Page 72 of Within These County Lines

“You want to talk about this right now?” Robbie scoffs.

I pick at my cuticles. “If you don’t mind. Pinehurst is reopening. Have you heard? It’s been hard for Mrs. Pomers. If you could share anything, it’d help us. Big time.”

“Okay, let’s not blame this Robbie ambush all on my family,” Xander cuts in. “You’re missing too, kind of. Isn’t your mom also upset?”

“What’s in this for me?” Robbie asks, crossing his arms.

My mouth falls open. “Umm, uh,” I stammer.

Behind me, Murray keeps talking, his voice needling into my skull like an alarm I can’t turn off.

“Anything I uncover could help your family find your stepsister.”

Robbie shrugs. “I never really knew my stepsister.”

Xander grabs my wrist. “Don’t lose him,” he says. “He doesn’t seem like an emotional guy. Ditch the family angle.”

The music gets noisier. Murray talks louder. My ears start to ring. I lick pooling sweat from my top lip.

Robbie tips back his beer can and chugs the rest. Desperate, I blurt, “I have a few more forty-ounce beers in my truck.” I lift an empty bottle to his face. “I’ll give them to you for free if you tell me what happened to your stepsister.”

Robbie laughs and slaps a hand on my shoulder. “Damn, dude, okay. Now you’re talking. I got you.” He nods toward the hall. “Let’s go upstairs though. There are too many people down here. I’m not technically allowed to talk about this.”

A chill prickles down my spine. We have to go to a secret location for this conversation. He must have the answer to why Xander went . . . and I am going . . . missing.

“Yo, Murray,” Robbie says, clapping him on the arm. “I’ll be right back. Hold my spot at the table.”

“For sure,” Murray says. His eyes bounce over my shoulder, then go wide. “Whitley?”

He takes a step forward and immediately trips and falls. He lunges for a chair to catch himself, but instead, he drags it down with a crash.

The entire party erupts. “Ohhhhhh!”

Murray groans as he pushes himself up and reaches for his feet. His shoelaces are tied together in triple knots.

Xander snickers beside me as he admires his handiwork. “Success,” he says. I drag my hand down my face. “Oh, come on. It’s funny. If he really hurt you as bad as Whitley says, then he deserves it.”

A few of Murray’s new friends haul him to his feet. I wait for him to say something to Whitley, anything, but a sharp whistle cuts through the noise and pulls my focus in the opposite direction.

At the entrance of the kitchen, Robbie nods toward the hall like I’m his dog.

Whitley scampers over from the other side of the kitchen island. “Where are you going?” she asks, folding her arms tight across her stomach.

“Robbie’s bedroom,” I say. “He knows something.”

“Should I come?”

I shake my head. “Just Xander and me.”

She wrinkles her nose. “Oh, so I have to stay down here with Murray. Why does Xander get to go?”

“He’s invisible.”

“Ha ha.” Xander laughs.

Her eyes narrow. “Are you sure it’s safe up there? What if Robbie kidnapped his stepsister? What if he knows who killed Xander? They always say family members are most likely to commit the murder.”

I freeze.