by Minard, Tori
“But you met someone.”
Marie always saw too much.
“Maybe,” I said.
“Who is she? What’s her name?”
I set the can down and gave a careless tilt of my head. “She’s just someone I ran across at a party. Not a big deal.”
“No? You’re blushing.”
“That’s because you’re pestering me.”
Marie laughed. “No, it’s not. It’s because you really like this girl. I can tell.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have come to visit. I tapped my fingers against the side of the soda can, wishing I’d just called. She wasn’t as intuitive over the phone.
“I’m still attached to Selene.”
“Oh, that.” She waved her hand dismissively. “That wasn’t ever going to go anywhere.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Sure I do. You and Selene are too much alike.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? “How do you like farm life?” I said by way of changing the subject.
“It’s great. A lot of work, though, especially for Brad.”
He had a regular job in addition to everything he did here on the farm. It must be difficult, putting in full-time hours just to come home and work a hard physical job.
“I hope it works out for you.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will.” She gave me a knowing look. “Now, about this girl.”
“I really don’t want to talk about her.”
Marie sighed. “You’re no fun.”
“I ran into Trent the other day.”
She stared at me over the top of her soda. “You did, huh?”
“At a party. I didn’t know he was going to be there or I would have stayed away.”
“How did it go?”
“He ordered me to leave town.”
She pulled her head back in a disbelieving gesture. “Was he serious?”
“Seemed like it.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’re not going to do it.”
“Of course not. He doesn’t get to tell me where to live.”
Marie sighed, shaking her head. “I just don’t understand his hostility.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t?”
“This garbage started long before Carter was even born, so it’s not because of the accident.”
She always referred to my shooting of my little half-brother as “the accident,” as if I were somehow not responsible. I knew the truth, though. I was the only one to blame.
“I’m pretty sure he’d be a lot less hateful if I hadn’t killed Carter.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”
Whether he would or wouldn’t was immaterial. I’d shot our brother and Trent would never forgive me. Therefore, he spent a lot of time trying to pay me back for what I’d done. When we were kids, he’d had a lot of opportunity, since we’d lived in the same house. After I ran away, he must have been frustrated as hell with his target gone.
The strange thing was, he’d never asked me how I felt about killing Carter. He’d seemed to assume I meant to do it. Even my own father thought I’d done it on purpose. And no matter what I said, they wouldn’t change their minds.
My plan to seduce Caroline was pushing on me, trying to get me to confess to Marie. I didn’t want her to know. She’d only argue with me and put a big guilt trip on me and I didn’t need that. So I kept my mouth shut. I was going forward with the plan. No matter what.
Chapter 5
Caroline
I had several sorority functions that weekend. Rush—when all the girls who wanted to belong to a house went from one function to the next, wearing the approved clothes and sporting the approved attitude, hoping to be accepted—was over and most of the accepted candidates had pledged a house. I remembered how nervous I’d been during my own rush week, terrified no-one would like me and I’d end up as a reject, otherwise known as an independent. By some miracle, one of the more prestigious houses had accepted me.
Yet I still lived in the dorms. Why was that? Maybe I was more of an independent than I thought.
Tonight, my house was having a dinner with the pledges—they lived in the dorms by necessity and could only visit the house—and I had to be there. As I welcomed the freshman girls to our house, I wondered what Max would think of all this. I could picture the wry lift of his mouth as he watched all of them, dressed in outfits so similar they almost looked like a uniform, filing into the house. The idea he might find us amusing made me want to squirm.
Well, what did he know? A high school dropout who’d run away from home, who spent his spare time smoking weed. By belonging to a sorority, we were developing our social skills and our network of contacts, things that would serve us well later in life. Sorority women were much more successful than independents and if Max couldn’t appreciate that, well, his opinion hardly mattered.
Yet the words and tune of the song he’d sung by the river started running over and over in my mind, distracting me from the evening’s activities. “Avery” was about a runaway. Was that why Max had chosen that song to sing?
Or maybe he was only referring to the name of the town—Avery’s Crossing.
We crowded into the dining room and chose our seats, Paige and I taking chairs next to each other. Tiffani, the chapter president, was her usual glossy brunette self, complete with cat-eye makeup and nails lacquered in navy blue. I could smell her perfume from my seat halfway down the table from her. She presided over all our house meals as if she were queen instead of a sorority house president.
“You’re awfully quiet tonight,” Paige said.
I nodded. “I’ve got some things on my mind.”
She leaned closer to me. “Would one of those things start with the letter M?” she said in an undertone.
“You know I can’t talk about that.”
Her eyes sparkled as she smiled at me. She loved having secrets, even if she couldn’t keep one worth a damn. I wondered how many people she’d told so far. Maybe I’d gotten lucky and she hadn’t spilled the beans yet.
“Have you dealt with the big M lately?” she said, continuing the stage whisper.
“No.” Yes. Was I blushing? I hoped not.
“What are you two whispering about over there?” Tiffani leaned over the table. “Don’t keep secrets.”
“Oh, Paige is just teasing me about my class load,” I said.
Tiffani wrinkled her nose. “I know we say our education is the most important thing, but let’s not talk about classes tonight. ‘Kay?”
“Sure, Tiffani.”
Paige kicked me under the table. She was probably planning to corner me as soon as possible and wring every bit of intel regarding Max out of me. Since I didn’t want word getting out, I’d just have to slip out of the house and sneak back to the dorms before she could get me alone.
***
On Monday, the first class I had was in essay-writing. I didn’t actually need the class to graduate with a French degree, but it seemed like the kind of thing that might come in useful later. I took a seat in the middle of the room, just out of the reach of a broad bar of early morning sunlight streaming through the old double-hung windows.
A big male body slid into the desk next to mine. I glanced over as I set my laptop on the desk and did a double-take. Max. Max?
“What are you doing here?” I whispered.
“I’m in this class.” He smiled smugly at me as he stretched his long legs to the side of his desk.
“No, you’re not.” I returned his smile with the fiercest glare I could muster. “You’re following me.”
“That’s so not true. I’m really in this class. Ask the prof.”
I glanced at the man standing by the lectern. “But I thought this was your first year. This is an upper division class.”
He smirked. “I’m just that good.”
I still didn’t believe him. Shaking my head, I turned back to my laptop and started setting up a file for my notes. I would not
look at him or notice the utter fineness of his body, nor would I think about the way his black hair slipped forward over his eyes in that irresistible way that made me want to touch it.
“How are you?” he said in a low tone that seemed to get inside me and make my whole body vibrate.
“Fine,” I said, still not looking at him.
“No delayed reaction from that fall?”
I glanced at him sideways. “You’re the one who took the most damage. Are you okay?”
“Never better.”
I ran out of busywork. My file was set up and the lecture hadn’t begun yet. I could continue avoiding his gaze, but what would be the point? The longer I refused to look at him, the ruder my behavior would be. Still, I couldn’t encourage him. Trent might hurt him if he found out Max was flirting with me.
I turned to Max. “You’d better be careful. Trent sometimes meets me after this class.”
“He does, huh? That’s too bad.”
His lingering gaze seemed to imply he wanted to be more than friends. That was hard to believe, given my shortcomings, but the long looks continued and I didn’t know how else to interpret them. Could Max really want me?
He wasn’t going to get me, of course. I’d never cheat on Trent. Still, I couldn’t get the thought of Max’s hands on my body out of my mind.
How would he taste? How would his hair, his bare skin feel under my hands? This room was awfully hot. I fidgeted with the neckline of my sweater and wished I’d worn something cooler.
“It’s hot in here,” he murmured.
“Yeah.” I frowned at him. “I still think you’re following me. You keep showing up, and this is a big campus. It can’t just be coincidence.”
“Maybe you’re following me.”
“What? Why would I do that?”
Another smirk. I wanted to wipe that superior expression off his face. “Because you can’t stay away from me, obviously.”
“Oh, of course.” I sent him a smirk of my own. “Thank you for clearing that up for me.”
“You’re welcome.”
He winked at me and I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
The silver pendant he always wore peeped out of his shirt collar again. All I could see was the very edge of it, which looked circular. I pointed to it.
“What’s that?”
He put his hand over it. “Just something a friend of mine gave me.”
“Can I see it?”
The professor cleared his throat and Max straightened out and faced front. I couldn’t figure him out. He seemed like a truly nice guy, other than the outrageous flirting, and that was harmless, really. The dangerous schemer Trent had described was someone I’d never seen.
Maybe Trent had misjudged him. Maybe he’d let their past—whatever it was—warp his perception of the person Max was now. If I could just get the two of them together to talk, they might be able to stop hating each other.
A coffee date, just the three of us. It would be a start, anyway.
***
“No way in hell,” Trent said when I suggested it to him.
“Why not? It’s just coffee.” I sat down on my pale aqua bedspread and crossed my arms.
“I don’t want to see him.”
“Trent, he’s your stepbrother.”
He fixed me with a hard-eyed stare. “Believe me, I wish I could forget that fact.”
“I just don’t understand why you’re not willing to try to work things out.”
His hand slashed down through the air. “It’s none of your business. Drop it, okay?”
I made an impatient sound. “You’re making no sense.”
“I hate him; he hates me. End of story.”
“But if you got together and talked things out, maybe you could mend fences.”
He shook his head. “Our fences are fine the way they are.”
“But—”
“Trust me, Caroline, Max would tell you the same thing. We don’t want to talk.”
I jumped up from the bed and started to pace my room. There wasn’t a lot of space for it, but I made do with the three or four pace distance I had. Trent backed up a step and leaned against my door, giving me a tiny bit more room.
“He has no family. That isn’t right,” I said.
“First of all, it’s his own damn fault. Second, why do you care? Have you been seeing him behind my back?”
“No!” Liar. If I’d had pants, they would have burst into flame. Luckily for me, I was wearing a skirt. “It just makes me sad.”
“Don’t be. There are things you don’t know.”
I whirled to face him. “Yeah. So enlighten me. Tell me about it.”
Trent leaned his head against my door and closed his eyes. “I can’t.”
“Sure you can.”
“Well, then, I don’t want to.”
“Oh, for pity’s sake, Trent. I’m your girlfriend. I have a right to know.”
He opened his eyes and watched me pace for a couple of turns, his jaw working back and forth.
“Can’t you just take my word for it that he’s dangerous?” he said.
“No. Why should I? You need to be a lot more specific than that.”
“All right.” He pushed off from the door and stalked toward me, his square jaw tense and angry-looking. “Stop pacing.”
I stopped. We stood at the foot of my bed and stared at each other like opponents in a boxing match.
“So tell me,” I said.
Trent drew in a huge breath. “He killed our little brother.”
“What?” I stared open-mouthed at him. That couldn’t be right. No.
“I said he killed our half-brother. The son of his dad and my mom.”
“But...why? Why would Max do something like that?”
“I don’t know.” Trent raked his fingers through his pale hair, making it stand on end. “He always claimed it was an accident, but I didn’t believe that.”
“Why not?”
“He never seemed to have much remorse.”
“But...he seems so normal.” More or less. “I can’t imagine him wanting to kill someone.”
Trent’s eyes narrowed into cruel slits. “You have been seeing him.”
“No, I haven’t. I just ran into him on campus once.”
“I’m not sure I should believe you.”
“You can believe whatever you want. I’m not seeing him.”
Trent loomed over me. “You’d better not be.”
I lifted my chin. There was no way I’d back off from this one. “Are you threatening me?”
“No. I’m warning you.”
“Don’t even think you can tell me who I can and can’t see,” I said, beginning to pace again. “How did it happen?”
“He shot him with my stepdad’s gun.”
I halted to close my eyes. “Oh, my God.”
“It was bad, Caroline. Real bad.”
“Was he playing with the gun?”
“Yeah. He claimed he thought it was unloaded. It went off by accident.”
“But you didn’t believe him.”
“No. And I still don’t.”
I put my hands to my forehead and blew out my breath. “This is so not what I thought you’d say.”
“What were you expecting?”
“I don’t know. Joyriding. Breaking and entering or something. Maybe robbing a gas station, at the worst. Not murder.” I looked over at him, knowing my expression was as bleak as it could get. “How old was he?”
“Max or Carter?”
“Both.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, flipping through the pictures he kept there until he got to the right one. Then he handed the wallet to me, displaying a snapshot of a smiling, blond toddler. The kid was preciously cute, with big blue eyes and a dimpled grin. He’d kept a picture of Carter in his wallet and yet somehow I’d never known it was there or that he’d had a little brother. “Max was ten. Carter three.”
I blinked. Ten? T
en years old? “He was just a little kid himself, Trent,” I said with a frown.
“Some kids are just evil. You’ve seen news stories of murdering psycho kids.”
“Are you saying Max is a bad seed? A psycho?”
“He killed Carter in cold blood. For no reason, except maybe it was his idea of fun.” Trent’s blue eyes were hard and cold. Like glacier ice. He really despised Max.
“I’m just so shocked. I can’t believe it.” How could I have liked someone so horrible? How could Max have done those things? I couldn’t wrap my mind around the notion that the Max I thought I knew had deliberately murdered a little boy, his own half-brother.
“You should. And you should be careful. Stay away from him. You see now why I warned you?”
I nodded slowly. I felt like I had a big chunk of concrete attached to my heart and it was dragging me down into deep water. “Yeah. I do.”
“Good. Let’s go eat. I’m starved.”
I, on the other hand, had lost my appetite.
***
“Don’t you love fall weather here?” Paige said, kicking at a pile of leaves on the sidewalk as we walked together to the campus gym.
The air was full of the musty scent of fallen leaves, the air was bright blue against the gold and red and orange of the leaves still on the trees, and everything looked as beautiful as I could imagine. We’d had some wet days; today was a sun break. Soon the rain would start in earnest and it would all turn gray, but for now it was in autumn Technicolor.
Max was a murderer.
I couldn’t get that thought out of my mind. I didn’t even know why it bothered me so much, why it made me feel like something inside me was collapsing. As if the knowledge broke my heart. I hardly knew the guy. There was no reason for it to matter so much to me.
There was Trent. But somehow his pain didn’t seem as real to me as the searing disappointment I felt over Max.
“What’s up?” Paige said as we took a left along the main street of campus.
“Nothing. Why?”
“You’ve been kind of down lately.”
Should I tell her? But Trent had been so secretive, I assumed he didn’t want anyone outside the family to know.
“It’s nothing. I’m just tired.”