“I’m still following that lead,” Lucy tells us.
Alex and I both nod like bobbleheads, absorbing everything.
“This is a great start,” he says to them. “Now find out who would want them dead.”
15
Chloe
“Whammy!”
I bounce into the air when my bowling ball crashes into the pins, scattering all ten of them into blackness.
“Tell me again why we haven’t started a bowling league?” Maeve questions as I return to the group.
Stella raises her eyebrows at Maeve, a look of disgust on her face. “Because bowling leagues are for old men.”
“So is fishing,” Maeve counters, looking pointedly at Stone.
“Not true, Maeve,” he argues. “And even if it were, that doesn’t offend me. I find my peace on the water. Unlike Chloe, who finds her peace with dead animals.”
I give him a punch in the arm for that jab. Jeez, it’s like a domino effect of glares and accusations going around.
“Why are you guys so tense?” I ask.
Stella shakes her hair out, folding her arms across her chest. “We’re justworried.”
“About?”
“You beingdrugged,Chloe,” she says, her tone laced with attitude.
I wave a flippant hand at her. “That is so last week. And I’m fine.” It was actually just last night, but after spending half the day with Colin and hearing him say he feelsdifferentabout me, it may as well have been years ago.
Okay, so that’s notexactlywhat he said, but pretty much, and I’ve been lost in dreamland since then.
Stone lifts himself from the couch and heads to the ball return, waiting as the machine realigns the pins at the end of the lane. Ever the patient man. I’d have launched my ball down someone else’s lane by now.
“The only reason you’re fine is because your detective boyfriend made sure you got home okay,” Maeve argues gently, reaching for my hand.
I nod absently, considering what would have happened had Colin not known I was there. Come to think of it—he never did say how he knew I was there. Or that I was in the backyard. Or why he even suspected I’d been drugged. Huh.
But Maeve is the happy-go-lucky one in the group, so if she’s concerned, perhaps I should take it a bit more seriously.
All three of them very vividly remember me taking a drink from Max, one of the guys we met at the bowling alley last week. They remember me disappearing into the backyard with him, and Stella was just getting ready to come check on us when—apparently—Colin blew through the back door with me in his clutches, dragging me to safety.
It’s quite surreal hearing from third parties what happened during that black hole in my memory. I wondered briefly if Colin had done anything particularly mischievous during the period of time he dragged me from the party and got me into bed, and the thoughts of him touching me forced a surge of lightning through my stomach.
“You’re not still talking to his friend, are you?” I ask Maeve. All three of the guys from the group seem pretty tight, so if one of them is willing to drug a woman and take advantage of her, I wouldn’t put it past the others.
“Absolutelynot.”
“She couldn’t even if she wanted to,” Stone adds, joining the group again after his two shots to the gutter. “All three of them have been AWOL since the party.”
“Seriously?” Damn. I was looking forward to having some fun, too.
“We’ll keep looking,” Stella promises. “Just…be careful.”
Our sweet Stella, the worrier. She’s always encouraging us to be careful. To be aware of our surroundings.
