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They wanted to send a message toChase.
They’d taken the picture of us and returned it with my face severely burned, but they’d taken his sketchbooks—where all his dreams and thoughts and secrets were.
It was almost as if they wanted to remind Chase I wasn’t supposed to be the girl in his picture. As if they wanted Chase to worry about what they knew or could reveal—except he didn’t remember anything at all.
But that fear of what Chase could’ve possibly done? That was more real than ever.
“Idon’t know, man,” Brandon said a few hours later after I’d finished telling them about the fucked-up morning, then glanced to Konrad in question.
Konrad held out a hand before letting it smack down on the kitchen island—because I refused to be farther from Scarlet than I was right then. Where I could hear her laughing and coaching her friends through their workout session. Where I could get to her if she screamed.
“Fuck if I know,” Konrad said. “I’m just surprised Scarlet wanted to come back into the house.”
“Honestly,” Brandon agreed. “They were in the fucking room with her when she was showering.”
I worked my jaw at the reminder, then shook my head to rid my mind of the dark path I kept traveling down. Because it could’ve been anyone in the house with her. Anything could’ve happened to her.
And I hadn’t been there.
“But I don’t know how many sets of keys you gave out—we all have keys,” Brandon went on, circling back to what I’d originally been asking them, then corrected, “Had.”
“Right,” Konrad murmured. “Us, your parents. . .we all have access to each other’s houses. Does Brian have a key?”
“No,” I said immediately before backtracking. “Well, I don’t know. He could, for all I know.”
Brandon grunted in understanding, then leaned closer to the island from his spot on the barstools next to Konrad and lowered his voice. “Do any of Scarlet’s friends?”
I lifted my hands in a show that I didn’t know. “Didn’t exactly think it’d be a good idea to go putting it in Scarlet’s head that one of her friends could’ve been the one who came in.”
“Why the hell not?” Brandon demanded. “You asked ifwehad keys.”
“I asked to get an idea of who had keys and if you still had them—like if you’d lost them or let anyone borrow them,” I ground out. “But the cops seem to think the person who was in here is someone I’m currently—or was—sleeping with. So, if it’s one of Scarlet’s friends...”
“Shit,” Brandon whispered as he sat back. “Really?”
My eyebrows rose. “Apparently.”
“You really cheated on Scarlet?”
“I don’t know, Brandon,” I snapped, every defense rising in response to the deep disappointment in his voice and the guilt that was a constant reminder in my gut. “I don’t know what I did. I know what I remember, that apparently never happened. I know that picture of us disappeared after I got home and just showed back up this morning with a clear-as-fuck message on it. So, all I know is I did something bad.”
“Why didn’t you tell us the picture had gone missing?” Konrad asked as he reached forward for the box of pastries that was sitting on the island, even though we’d just finished eating. Snatching one of the large muffins out before pushing the pink box over to Brandon.
“Honestly, I forgot,” I said as I stepped forward from my spot against the other counter to catch the box when Brandon slid it toward me. “It disappeared the day after I got back from the hospital. Scarlet got pissed—thought I’d taken it because I was mad about what was and wasn’t real. I was sure it fell. We didn’t talk about it again until today—she probably thought I was hiding it somewhere until it appeared this morning.”
Brandon started responding just as Konrad groaned, “God damnit. Are these Litany’s?”
I looked from the muffin he was holding to the box in my hand. “What?”
“Shit,” Brandon said through a muffled laugh as he took a massive bite. “Eat it fast.”
“Why are they so fucking good?” Konrad asked, tossing the question out like an accusation as he tore into the muffin.
“Every time,” Brandon said around the next mouthful. “She’s probably drugging us, and we don’t even know.”
“Wouldn’t care,” Konrad said with a wry grin, then gestured to me. “Why aren’t you eating?”
“These are for Litany?” I asked as I glanced toward the garage where the girl in question was working out.
