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“I can’t see her doing anything like that either.” I groaned and shook my head. “God, I can’t talk about this anymore. These people are my best friends.”
“I know.” Paxton squeezed my hand and briefly pressed his lips to my forehead. “But look, you have to admit, the more we talk about Tate, the more the evidence seems to mount against him.”
I let out a long sigh, shoulders sagging. “That’s true,” I said. I sat up straight again. “But… hold on. That reminds me. We didn’t finish running through the list before.”
“The list?”
“The stuff I assumed you did. But now we know some of it wasn’t you. Like the plagiarism thing. We need to figure out if Tate could’ve actually done all of it.”
“Right.” Paxton nodded, one hand gently massaging my back. “What else was there?”
“The fake sex tape that got me expelled. I didn’t mention that before.”
“Ah. You mean the one with Raquel and Keegan outside Sticks?”
My lips thinned. “So it was you who did it.”
“Nope. I didn’t do it. But I’ve met Raquel before, so I recognized her when that video was going around campus with your name on it. She has the exact same hair as you. About the same height and weight too. So from behind, she looks very similar. I only realized it was her when she turned her head for a split second. But it was definitely her.”
I frowned. “Would Tate know Raquel? Because whoever filmed and uploaded that video probably knew she was at the bar that night, and they knew she’d probably hook up with someone.”
“I’m not sure if Tate knows her,” Paxton replied, scratching his jawline. “You’d know a lot more about his acquaintances than me.”
“Right. Of course.” I decided to change tacks. “You said you know Raquel. What can you tell me about her?”
“Not much. I only met her once.”
“But you’ve talked to her, right?”
“Yeah.” Paxton frowned and tapped his chin. “She’s a total puck bunny. I think she said she majors in international relations. She also has a sister who’s a masseuse. That’s all she really said to me about herself, as far as I can recall.”
I sat up straight again. “Puck bunnies are those girls who are obsessed with hooking up with hockey players, right?”
“Yup.”
“Well, Tate is obsessed with hockey. He goes to every game. I think he sometimes goes to bars that players like to drink at too. Like Sticks.”
“So then he might’ve met Raquel before,” Paxton replied, nodding slowly.
I raised my brows. “Well… I guess there’s one way to find out for sure.”
“Talk to Raquel?”
“Yup. Let’s go back to DC.” I took his hand and squeezed it. “Together.”
Sienna
“That’s probably Keegan getting back to me.” Paxton’s eyes flickered to his phone on the center console. The cracked screen had just lit up. “Can you check it?”
I picked it up and read the text. It was indeed from Keegan. “He says Raquel lives in Armstrong residence hall. Dorm 3G.”
“Cool. I figured he’d probably know, given how many times they’ve hooked up this semester,” Paxton said with a faint smile.
A pang of jealousy gnawed at my guts. “Did you ever—”
“Nope.” Paxton shook his head and cut me off, already knowing exactly what was on my mind. “She isn’t you.”
A warm glow lit me from the inside out. I smiled and leaned back against the headrest, briefly closing my eyes as I wondered how everything had changed so rapidly. Just yesterday, I was terrified of Paxton and truly believed he was a killer. Skip forward a day, and we were acting like a regular couple on a road trip. It was so bizarre, but it felt so right at the same time.
