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Peering over his wide shoulder, I watched as Sloane yanked the door open before shoving Hayden out.As soon as it closed behind them, Reed turned and leveled me a gaze brimming with anger.
“What the hell possessed you to bait Hayden like that?”he spat.
I blinked in confusion.“What did you expect me to do?Stand there and take her death threat without trying to defend myself?”
“Yes!”he yelled.
“You’re insane,” I countered.The worry in his eyes doubled my own fear.“Why are you so upset, Reed?What do you know that you’re not telling me?”
“Fuck,” he sighed and scrubbed a hand through his thinning dark hair and paced for a long minute.“The college kid that was found dead in his car about eight years ago, do you remember that?”
“I wasn’t living here then.What does some dead college kid have to do with Hayden?”
“A twenty-two-year-old Loyola University student was found inside his brand new Camry.He was parked outside his apartment complex with an EpiPen pen shoved in his chest.Inside the vehicle was a swarm of bees.The kid was highly allergic to bees.”
“Okay.I still don’t know what this—”
“Let me finish, Leagh,” Reed scolded as he held up his hand.“The locks on his brand new car had been tampered with.He’d been unable to get out of a car filled with bees.The coroner’s report estimated he’d been stung over three thousand times.”
“You’re telling me this…because?”I had no idea where Reed was going with his story.
“His name was Ethan Breuer.He was Hayden’s boyfriend.”
My mouth fell open.Time seemed to freeze as Reed’s words knocked the air from my lungs.
“Are you trying to tell me that Hayden killed him?”
“I never said that.But possibly, like me, you find the details surrounding the young man’s death a bit more than coincidental.I have no proof Hayden killed him, and I don’t have proof Sloane didn’t do it, either.I’m simply saying I wouldn’t put it past either one of them.They’re both cut from the same cloth and crazier than a couple of shithouse rats.”
My mouth went dry, and the room began to spin.I gripped the back of the leather chair I’d been sitting in to support my trembling legs.“Why would either of them want this kid dead?What did he do?”
“Hayden had made up her mind that she was going to marry Ethan.In fact, at the time of his death, she and Sloane were shopping for bridal dresses.Both had ironclad alibis.Ironically, they went shopping the dayafterHayden caught Ethan and another girl in bed together.Tell me, do you get the impression Hayden is the forgiving type?That she’d find the man of her dreams in bed with another woman and race right out to the bridal boutique the very next day?”
“Not in this lifetime.”My head swam.“So, Hayden got a taste of what George felt when he found Sloane and Bernard in bed that day.”
“Oh, Hayden doesn’t know a damn thing about Sloane’s affair.”
“Right, because Sloane would run the risk of Hayden being crushed and hating the nasty heifer.And she’s invested way too much time and energy grooming Hayden to be a perfect little mini-me,” I scoffed with a brittle smile.
Frazzled by the fear that Hayden would actually make good on her threat, I began to panic.It had been a long time since I’d felt death loom so close.It was as immobilizing as it had been in the past.Then, something strange began to happen.Anger began to bubble over and consume my fear.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before the meeting, Reed?I’ve just signed my name to the top of Hayden or Sloane’s hit list.”
“I didn’t think things were going to go to hell in a hand basket, but the minute I saw Sloane walk through the door, I knew it was going to get ugly.I wish I’d never asked you to come today, Leagh.”
“That would have pissed me off even more,” I hissed.
I was lashing out at George’s best friend, trying to blame him for my own mistakes.If I hadn’t run off at the mouth and had kept a lid on my anger, I wouldn’t be choking on a mountain of fear.Their animosity I could live with; the prospect of being at the top of their hit list—not so much.
“Look, I’m sorry, Reed.I’m really not blaming you.I’m mad at myself and…shit.Hindsight is a steaming pile of crap, isn’t it?”I sighed.“Did George know about Ethan’s death?”
“He shared his suspicions with me, and we discussed the possibility of Hayden’s involvement.But all we had was speculation.The official police report concluded that a queen had built a nest in the wheel well of Ethan’s car, and the bees migrated through the ventilation system.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”I snorted in disbelief.“Was there a hive anywhere in Ethan’s car?”
“No.”Reed pursed his lips and shook his head.
“I didn’t think so either.And that piss-poor excuse was the best the cops could come up with?Who the hell was heading up the investigation…Bernard’s friends?”I was furious.
