have anything to take them with.”
Missy passed her the bottle of water she’d been drinking.
Both girls watched Kelly as she popped the pills into her mouth and washed them down with warm water.
“Wise decision.” Missy took the bottle back.
Carrie put the car into drive and again headed toward the ranch. “So now you know what you’d better do. It was an unfortunate accident and no good would come from you telling the world what Jared was doing his last moments alive. It would hurt his reputation, and it won’t bring him back. The police will discover he wasn’t murdered. It was some kind of unfortunate accident.”
“What about the glued seatbelt—”
Missy turned back toward Kelly interrupting her with, “Jared’s reputation doesn’t need to be damaged any more than it is already. You can’t do that to his parents.”
More likely to y’all. Do you even care for anyone but yourselves? Kelly wanted to scream that at them. Why did she ever think she wanted to be part of their crowd? For friendship? Status? None of those things were important now. She hated how she’d felt ever since taking a bunch of unknown drugs—some could have even been illegal ones like druggies took. It had been four days, and she still didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t even say anything to anyone—not her mom or Lexie. In fact, if they knew Lexie had picked her up at the warehouse, no telling what they would do. Harass her, too? That was why she had been staying away from her best friend when she needed her the most.
“I won’t,” Kelly murmured to her lap, not wanting to look at two of the most popular girls at school.
Everything she did made her stomach roil. She’d seen them out of control, yelling and fighting at the party. What had they taken to make them that way, or was it the way they were when their inhibitions weren’t masked? Could one of them have killed Jared? None of them had been in their right mind. Kelly couldn’t shake the blurry person with blue eyes hovering over her. Who else in the group had blue eyes? She pictured each one: Brendan, Carrie, Missy, Luke, Zoe and Kalvin. Luke’s eyes were hazel and Carrie’s gray while the others were brown.
Kelly tried to remember anything else besides blue eyes, but the more she tried the tenser she became until her head began to throb like a bass drum against her skull. When was the tranquilizer going to take effect? When would she forget Saturday night?
“We’ll be close by. If you have a problem, we’ll be there to help you.”
Kelly hated the nasal quality of Missy’s voice. Was she the one who called her every night—the number never the same? When she saw a number on the second prank call, she’d hit the return button to phone the person back. It had bee
n a payphone. The same with the other couple of calls she’d gotten—the voice always the raspy, almost mechanical sounding one from Sunday night. She’d thought it had been a guy, but now she wasn’t sure—of anything.
By the time they arrived, Carrie parked at the end of the long road that led to the main house. Kelly limped toward the mansion in high heels that were killing her feet. Today was only the second time she’d worn them, and she already had several blisters.
She’d dated Jared for two months and had never been to his home. How odd that her first time was because he had died. Falling into step with Carrie and Missy, Kelly resisted the urge to flee—run away before going inside. If she was truthful, she had been relieved when Jared’s parents hadn’t said anything to her at the church. What if they did now? How could she look at them, knowing what their son had been doing the final hours of his life? What happened at the party that might have caused Jared’s death? Little by little, she was remembering the night and none of it was good.
Carrie clasped her arm right above her elbow—in a grip that sent a clear warning through Kelly. Behave or else.
Inside the large foyer—the size of her living room at home—people, some Kelly knew, milled about, looking as if they didn’t know quite what to do. She definitely didn’t and glanced back at the door, thinking about leaving. Escaping. Why aren’t the tranquilizers working? She felt as though she were crawling out of her skin.
The marble-floored foyer—straight out of a design magazine—shouted elegance and wealth from the crystal vase with fresh-cut flowers to the rich-looking pieces of furniture with gold inlay.
The butler opened the intricately carved wooden door again, and Lexie entered with her uncle. He’d been trying to talk with her, and she’d avoided him. She didn’t know how long she could lie to the man about that night.
“Let’s go in the other room,” Kelly whispered in Missy’s ear, her body trembling so badly it was obvious to anyone who looked at her.
Missy peered behind Kelly, then tugged her toward the dining room on the left, equally luxurious. This was what Jared had grown up with while she and her mom had struggled. Why had Jared dated her? Doubts seeped into her mind like fog slithering over the ground.
Kelly quickly managed to disappear into the crowd. She wouldn’t be able to avoid the Texas Ranger for long. Lexie talked about her uncle Ethan and his work. She’d once said he was like a bloodhound on a trail. He never gave up until he found what he was searching for. In this case, he thought she had some answers. And she did. But she could never tell him. Missy and Carrie made that clear today. What if “the group” put the blame for the murder on her and tell the police they left Jared and her at the warehouse, making her the last person to be with Jared. Except the killer. Six to one. She didn’t have a leg to stand on. She was alone in this. Not even Lexie could help her.
In the back den, Missy and Carrie stopped moving, standing back and facing the door with the third girl from the party, Zoe Sanders. The pounding rapidity of Kelly’s heartbeat made her lightheaded. She plopped in the nearest chair, trying to catch her breath. She shouldn’t have taken the tranquilizers. What if they weren’t what Carrie said they were?
“What’s he doing here?” Carrie asked Missy and Zoe.
Kelly followed the direction the girls were staring. Ranger Stone threaded his way through the mass of people in the den toward her. Panic seized her again, even worse than in Carrie’s car, and she clutched the arm of the chair, looking for a way out.
Trapped. With Carrie, Missy, and Zoe as an audience.
Kelly’s lungs burned. She couldn’t draw in enough oxygen-rich air. The room spun before her. She closed her eyes, but her mind was still swirling. Suffocating. Dizzy. Coming out of her skin.
“Kelly?”
Lexie’s worried voice came to her. Kelly opened her eyes slowly. The room still twirled like on the Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair.
“Kelly, you don’t look well.” Lexie’s face loomed before her, but the words sounded strange—alternately loud and soft.
“I’m not.”
Carrie stepped up on one side while Missy and Zoe took the other. “We’ll take you home. This was too much for you after the funeral.”
They started helping her to her feet when Lexie’s uncle said in a forceful tone, “Girls, I’ll take care of her and get her home.”
“But we brought her . . .” Carrie’s voice faded at the intense look on Ethan Stone’s face.
“She may need to go to the hospital. I’ll take her. Go join your friends over there.” He tossed his head toward a group of teens watching them.
Kelly’s gaze flitted from one person to the next in the group. Carrie’s diamond hard gaze bored into Kelly. She resisted Lexie and her uncle helping her and dropped back onto the chair. “I’m fine. I haven’t eaten today. I’m just a little lightheaded. Everybody give me some space.” She glared at Lexie, hoping she did as Kelly said.
Her best friend scanned the people in the room, all focused on the drama with Kelly.
Their stares, especially Brendan and Luke’s, urged Kelly to leave before she totally blew it. “On second thought, Carrie, can you give me a ride home?”
Her “chaperone” quickly said, “Yes,” and moved in between Kelly and Lexie.
Both Carrie and Missy flanked her as the crowd parted to let them through. Zoe stayed back. While Brendan and another friend hemmed Ranger Stone in on the right side with Zoe on the left. At the doorway into the den, Kelly glanced back at Lexie and her uncle, hoping they didn’t follow. Luke stepped into Lexie’s uncle’s path, sticking his hand out to shake. Kelly hurried her pace. Her last look at the crowd in the den showed them surrounding Lexie’s uncle. The suffocating panic crowded in as the people did.
Outside, the fall air did nothing to cool Kelly’s heated face. She increased her strides, going ahead of Carrie and Missy. She didn’t know if she would ever go back to school. All she’d wanted was to fit in and now her life was a total mess. Her heartbeat picked up speed as she almost ran the rest of the way. Gasping, she latched onto her goal, Carrie’s car.
When Ethan emerged outside the Montgomery home after practically fighting his way through a crowd of Jared’s friends, Carrie’s car was leaving. If he had any doubts that Kelly was hiding something, he didn’t now.
When Lexie came up behind him, Ethan said. “I have to go. I need to talk with Kelly. I’ll drop you off at your house unless you want to stay. Ms. Thompson said she could give you a ride home.”
“No. I only came for Kelly.”
Ethan strode to his SUV, determined to see Kelly one way or another today. Something was really wrong. For a few seconds, he’d considered calling 911 in the den. She’d gone pasty white, her breathing labored. A panic attack? On some kind of drug? Guilt?
Then, when the teens swarmed him, he thought of bees protecting their queen. Short of causing a scene at Bradley’s house, he was stuck with a crowd of teenagers between him and Kelly. With all that the Montgomery family was going through, he wouldn’t do that to them, but he would get some answers. Today.
As he drove toward his sister’s to let Lexie off, he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. Was his niece involved somehow in whatever was going on? “You didn’t go out at all on Saturday night?”
“I was sick. I went to bed early. Didn’t sleep, though.” Her hands clasped together in her lap, she kneaded her thumb into her palm.
“I know you told me you and Kelly were together Sunday morning. Why? You always go with your mom to church.”
He’d seen her nervous habit with her thumb. Was she lying, too? Or upset with what happened in the den?
“I was still sick to my stomach when Mom left. I didn’t want to throw up in church.”
“But you went out with Kelly. Why? Weren’t you afraid you’d throw up in your car?”
A long moment passed. Ethan pulled into the subdivision where Lexie lived. He threw a glance toward his niece. “What are you
hiding, Lexie? I’m here to help. To get answers.”
“I’m not hiding anything. I haven’t done anything wrong.” She looked out the side window.
When he stopped, she jumped from the car and strode toward her house. He thought about following her and demanding answers, because his niece just lied to him. He didn’t have to be astute to know Lexie lied. He was thankful she didn’t have that skill down pat.
He’d come back and talk to her after he saw Kelly. He was more concerned about getting the truth from Kelly. As he pulled up to her house, the two teenage girls who had brought her to the Montgomery ranch were getting into a car. He parked on the street right behind the Ford Mustang that belonged to one of Kelly’s “guardians” and jotted down the license plate number.
As he walked toward Kelly’s house, they didn’t leave. They sat in the car. He could feel the drill of their gazes. He would find out who they were. The driver was Carrie, but he didn’t know her last name or the other girl’s. Besides those two females, Brendan Livingston and his cousin Luke Adams were in the group. Who else? Other football players? The third girl at the Montgomery house? Before this investigation was over, he intended to discover everything he could about these four and anyone else he thought might know anything about what Jared was doing Saturday night after midnight.
When he rang the bell, Mary Lou answered the front door. As she sighed and leaned against the wooden frame, clutching it as if it was the only reason she was upright, he smelled liquor on her breath.
“What do you want, Ethan?”
“To talk to Kelly.”
“She ran upstairs crying. This has been a hard day for her. She lost her boyfriend. You probably don’t know what it means to lose someone you care about. It isn’t easy.” Her words slurred together.
Had she come home from the funeral and started drinking? “I need to talk with her. We can do it here or down at the police station.”
Severed Trust: The Men of the Texas Rangers | Book 4 Page 9