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Chapter Sixteen
Elena
HelenandIwereat war. One dunk, I could deal with. Two was pushing it. Three? Nope. She was going down.
“Zadie! Help me get Helen,” I screamed, rushing through the waves.
Helen laughed, backing away while she splashed ocean water at me. “Never gonna happen, dude. You won’t take me alive.”
I lunged, barely missing her. “That sounds like a challenge.”
Of course, Zadie didn’t help me. She’d probably rather drown herself than dunk someone else. Freaking sweet little pacifist. If I didn’t like her so much, I’d try to dunk her too.
Helen was in my sights. Lunging again, my fingers grazed her side at the same time a rogue wave crashed into both of us, sending us under. For a second, I let myself be carried by the tide and blocked out everything else. Then Helen found me and grabbed my hand, tugging me back to the surface.
We called truce after that, wading to the shoreline for a break. Zadie gave up on boogie boarding and sat with us on the wet sand. The three of us watched the boys’ attempt at playing football. It was silly, since Lachlan barely had to move to block and his throws to Marco went for miles. And I was pretty sure he was taking it easy on them.
“It’s too bad Julien couldn’t be here,” Zadie said.
“Yeah.” Helen scooped up sand and passed it back and forth between her hands. “I mean, he could have. We would have made it work for him. Sand is probably tough, but—”
“He has pride. You think he wants his boys helping him hobble on the beach? Or worse, having to carry him?” I grimaced at the idea. Julien could walk, but he wasn’t steady yet. There was no way he could be here without assistance, which would kill him.
“He would hate to know we were talking about him like this,” I said. “Let’s just acknowledge it sucks Jules isn’t here and move on. All right?”
Zadie’s bottom lip popped out a little but she nodded. Helen tossed the sand she was holding at the ocean.
“You wanna tell me about Nate’s brother?” Helen asked.
Caught off guard, I stared at her, frowning. “Lock?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He said you were freaked out.”
Zadie touched my arm. “Are you okay now?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m always fine.” I flashed a big smile at her and winked like a dirty old man. They both kept staring, waiting for me to spill, leaving me no choice. “So, I ran into Oliver Bergen yesterday. He looks exactly like Nate, and yeah, it freaked me out.”
Helen made swirly lines in the sand with her fingers. “Do you think he’s…like Nate?”
“I don’t really know him,” I answered. “He’s five years older, so we weren’t in school together or anything.”
Zadie hadn’t grown up with Helen and me, but she’d been our roommate for over a year, so she’d heard stories. She knew who Nate was and what a shitty human being he’d been.
“Did he want to talk about his brother?” Zadie asked.
“Not really.” I sucked in a breath. “Idon’t want to talk about his brother.”
Helen punched her palm. “Sometimes, I’d like to dig up his corpse just to laugh in his face. Fucking loser. Thank god he was the one spoiled little rich boy who got what he deserved.”
I turned to her. “You think he deserved to die like that?”
She leveled me with a hard look, her dark eyes scorching. “I think he deserved a hell of a lot worse. Not even for hurting me. I personally know two other girls who were victimized or almost victimized by that sicko. Who knows how many other girls he took from. Do you have some weird sense of loyalty? Some leftover love for your high school sweetheart?”
“No.” My lips flattened in a hard line. “Just…from what I heard, it was a pretty terrible accident.”
“Good. I hope he suffered. He sure as hell made a lot of girls suffer while he was alive.” Helen crossed her arms and rounded on me. “Why does it sound to me like you’re defending that asswipe? He’s a rapist.”
“I know. I know what he was.”
