AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m still not clear,” Emery said to Tean, “in what regard you believe I was incorrect in my assessment of animal trafficking.”
“Um, maybe not right now, Emery,” Auggie said.
John-Henry hadn’t moved. He had intensely blue eyes—a kind of perfect, ocean blue—and they were locked on Jem. “One more chance,” he said, so quietly that Tean barely heard him.
Jem spread his hands. He gave a tiny laugh. He looked around—the nonverbal equivalent ofWhat gives?
“Ree,” John-Henry said.
“A dancer at the Cottonmouth Club told us you were there Friday night,” Emery said. “Dr. Leon, I can source those numbers—”
“Emery, Christ,” Theo said.
“I don’t know.” Jem held out upturned hands. “I wasn’t there.”
John-Henry shook his head.
“Come on,” Jem said. “I’m blond. I’ve got a beard. Average height. That’s not exactly an unusual combination. Hell, if somebody saw us from behind, they could get you and me confused, or Theo.”
“North,” Shaw said softly.
“What are you talking about?” North straightened in his seat. “He was at the Cottonmouth Club?”
“It’s been a strange couple of days,” John-Henry said. “And one of the strange things is that you and Dr. Leon showed up, and this woman died, and your friend got arrested, and you haven’t been able to stay out of things since.”
“Hold on,” Auggie said. “Aren’t we jumping the gun a little?”
“Jem,” Tean said. That darkness stretched wider inside him. It was like a pool of water. If something fell, the ripples would spread, rings of them rippling outward. He felt like he had to hold himself very still. “What are they talking about?”
“I don’t know,” Jem said. The hint of anger was just right. Confusion bleeding into frustration and fear. The best lies, Jem liked to say, were the ones that were true. “I wasn’t at the Cottonmouth Club.”
Emery snorted.
“What kind of evidence do you have?” Theo asked. “You’re putting a lot of pressure on him because a dancer described a blond man at the club.”
“The fuck were you doing at the Cottonmouth Club?” North asked, voice rising.
“Everyone’s getting so angry,” Shaw said. “We all need to calm down.”
“I wasn’t at the club,” Jem said. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I was at the resort the whole night.”
“We came here for the conference,” Tean said, and even though it was true, he felt like he was lying. “And then Yesenia, and Missy—I don’t know what you’re accusing us of.”
John-Henry sat back and glanced at Emery. Face unreadable, Emery pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it onto the table. It landed next to the animal photos: a sheet of copy paper, with a cheap color inkjet image. A photo—more accurately, a security still. Of Jem. In the background, a bar was visible, and a woman was frozen mid-spin on a pole.
Tean looked at Jem. He saw the lie already weaving itself together.
“Now just a second,” Jem began.
“You lied to me?” Tean said.
“Of course not.”
“I thought—” What almost came out was,I thought we were done with that. Tean managed to stop himself, but not before hurt sparked in Jem’s eyes. “I asked you where you’d been. When you came back, when I texted you after Missy got arrested, I asked you what you’d been doing. And you lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie to you.” But now it was like all those layers of transparencies, all those superimposed Jems, had gotten scrambled, and the lie was weak and obvious.
“What about that?” Tean nodded at the security still.
