by Blake Pierce
Riley felt a wave of panic rise up inside her.
She remembered what Trudy had said before they’d left their room …
“Promise you’ll stay close by. Don’t let me out of your sight.”
Riley shuddered.
She’d broken her promise.
And now Trudy was gone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Riley struggled to fight down her rising panic.
She could see no sign of Trudy among the people dancing on the patio.
She wouldn’t go anywhere else without telling me. Riley thought. She’d never leave without me,
But where was she?
As Riley stood there surveying the crowd, Cassie grabbed Gina by the hand and the two of them rejoined the dancing crowd. They certainly didn’t seem to be alarmed by Trudy’s absence. Riley tried to tell herself that she shouldn’t be alarmed either.
But she knew that her panic wouldn’t wane until she’d located her roommate. She had to be sure that Trudy was safe and sound.
Riley pushed her way out among the dancers to check more closely. She felt someone take hold of her hand, but when she whirled around she saw that it was a guy from one of her classes.
“C’mon,” he said.
Riley pulled her hand away and said, “Sorry, I’m just looking for …”
He moved off before she could even finish her sentence. As she made her way off the dance floor she saw him dancing in a threesome with Cassie and Gina. It was obvious they were all having a good time. This was exactly the kind of partying she had promised Trudy tonight, so why would Trudy skip out without a word?
Her roommate definitely wasn’t among the dancers or at any of the outdoor tables, so Riley made her way inside the club. She found that it was actually a lot more crowded indoors than on the patio. She couldn’t see over the heads of people who surrounded her. The music was also a lot louder in here, so nobody heard Riley groan aloud with despair.
If Trudy was here, would Riley be able to find her among this mob?
As she ventured across the glittering dance floor, Riley was buffeted by dancers flailing away to a particularly frantic and angsty song. She didn’t see Trudy anywhere, but she couldn’t be at all sure she hadn’t missed her in this crush.
She made her way toward the bar, where partiers swarmed and pushed their way toward the beleaguered bartender to make their orders. Riley knew it would be impossible to squeeze her way among them.
She tried to reason with herself …
If Trudy’s over there ordering a drink, she’ll show up before long.
But Riley couldn’t persuade herself to relax and wait until Trudy reappeared.
She headed into the women’s restroom, which was crowded with female students waiting to use the occupied stalls.
Fully aware that she was making a spectacle of herself, she yelled, “Trudy! Trudy! Are you in here?”
The other young women looked at Riley as if she’d lost her mind.
Maybe I have lost my mind, she thought.
But Riley wasn’t worried about what anybody thought of her at the moment.
She yelled, “Does anybody here know Trudy Lanier? Has anybody seen her? Does anybody know where she is?”
There were a lot of shaking heads and dropped jaws and quite a few no’s.
The only other place that Trudy could be was downstairs. Riley hurried in that direction and dashed down the stairs two steps at a time. When she got to the bottom she came to a sudden halt, not sure whether she was relieved or pissed off at what she saw.
Her roommate was perfectly safe, and apparently perfectly happy.
Trudy was sitting in a booth—the same that booth Riley had occupied on the night of Rhea’s murder. And sitting across the table from her was Harry Rampling, Lanton University’s star quarterback.
Riley’s stress flooded out of her body.
As she steadied herself and walked over to the table, she could see that Harry was talking interminably while Trudy just sat there gazing at him with doe-like eyes and her chin cradled in her hands.
Riley had to nudge Trudy in the shoulder to get her attention. Harry stopped talking, and Trudy looked up at her with apparent surprise.
“Hey, Riley,” Trudy said. “Where’ve you been?”
With a slight growl in her voice, Riley said, “I could ask you the same thing.”
Trudy shrugged and smiled and said, “I’ve been right here. Hey, have you met Harry Rampling? Harry, this is my roommate, Riley Sweeney.”
Harry looked anything but pleased to see Riley.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” he lied.
“Oh, I think maybe we have,” Riley said disdainfully.
Trudy was shifting around nervously. Riley was pretty sure she understood her roommate’s body language. Trudy was silently trying to tell Riley that she was emphatically not invited to sit down with her and her newfound date.
Harry shrugged and started talking again, apparently where he had left off—regaling Trudy with a story of an especially impressive football play. Trudy was obviously falling for him completely.
She’s practically drooling, Riley thought with disgust.
Interrupting Harry again, Riley said to Trudy, “I’m thinking maybe it’s time we headed back to the dorm.”
Trudy gave her look of childish irritation, like a little girl being told it was long past her bedtime.
“Aw, come on, Riley,” she said. “The night is young. Don’t spoil the party.”
Riley remembered how she’d practically had to pry Trudy loose from their room in order to get her here. Now it seemed that it would take a whole lot of effort to get Trudy out of here. Would it even be worth the trouble?
“I’m staying for a while,” Trudy said. “You can go on back to the dorm if you like. But stay safe, don’t go back alone. I’m sure you can get Cassie or Gina to walk with you.”
Then she added with a wink, “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
Trudy resumed gazing at Harry, and Harry started talking again.
Riley shook her head and walked back up the stairs.
Well, at least I don’t need to worry about Trudy anymore, she thought with a mixture of annoyance and relief.
As much as Riley loathed Harry Rampling, she was sure he wasn’t a killer. She was also sure Trudy was safe from any killer as long as she stuck with a big jock like Harry. And it certainly looked like Trudy was going to stick with him.
Maybe even for the night, Riley thought, cringing at the idea.
Riley made her way back upstairs and out to the patio. Cassie was still dancing with cheerful abandon and Gina seemed to have attached herself to the guy who’d been with them. Riley felt slightly abandoned—a childish feeling, she realized. It was really good that all her friends were having such a good time.
She found the table where they’d all been sitting. Through some miracle, no one had cleared away the pitcher and glasses, and no one had taken their place. Riley sat down there alone and poured herself a glass of beer.
She took a long sip, then closed her eyes and breathed in the semi-fresh outdoor air, feeling a lot better herself.
She just sat there for a while, tapping her foot to the tongue-in-cheek torment of the song Bricks and Crystal was playing.
Her eyes were still closed when she heard a familiar male voice beside her table.
“Um, hello. My name is Ryan Paige. Who might you be?”
Riley’s eyes snapped open. He was standing there, holding an almost-empty glass of beer and looking rather shy and tentative.
She grinned broadly.
“I think we’ve met,” she said.
Ryan shrugged and said, “Yeah, but I happened to see you sitting alone here, and I thought maybe we could start from scratch. I’m afraid I didn’t handle things all that well the last time we met.”
Riley said, “Oh, I don’t know why you’d think that.”
Of course, she did know exactly why he thought th
at. Ryan had freaked out a little over her ability to “read” him. But Riley couldn’t entirely blame him. Maybe she shouldn’t have pried so much.
Maybe starting from scratch isn’t such a bad idea, she thought.
She said, “Anyway, my name is Riley Sweeney—in case you’d forgotten.”
He grinned impishly and said, “Glad to make your re-acquaintance, Riley Sweeney.”
“Why don’t you sit down?” Riley said.
“I’d like that,” Ryan said.
He sat down at the table across from her and refilled his beer from the pitcher.
Just then, the song came to an end, and they heard Bricks and Crystal’s lead singer yelling over the outdoor speaker …
“OK, gang. The rumors are true. Bricks and Crystal is over. Through. Defunct.”
The crowd was booing now—but not at all seriously. Everybody knew what Riley knew, that the guys were just pulling some kind of stunt.
The singer yelled over the booing, “Grunge is dead—and we just did the songs that killed it!”
There was more booing. Ryan laughed, and so did Riley.
The lead singer went on yelling …
“No, no, don’t beg and plead and grovel. Please, you’re only embarrassing yourselves. You can’t stop us. We’re making a few changes—including our name. We’re no longer Bricks and Crystal …”
The guitarist blasted out an ominous power chord as the singer shouted, “Now our name is Hog Wild, the bomb-throwing anarchists of country and western!”
The band immediately launched into Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”—sounding for all the world as grungy and angsty as they ever had, and not the least bit country. The crowd went wild with shouting and applause, and some of the dancers on the patio started crashing into each other mosh-style.
Riley and Ryan were both laughing hard now.
Ryan said to her, “The more things change …”
Riley finished his thought …
“… the more things stay the same!”
Riley clicked her glass against Ryan’s in a toast and added, “Grunge is dead!”
“Long live grunge!” Ryan said.
Their laughter died down and Riley and Ryan just sat there enjoying the song for a few moments.
Then Ryan said, “You may have noticed that I’ve made a few changes myself. Care to comment?”
Riley shook her head with a grin.
“Oh, no,” she said. “Let’s not start down that road again.”
“Come on, I can take it this time. Really.”
Feeling more than a little apprehensive, Riley looked him over.
“Hmm,” she said. “No vest anymore, no expensive shirt, and your hair isn’t quite so flawlessly coiffed. Instead, jeans and an ordinary cotton shirt, a more casual look—but still well dressed, not at all scruffy.”
And handsome too, she thought to herself.
Ryan nodded and said, “What does that tell you about me?”
The changes were telling Riley quite a lot, but she didn’t want to say so.
“Why don’t you tell me?” she said.
Ryan took a long, slow breath.
He said, “I’ve given a lot of thought to some of the things you said last time. Especially—how did you put it?—how I figure that the best way to become successful is to act successful.”
Riley said, “I didn’t mean that in a bad way. It’s actually kind of a good thing.”
Ryan tilted his head modestly.
He said, “Yeah, but I didn’t realize I was being so obvious about it. I figured it was time to be less … well, transparent, I guess.”
Then he laughed and added, “Like maybe I could be a bit more of a man of mystery.”
Riley laughed too and said, “Well, you certainly keep me guessing.”
Then, with an expression of mock worry, she added, “I hope you didn’t sell that nice car of yours.”
Ryan laughed some more and said, “Oh, no. I’m still a Ford Mustang kind of guy.”
Riley had to admit to herself, Ryan was really pushing all of her buttons—and in a really nice way. It was truly flattering to know that he was making personal changes on her account.
Riley realized that she was smiling with delight.
Nothing mysterious about me at the moment, she thought, too amused by herself to feel embarrassed.
Ryan’s smile faded.
He asked, “How have you been doing?”
Riley sensed real concern behind those words. Of course he was asking how she’d been holding up since Rhea’s death.
She didn’t answer right away.
She was really feeling comfortable with this guy at long last—more than comfortable, really. It was almost as though they’d known each other for a long time.
She felt as though she could talk to him about just about anything.
Did that include her obsession about Rhea’s killer and her recent studies about the homicidal mind?
Maybe, she thought.
On the other hand, that kind of talk might scare him off all over again, and she really didn’t want to do that.
Before she could make up her mind, the band started playing another song—the old Patsy Cline love ballad, “Crazy.” Riley felt herself melt a little, surprised at how soft and mellow and sensitive the normally abrasive band suddenly sounded—no longer like “bomb-throwing anarchists” at all.
With some grumbling, most of the patio dancers started to head back to their tables. They didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves now.
But Riley knew what she wanted to do.
As if reading her thoughts, Ryan asked, “May I have this dance?”
Riley smiled and nodded. Ryan got up and took her hand and led her out into the dance area, which was no longer the least bit crowded. Ryan put his arm around her waist and pulled her close.
Before she knew it, they were swaying together in perfect harmony with the music.
Riley felt so warm all over, she thought she might dissolve into thin air.
Her body seemed to fit together seamlessly with Ryan’s, as if they were both becoming part of the song.
Riley wanted more of this—a whole lot more.
Her whole body felt like one big warm smile as she thought …
I don’t guess I’ll be going back to the dorm tonight.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The smells of sizzling bacon and fresh coffee woke Riley up the next morning.
She opened her eyes and looked around.
She wasn’t in her dorm room. She was lying in bed in Ryan’s apartment.
She smiled as she remembered how she’d gotten here …
It all started with the dancing.
… and then things had continued effortlessly from there.
She heard Ryan’s voice say, “I think you told me you’re not vegan. I hope I heard right.”
Riley turned over in the bed and saw Ryan standing over a stove. His apartment was actually one big room, with appropriate furnishings in designated areas.
“You heard right,” Riley said.
Riley then noticed that Ryan had laid out a bathrobe on the pillow next to her—his bathrobe, of course, and too large for her, but she knew that it would be all the more comfortable because of that.
How considerate, she thought.
In fact, his considerateness had been one of last night’s major revelations. Memories came flowing back to Riley … their naked bodies together, making love slowly and languorously. Ryan had been both amorous and thoughtful, focusing on her pleasure as well as his own.
It had certainly been different from her earlier sexual experiences. But then, most of those had been perfunctory acts of teenaged rebellion, and this kind of pleasure had hardly been the point. She remembered what she used to say to anyone who criticized her reckless behavior …
“It’s just sex.”
She smiled now as she thought …
I had no idea what I was missing.
Ry
an was whistling as he broke eggs into a frying pan. Riley recognized the tune—it was “Crazy,” the song they had started dancing to last night at the Centaur’s Den. Ryan whistled with style and grace, and Riley enjoyed hearing the tune again.
She looked around at the apartment, remembering that she hadn’t paid much attention to her surroundings when they’d gotten here. She and Ryan had pretty much become tangled up together as soon as they’d walked through the door, promptly dispensing with their clothes and tumbling weightlessly into bed.
The place now looked pleasant in the sunlight that poured in through the large windows of the old building. Riley was sure that Ryan had bought most of furnishings at thrift stores, but also that he had put a lot of time and good judgment into their selection.
The result was an agreeably bohemian look—which seemed all the more charming because Ryan didn’t strike Riley as a bohemian sort of guy at all. He’d surely arrived at the style out of budgetary necessity, which rather impressed her.
Except for their clothes, which were scattered on the floor around the bed, the place was also neat and tidy. Ryan was definitely not a slob—considerably more fastidious, actually, than Riley herself.
Unless …
Well, it could be that Ryan had straightened everything up in hopes of bringing Riley home that night.
Or maybe some other woman, she thought.
If so, Riley didn’t much mind. She didn’t feel the least bit possessive of him—or at least she didn’t think she did.
I guess we both got lucky.
Ryan was setting the table now, so Riley pulled on the bathrobe, got out of bed, and sat down to breakfast. In addition to fried eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee, there was also a box of fresh donuts. Since Ryan was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, she realized that he must have slipped out quietly for the donuts, and that she had slept right through this brief absence.
As Riley took a sip of coffee, she remembered what Trudy had said to her before they’d gone out …
“Whatever you do, don’t leave without me.”
Riley felt a tingle of alarm.
She’d made a promise to Trudy, and she hadn’t kept it.
But she reminded herself of how things had developed. The fearful Trudy had evaporated when she’d gotten to the Centaur’s Den. The party animal Trudy had come back with a vengeance, and she’d wound up sitting in a booth fairly slobbering over the campus quarterback. The last thing Trudy had wanted was for Riley to walk her home.