One …
Two …
Three!
The sheriff lunged for Luke’s arm while I used every ounce of energy I had to push it away from me. The second the sheriff grabbed a hold of it, I ducked underneath, despite the screaming pain in my chest, and staggered out of harm’s way. I scrambled on all fours to the door, looking back over my shoulder to the struggle behind me. Luke had wrestled the sheriff’s gun away from him and had him pinned to the ground. Sheriff Higgins was fighting for control of it, and it didn’t look promising for him. I knew if I’d called for help, it would be too late. Luke was younger and stronger, and he was going to win. If he did, I was dead, plain and simple.
I saw the syringe lying on the floor, and I quietly made my way over to it. I snatched it up and hesitated for a second. Only one.
Then I slammed it into Luke’s neck, dispensing the deadly liquid inside.
He wheeled around, arms flailing up to where I’d just withdrawn the syringe.
“You bitch!” he seethed. He shot himself at me, knocking me to the ground. He climbed on top of me and wrapped his hands around my throat. “If I go, you go with me.”
He continued to choke me until his grip started to weaken—his face growing pale. Then he collapsed. Sheriff Higgins pulled me gently to my feet. Luke lay on the floor, stone cold dead. Whatever had been in that needle was highly effective.
“We need to get you a doctor,” he said, ignoring the dead man, the problem he’d have to clean up.
“You need to go,” I said, my voice rough and harsh.
He ignored me entirely.
“Here,” he said, reaching out to help me walk.
I looked up to find Sheriff Higgins’ stern expression staring down at me while he escorted me toward the door. I could see determination twisting his features, but there was something else in his gaze as he ushered me away from the dead body.
Fear.
“Sheriff Higgins, I’m so sorry about—”
“Not a word, Kylene,” he said, shutting me up in a hurry. “Garrett’s in surgery. He’s gonna be fine. He has to be.…” His tone was softer—far less gruff than it had been. He lingered there for a moment, silent, and I wanted him to say something—anything, really. Yell at me if he wanted to. It was my fault his son was hurt. If he wanted to take that out on me, I could hardly blame him.
“Donovan beat him with a baseball bat.”
“I know.” Judging by the strain in his features, he was working hard to control whatever mix of emotions was swirling within him. “From what I’ve heard, you came close to suffering the same fate as my boy.” I didn’t dare speak, afraid the tears I was fighting back would spill forth, so I nodded instead. “Kylene, I need you to hear me and hear me well, girl. You don’t know what you’re messing with. You’ve stumbled onto something bigger than you can even begin to imagine. You need to walk away, or I can assure you, you won’t like what happens. A beating with a baseball bat will be the least of your worries.”
I wanted to be angry with him—to yell at him for being a coward. A liar. A disgrace to the badge. But behind his cop bravado, I could see what was driving him. There was a waver to his voice that I’d heard before. One I’d heard when my father sat me down in the basement of our old home and made me promise him I wouldn’t lie on the stand. He understood the consequences of that action far more than I could have ever fathomed. I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. I had a singular focus—keeping him out of prison.
The parallels between that situation and the one I had found myself in were not lost on me. Sheriff Higgins was clearly aware of things that I was not. Things I probably couldn’t have even begun to comprehend in that moment. My focus had once again been too singular for me to care. His hope was to broaden the scope so as to avoid unpleasant consequences. Consequences he appeared convinced I’d face.
“The people you’re involved with—”
“Not now, Kylene. I need to deal with this,” he said, looking back to Luke’s body.
“No,” I said softly as a grim realization dawned on me. “You need to go. It’s important that you look like you had no involvement in this. Get out. Go stand by the nurses’ station. I’ll wait a couple of minutes and then call for help.”
“You’re just like your father, girl. You get something in your head and you just can’t let it go. You’re gonna dig and dig until you bury yourself alive in the wreckage of everything you’ve torn apart to get to the truth.” He leaned in close to me, pinning stone cold eyes on mine. “Just like your father did.…” His words permeated every pore in my body, leaving me paralyzed. “You think your father is in prison because he actually committed that crime? That he shot that man in cold blood to cover his ass?” My blank stare proved answer enough. Sheriff Higgins looked around the room as though he might be overheard, then he lowered his voice and leaned in even closer still. “Your father poked around just like you are now, and he pissed off the wrong people. He’s lucky prison was where he ended up.” While I stared at him, trying desperately to wrap my head around what he’d just admitted, he continued: “Guilt and innocence ain’t black and white, Kylene. They’re shades of gray. Those people your father messed with painted him into the verdict that they needed. You keep doing what you’re doing, and you will learn the hard way, too. Lady Justice is far from blind.”
He flashed me a look of warning before turning to leave. Then he opened the door and disappeared through it without another word. But really, what else was there to say? Sheriff Higgins had just told me that he knew my father was innocent.
I just needed to prove it.
FORTY
I walked into the courthouse ready to face down the asshole that had ruined my life and nearly killed my best friend. It was only his arraignment, but I needed to be there, needed to see him shuffle into the courtroom, hands cuffed in front of him, feet shackled, wearing a bright orange county-issued jumpsuit. The satisfaction in that alone would take the edge off what he’d done to my life. But it was only the tip of the iceberg. Knowing he’d do hard time for how he’d beaten Garrett didn’t seem punishment enough, but it would have to do.
Justice isn’t always as satisfying as victims need it to be.
I made my way down the hall looking for Tabby, who’d insisted on being there. Instead of a gawky redhead waiting for me outside the courtroom, I found AJ Miller standing there, looking uncertain but resolved. Mark Sinclair stood at his side. He gave me a nod that said so much—that he was sorry, that he’d tried to warn me that afternoon at the store. That maybe he wasn’t the criminal I’d thought him to be.
As my pace slowed, AJ pushed off the wall and came toward me. We met in the middle of the hall, adults rushing around us, and stood there awkward and silent for way too long.
“AJ—” He cut my words short with a gentle brush of his fingers along the bruise on my cheek.
“Don’t say it. Please … I don’t need you to say it.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He let out an exhale, dropping his hand to his side.
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” He smiled as he scolded me, but there was a weariness to his tone. A sadness and frustration he couldn’t cover up. His words went so much deeper than the context of that conversation.
I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Because how do you even begin to really apologize for what I’d demonized him for? There was no Hallmark card for “sorry I blamed you for a crime you didn’t commit.” Sorry in general just seemed to fall short.
A flash of red in my periphery distracted me from the depths of AJ’s green stare for a second. Tabby approached us cautiously, like if she made the wrong move, the moment would all fall apart. I gave her a nod, and she turned back around and went inside, leaving me with AJ in our never-ending moment of awkwardness.
“I have to go,” I said finally, doing my best to sound normal and not let the emotions building up inside me show. I needed a stone face when I saw Donovan. T
o show him that he didn’t beat me.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I shook my head.
“I’ll be fine.”
Forcing a tight smile, I brushed past him, headed for the door Tabby had disappeared through. I didn’t look back to see if AJ had followed. I could feel the weight of his stare as I walked away.
Because Donovan’s case involved minors, the room was only open to victims, law enforcement, family, and friends. Meg was waiting in the front row of the gallery with Tabby seated next to her. They waved me over, and I slid past a couple of sheriff’s deputies to sit down in between them. Tabby immediately took my hand in hers, giving it a little squeeze to tell me she was there for me. That she had my back.
I squeezed hers in return to let her know I was okay.
“He’s up next,” Meg whispered in my ear. “I don’t want this to upset you, but he’s pleading not guilty. I wanted to tell you so you weren’t blindsided.”
“I figured he would,” I replied, my tone hushed so we didn’t get kicked out.
“There’s a mountain of evidence, and his attorney is the worst public defender ever to pass the bar. He’s going down, Ky—for what he did to you and Garrett as well as the photos. Everyone will know you didn’t lie about that night, I promise you that.” Meg hesitated for a second, which drew my attention. The worry in her brow was plain. “As for Luke—”
“You couldn’t have known, Meg. I would never have guessed, either.…”
She nodded in silence as the judge ordered the next case to begin. Once called, I watched Donovan, in his orange jumpsuit, ushered over to his attorney at the defendant’s table. The fact that he had the world’s shittiest attorney told me that whoever had been backing him had dropped him like the sack of shit he was. No more get-out-of-jail-free cards for the football god. Just prison—provided the court system didn’t fail me, again.
The whole process was entirely anticlimactic, and over almost before it started. His bail was set at an astronomical number, the judge citing that the gruesome nature of Garrett’s attack and the predatory nature Donovan had displayed when he sexually exploited me as his reasons. The judge wasn’t a fool. He knew Donovan was dangerous.
With a whack of the gavel, Donovan was led off by the bailiff. He looked over his shoulder at the crowd, finding me easily among the few faces there. He hadn’t lost any of the heat from his stare. I let a serpent’s smile spread wide across my face in response. Then I blew him a kiss goodbye. His eyes went wide and murderous, but they soon disappeared around the corner. He and his murderous eyes were headed back to jail, where they belonged.
The judge announced that court was concluded for the morning, and one by one everyone left the room. Meg had work to do and headed back to her office. Tabby’s dad was meeting her for lunch. She asked if I wanted to come along, but I was in no mood for that. When I declined, she hesitated, her desire to argue with me written all over her worried expression, but she didn’t. Instead, she bent down and gave me a careful hug. Then she too walked out of the room, the door closing behind her echoing through the empty space.
I sat alone on the hard wood bench and stared at the defendant’s table. I couldn’t shake the sense of déjà vu coursing through my veins. With every beat of my heart, it grew stronger.
I had vowed to get justice for my father when I returned to town. That I wouldn’t rest until I cleared my father’s name. But even in my brief search for answers, it became abundantly clear that the conspiracy ran deep. That there were players so untouchable that I would need help in reaching them. As much as I hated to admit it, I couldn’t do it alone.
I heard the door to the courtroom push open, followed by heavy, deliberate footsteps. They came all the way up to the front row before stopping. I didn’t bother to look up. I knew the sound of that determined gait. That confident swagger.
“Mind if I sit?” Dawson asked. I barely nodded in reply.
He joined me on the bench, his shoulder brushing up against mine as we sat in silence. I shifted my gaze to the witness stand—the one from which I would find myself testifying against Donovan. I stared at it thinking of how I’d failed my father when I’d taken it before, and vowed not to fail Garrett the same way.
“It won’t go to trial,” Dawson said as if reading my mind. “He’ll strike a deal for a reduced sentence. Sorry to be the bearer of that particular news, but it’s true. No lawyer in their right mind would go to trial with his case.”
“Okay…”
Silence.
“How are your ribs?”
“Sore…”
He hesitated before pursuing the conversation further.
“I’m sorry … about what happened to you—”
“It’s not your fault—”
“Not that,” he said, cutting me off. “I’m sorry about what those boys put you through.”
Ah. That sorry.
“Not your fault, either, but thanks.”
“And I’m sorry I pushed you to tell me about it.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“No,” he replied, his voice distant, “but he’s going to pay for all of it.”
“And I get vindication.” I damn near choked on the word. “It doesn’t feel as great as I’d hoped it would.”
“Vengeance isn’t as satisfying as we’d like sometimes.” He fell silent for a moment, his gaze dropping to the floor before he spoke. “Listen, Danners. I have to tell you something you’re not going to like hearing.” He took my lack of response as a go-ahead and continued. “We learned something else during Dr. Carle’s interrogation. Something that indicates his involvement with an underage prostitution ring in southern Ohio.” I could feel the weight of his stare on the side of my face. “But something tells me you already knew that.” I didn’t bother to respond. I could hear in his tone that he already knew about my observation of his interrogation. “This girl—we know she’s from Jasperville. That there are others being prostituted here as well.” My head turned slowly to face his. “I’m going to be going undercover to find out who’s behind the sex ring.”
“That’s a career-making assignment,” I replied, my voice neutral.
A pause.
“And you’re my cover story.”
I blinked repeatedly, trying to pull myself from my running thoughts to focus on what he’d just said.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m going to pose as your boyfriend from Columbus—Alex.”
He continued to talk, but my brain shut out his words. Everything he said sounded fuzzy, like I was underwater. By the time he’d finished his brief explanation, he stood up, waiting for me to join him.
“We need to go,” he said as though he’d been forced to repeat himself.
“Why?”
“Court is back in session,” he said, looking at the few adults entering the room.
“I’ll be right out,” I said, turning to focus on the witness stand again. He hovered for a moment before walking away, leaving me alone with my careening thoughts.
I’d gotten vengeance for myself and put the photo scandal to rest—finally. And though there was immense satisfaction in that outcome, it wasn’t enough. Until my dad was free to share in that victory, it seemed tarnished somehow. Tainted.
My resolve was renewed in that courtroom.
What I needed to do was buckle down and figure out exactly how his case, Agent Reider, the sheriff, and the Advocatus Diaboli all interrelated. That was the only lead of substance I’d come across that could prove my father’s innocence. But I couldn’t make anything of it on my own. It was way above my skill level.
Not so of Agent Dawson.
If he needed my help to go undercover, then he could have it—at a price. In return for my assistance, he’d help me do the one thing he’d rather die than do. Dawson was going to help me prove my father’s innocence.
Together, we’d bring down the Advocatus Diaboli.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
/> AMBER LYNN NATUSCH is the author of the bestselling Caged series for adults. She was born and raised in Winnipeg, and is still deeply attached to her Canadian roots. She loves to dance and practice Muay Thai—but spends most of her time running a chiropractic practice with her husband, raising two young children, and attempting to write when she can lock herself in the bathroom for ten minutes of peace. Dare You to Lie is her debut YA novel. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Dare You to Lie Page 30