The note he scribbled was short and to the point. Soon all his fantasies would be realized. How delicious would his life be then?
Before he climbed from his car, he cast his eyes to the white Accord.
Time to make my little Leslie sweat.
Chapter Thirty-One
The smell of pepperoni and cheese, the screech of an eighties ballad from the flashy neon jukebox, and the murmur of conversation floated around Dawn. She sat in the booth, her stomach rumbling, wondering how long they would have to wait for their pizza.
“All I have left to get are the sombreros and our black masks.” Leslie picked up her iced tea across from her. “Then you can get the red sashes.”
“Why do I have to get the sashes?” she asked, turning her attention to the window. “Why can’t I get the sombreros?”
“Well then, you get the hats and masks.” The enthusiasm in Leslie’s voice wavered. “Remember, you have to make sure the hats and masks are the same.”
In the parking lot, just outside her window, Dawn spotted a familiar silver car. Beau was inside, staring at her, and making no attempt to leave his car.
What’s he doing here?
Derek patted her sister’s hand. “We don’t have to be exactly the same, do we?”
“We’re the three amigos. Our masks and sombreros have to match.” Leslie sipped her iced tea. “I don’t want anyone to figure out who we are.”
“I’ll protect you, sweetie.” Derek chuckled. “The football team will be too drunk they won’t notice us.”
Dawn studied the car, remembering his chiseled profile. It was hard to believe such a good-looking package housed such a demented mind.
His rules and preoccupation with his image had never set off alarm bells, but after hearing Taylor’s story, it made sense. The one thing haunting her was his anger. It had been there since the first night, simmering under the surface. The flared nostrils, white knuckles, and tightly pressed lips—his warning signs not to push him. She’d thought it was a guy thing, not a psycho thing.
She kept an eye on him. She didn’t bother to tell Leslie and Derek he had followed them to the restaurant. Dawn didn’t need to upset her sister or risk Derek ending up in a fight. Luckily, neither one noticed his car in the lot.
But why had he come here? To order pizza? She doubted it.
“Did you know about this?”
Derek’s deep voice drew her attention away from the window. “Know about what?”
He squeezed Leslie’s hand on top of the table. “Leslie says you are riding to the river together, and I’m to meet you there.”
Dawn shot a cool glance at her sister, having no idea what he meant. “I, ah …”
Leslie interrupted. “I’m trying to talk Taylor into going and figured it would be better if the three of us went together to the party and Derek met us there.”
Leslie’s easygoing manner was fake. Dawn knew her better than anybody. She was up to something.
“Taylor has been having a tough time lately.” Leslie turned to her sister. “She needs some girl time. It would be hard to talk with you around.”
Dawn didn’t agree with any of it but wouldn’t argue with Leslie in front of Derek. She’d pick her brain about it later.
“I don’t like it.” Derek’s frown cut deeper, turning into a disgruntled scowl. “It would be safer to have a guy with you. Especially after they found that dead woman near there.”
Dawn wanted to warn him off from trying to tell Leslie what to do. She angled closer to him, but it was too late.
“What? You don’t think we can take care of ourselves?” Leslie shook off his hand. “Why? Because we’re girls?”
Dawn grinned at him. “Choose your next words carefully.”
Derek wiped his upper lip. “I’m just worried about you and Dawn, and Taylor. I want to protect you, not limit your personal freedom because of your gender. Okay?”
The line between Leslie’s brows softened. “I appreciate that. Really, I do. But we’ll be fine. I can ride home with you after the party. Nothing will happen. I promise.”
Derek shifted his attention to Dawn. “What do you think?”
She sat back, folding her arms. “I stopped trying to tell Leelee what to do when I was four. I suggest you do the same. You’ll live longer.”
Derek leaned in closer to Leslie, offering soothing caresses.
Dawn turned back to the window to check on Beau.
His car was gone. She glanced around the lot and along Main Street, but he was nowhere to be seen.
The wind kicked up as a few foreboding clouds cruised by. Something flapped on the windshield of her car. She squinted. It looked like a note.
A funny feeling swirled in her stomach.
Dawn checked on her sister and Derek, their heads still together, and decided not to mention anything to them. She wanted to get to the note before they did.
“Hey, guys.” She slid to the end of the bench. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.”
Dawn got up and walked away.
With a quick glance over her shoulder, she snuck out the side glass door, behind their booth leading to the parking lot.
The wind picked up, brushing her hair in her face. Humidity clung to her skin, and the aroma of the coming rain permeated the air.
Dawn hurried across the parking lot to their car, anxious to not be seen by her sister. She quickly snapped up the note flapping in the breeze and dashed to the side of the building to get a closer look.
While the acrid taste of dread climbed the back of her throat, she fought to keep the wind from blowing the note away as she read it.
I’m going to rip you up so good, Derek will never be able to fuck you again.
There was no signature, no scrawl of letters at the bottom—nothing.
A rumble of thunder rolled across the sky.
Dawn leaned back against the building and shut her eyes, her hard, quick pulse roaring in her throat.
What should she do? Who could she tell?
Beau had left the note for her sister. What gut-punched her was the depth of his interest in Leslie. The times she’d caught them together, the excessive teasing, the strange questions, the weird comments; Leslie had been the one he wanted that first night at the river—the one he still wanted.
The heady aroma of magnolias and honeysuckle from that night on the river came back to her. She had gone to the party with one goal—Beau Devereaux. In a short black dress that showed off her cleavage, she’d flirted with him, laughed at his jokes, and done all the things boys liked. But his interest was in her sister until she offered something he could not refuse.
“Leslie won’t have sex with you. She’s saving herself for someone special.”
Beau had grinned at her. “And who are you saving yourself for? Or have you already found someone special?”
She recalled the tingle in her belly as he’d looked at her. The longing she had felt for him. He’d been her obsession since ninth grade.
“I’m saving myself for you.”
Tears crested her eyes. Dawn believed when she gave him her virginity his infatuation with Leslie ended. She had been wrong.
She’d spent months with a guy who had never cared about her, a guy she’d never known. A hollow emptiness enveloped her; she had been an absolute fool.
Now the sick, psychotic bastard had set his sights on her sister.
Through her tears, she reread the note, and this time the bitterness rising in her throat did not go back down.
She retched, overcome with grief and anger. Standing up, she wiped her eyes and crumpled the note in her hand.
“You’ve destroyed enough lives, Beau Devereaux.” She faced the door and took in a deep breath, collecting herself. “I’m going to end this, and make sure you never threaten my sister again.”
* * *
The headlights stretched ahead as darkness engulfed the Spanish moss-covered trees on either side of the car. While she drove the last few miles h
ome from Derek’s house, Dawn gripped the steering wheel, her insides a mass of doubt and fear about what to tell her sister.
“What’s up with you?” Leslie asked as she flipped Dawn’s long hair behind her shoulder. “You never said a word after you came back from the bathroom at Carl’s.”
She relaxed her shoulders, not wanting to give herself away. “Just tired, I guess.”
“You?” Leslie chuckled. “I don’t buy it. You’ve always been the Energizer Bunny.”
Dawn didn’t like the comparison. There was something else she didn’t care for—Leslie’s lying.
“What was that BS you told Derek about Taylor back at Carl’s? We never talked about riding with her to the river. I didn’t think she even wanted to go.”
Leslie sighed and faced her. “She doesn’t. I made that up because I’ve got a surprise planned for Derek Saturday night. I need to get to the river early, ahead of him, so I can be ready.”
Dawn turned down their quiet street. “What surprise?
Leslie rolled her eyes. “Something we’ve been talking about. I want to let him know how much he means to me and share some time together.”
Dawn’s waning patience cracked. “Are you going to have sex with him?”
Leslie pounded her folded hands into her lap. “If I am, that’s my business. I just want to know you’ll go along and take me to the river.”
“Why? Are you going to have sex with him there?” Her insides turned to ice, afraid of what her sister had in mind. “There’s nowhere at the river to be alone. Everyone’s all over the beach unless you plan on doing it in the woods and even then, there’s those damn dogs people have been—”
“I’m not having sex at the river. Gross.” She blushed and relaxed her hands. “I’m going to meet him at the cells with a bottle of champagne. We found this room there once where we talked about being together. I wanted to surprise him with my plans. Then I’m taking him to a spot where we can be alone.”
Dawn tensed. The porch lights to their parents’ home loomed ahead. “What spot?”
“A motel in Covington. I saved up some money and—”
“When did you decide this?” Dawn hit the brakes hard after she pulled into their driveway.
Leslie lurched forward and grabbed the dash. “Dammit, Dawn. What are you doing?”
Desperate, she grabbed her arm. “Meet him at the river if you want, but skip going to the cells. It’s a nasty place and you don’t want memories of your first time to begin in something that looks and smells like a dungeon.”
“How do you know that?”
She turned off the engine, avoiding Leslie’s eyes. “Beau took me there once. I didn’t like it.”
Leslie leaned in closer. “Did you two …?”
She wanted to tell Leslie the truth about everything that had gone on in Beau’s special place, but she was ashamed. Her time with him, and what he had done to others there, made her feel dirty and ugly. She regretted every second she had spent with him, but to tell her sister would hurt too much. It would confirm what had always been her worst fear—that Leslie was the better twin.
“Just promise me you’ll stay away from the cells. Take Derek straight to the Covington motel for the night.” She smiled, putting on a brave face. “That’s what Lisa Faucheux did with Lyle Burgundy.”
“Lisa?” Leslie’s mouth slipped open. “Really? But she’s Pastor Faucheux’s daughter. She tells everyone she’s saving herself for her husband.”
“Yeah, well, Lyle beat him to it.”
Dawn opened her car door, relieved her sister’s attention had been diverted from the cells.
She hoped she had done the right thing not telling Leslie about Beau.
It’s for the best. It’s my turn to protect her.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Beau shouldered his way through patches of students clogging the halls. He stomped his tennis shoes on the tile floor, expressing his anger at being turned down by Coach Brewer for a chance to return to the team. All around him, excited voices jabbered about the coming football game against Beddico High Friday night. He wished he could smash all their heads into the lockers and turn the floors into rivers of blood.
“Marty will pull out a win,” one thick-shouldered running back on his team said as he walked past. “He’s turning into a good quarterback.”
“I heard the team doesn’t want him back.” A girl leaning against a locker blew a big bubble with her gum. “They do better without him.”
The wildfire in Beau’s stomach spread to every corner of his being. He was the quarterback of St. Benedict High, and he deserved his spot back on the team, but Coach Brewer had been adamant when he met with him in his office.
“Forget it, Devereaux. You have to complete your probation.”
“But the season will be over by then,” he had argued.
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you threw that ball at Kramer.”
Beau needed to get away from the noise, the students, the tight hallways closing in and cutting off his air. He longed to get in his car and take off, head to the river for some time to think and prepare his cell for Leslie, but his father would hear about his skipping class. It seemed no matter where he turned, Gage Devereaux’s chokehold on his life never let up.
He turned a corner, anxious to get outside when he came across Leslie at her locker.
She was a few feet away, but the jutting corner of the lockers kept her from spotting him. She looked beautiful in her sweater top and jeans. Her skin, perfectly white without an ounce of makeup, glowed and she had her lips pressed together in a classic Leslie scowl as she searched her locker.
Zoe, Dawn’s obnoxious cheerleading friend, was at Leslie’s side. The pretty girl was known around school for having a thing for gossip. What was she doing with Leslie? His Leslie was better than the pushy cheerleader.
“Dawn told me you and Derek got your costumes for this weekend.” Zoe hugged her chemistry book to her chest, grinning at Leslie.
“Yep, we’re all set.” Leslie shut her locker door. “We’ve got our sombreros, masks, fancy red sashes, black pants and white tops. It should be fun. What are you going as?”
Zoe hesitated, her smile slipping. “Is everything okay with Dawn?”
Leslie’s eyebrows came together. “Dawn? She’s fine. Why do you ask?”
His morning was looking up. Any juicy gossip to keep his ex in line was alright with him.
Zoe moved in closer to Leslie, casting a wary eye to those students passing by. “She seems out of sorts. Preoccupied, if you know what I mean. She mentioned the three amigos costumes you guys were wearing to the river—cute. And she let it slip you and Derek were planning a romantic evening. She seemed really upset about it. Said you wanted her to drive over early to surprise him with champagne in the cells. Ew, really?”
What? He stiffened. It can’t be? This was better than he’d hoped. She would come to him, to the cells. His prize was within his reach. His head swam with delight, picturing all the delicious things he would do to her. He envisioned the rush she would give him. It would be better than Taylor, Kelly, and Andrea combined.
Leslie’s scowl was back. “Dawn had no right to tell you about my plans.”
Zoe held up her hand. “Look, I know you two haven’t gotten along since she was with Beau but now that he’s history, I think she’s worried you will make the same mistake. I mean, the guy was a total douchebag.”
He clenched the grip on his book bag, ready to tear it apart. That bitch!
Leslie appeared appalled by the suggestion. “How can I be making a mistake with Derek? All we want to do this weekend is to spend some time together alone.”
“Doing what? Moon watching?” Zoe snickered.
It seemed things had progressed further with Leslie and the loser Foster than he realized.
“Oh, ha ha. Laugh all you want. But Dawn can’t possibly compare her time with Beau to my relationship to Derek. I know he cares for me
and isn’t ready to rush into having sex.”
“But are you two ever going to have sex?” Zoe pressed her hand to the book against her chest. “Me? I would have jumped him after the third date.”
Leslie lowered her voice and he could barely hear her. “I want my first time to be special.”
“Special?” Zoe chuckled. “You’re in for a big surprise.” Zoe hooked her arm. “Come on, let’s get to class.”
Zoe’s eyes briefly connected with Beau. A wave of dread froze him to his spot. She didn’t say or do anything as she glided past. Leslie never saw him, thank goodness. He didn’t want her changing her plans. He wanted his prey to be calm and happy when she walked into his special place. It would make her final screams so much sweeter.
* * *
Dawn tugged at the red ribbon holding her ponytail in place while a brisk breeze blew by, sending a chill through her. The gravel in the parking lot next to the playing field crunched beneath her feet. She glanced ahead to her squad, getting ready for their last practice before the big game tomorrow night.
“Hey girl, you got a sec?”
Zoe pulled up next to her, sporting a sullen frown.
Dawn inwardly groaned. She knew that look. It went along with Zoe’s yearning to share some piece of gossip she’d picked up around school. The last thing Dawn needed was more gossip.
We need to get this new cheer right. Not spend the hour having a gabfest.
“When was the last time you talked to Beau?” Zoe asked.
Dawn hadn’t expected that question.
“I have no idea. Why?”
“He’s been acting funny. Have you noticed it?”
Dawn scrunched her brow, trying to recall his activities throughout the past few days. She had noticed some strange things.
“He hasn’t been hanging out with his buddies Mitch and Josh lately. They always go everywhere together.”
“Word in the halls is he and Josh had a fight.” Zoe shook her pompoms out. “I tried to talk to Mitch about it, but he shut me down. He’s such an asshole.”
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