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Zaden shakes his head. “We need to talk to you about something.” Her eyes travel over him, and I know that she sees the war inside him. They’ve been friends for a long time.
“Yeah, come on,” she says, opening the door wider so we can enter. Her home is well decorated and warm, with a beach theme of shells and seabirds set on pastel-colored walls. She leads us into the living room and we sit on her off-white canvas sofa, staring at one another expectantly.
“What’s wrong?” She asks. “You skipped work yesterday.” Her gaze shifts to me. “I heard about an incident at the Sunrise, and a guest was attacked. I hoped it wasn’t you.”
I nod. “It was.”
She curses under her breath.
“That’s not why we’re here, Kat,” Zaden says, stopping her. “It’s about Jax.”
Her eyes narrow. “What about Jax? Has he contacted you? He needs to get his ass back to work, too.”
Zaden slowly shakes his head. “He got into the Bronco the night Paige disappeared. He was driving when they went over the bridge. Ryan pulled the security footage from the Sunrise on the night it happened.” Ryan pulls out his laptop.
She shakes her head. “No, Jax is fishing down in Sargassum Point. We have a cabin down there.”
Zaden shakes his head again. “He’s not, Kat. He went off the bridge.”
Her attention volleys between us, her eyes wide as her hands begin to shake. “No. What? No!” She stands from the couch, walks into the foyer, and then returns. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Ryan starts the video, and she watches it, transfixed for several minutes before I see tears roll down her cheeks. She shakes her head violently. “No, you’re wrong,” she cries.
Zaden stands and walks over to her, wrapping his arms around her. Tears well in my eyes, and I struggle to swallow the lump in my throat. I glance over at Ryan, and I see him struggling too.
“Do the police know?” She questions desperately. “This is from the motel. They must have taken the footage from theSandbar. Why aren’t they looking for him? Why isn’t his picture on the news with Paige?”
“It’s the Jacobsons’. All of this revolves around Evan and Cyrus. We believe Evan may have killed Rose, and Paige was framed for it. They wouldn’t want to alert the public to another possible casualty if they don’t have to, especially if they didn’t find a body,” Ryan clarifies. A pained sound rips through her at the wordbody, and Zaden holds her tighter.
“How do you know all this?” She asks, glancing back at Ryan and I.
I swallow hard. “Because I’m Paige’s sister. I came here to find out what happened.” I release a tense sigh. That admission never gets easier.
Her eyes flare. “You… You lied to everyone, and your sister…” She tries to wrench out of Zaden’s embrace, but he holds her fast. Her eyes lock with his. “You’re going to fucking protect her? I’ve known you since we were kids. Kids, Zaden!” Her face hardens in disgust and outright rage. “So that’s how much our friendship is worth, huh? Little less than a good fuck?” She fights against him again, screaming until he releases her. I stand from the couch, but he stays between us. Then she huffs and walks out of the room.
“We just found out today,” Zaden admits, although it doesn’t look like she cares to hear it. “I came as soon as I knew.”
“Well, you get the loyal friend award,” she calls from the other room. I hear things getting knocked over, piles of papers hitting the floor, pens clattering across the kitchen counter. For a moment, I wonder if she’s looking for a weapon. When she walks back into the room, she’s holding a sheet of paper out tous, her hand shaking. “Explain this, then. Jax left me a note and stole my motorcycle.”
Zaden takes the paper from her, and I take a careful step forward. His eyes dart back to her. “When did you find this?”
“Saturday,” she exclaims. “The day after all that shit happened. Jax never came to work, so I went looking for him at the Auto shop, thinking he had swapped shifts, and was working at the shop instead. He wanted to change the oil on my bike, so I dropped it off Friday night after work. By Saturday afternoon, it was gone, and I had that note.” She points toward the piece of paper.
Zaden glances over at me, then holds it out so I can read it.
“The only thing I couldn’t figure out,” Katrina adds. “Is the handwriting. It’s not his.”
My heart quickens, wild and erratic, drumming a staccato bass inside my chest until I feel like it’s going to break free.
I took your bike. I’ll explain everything later.
- Jax
The artistic angles of the lines, the calligraphy swirls in the looping letters… I sit back on the couch before I can collapse. My eyes lock with Zaden’s.
“It’s her. This is her handwriting. Paige wrote it.”
Zaden shakes his head. “How?”
