I grinned as I picked up my pace again. “I’d like some video proof of those tears.”
“Masochist.”
I chuckled.
As the parking lot came into view, a figure pushed off a sheriff’s department SUV. Hayes’ gaze jumped from Boden to me and back again, zeroing in on Gizmo. “Is that a baby carrier?”
“I’m never going to live this down,” Boden grumbled.
Hayes shook his head, but as he focused back on me, the strains of humor in his expression fled. “Williams said you were out this way.”
My stomach cramped. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m afraid so.” He paused, seeming to search for words. “I’m sorry, Laiken. Mitch is dead.”
Those cramps turned to waves of nausea. This wasn’t happening. Not another of us. Even if Mitch had traded us in for a new set of friends, he would always be one of us. Except now, he had ceased to be at all.
“How?” I croaked.
“Looks like a hunting accident.”
“Looks like?”
“It had been a day or two before someone found him.”
Bile crept up my throat.
Boden wrapped an arm around me, his warmth bleeding into me.
Hayes tracked the movement, but he didn’t say anything. “Laiken, that’s three people involved in the accident who have died in the past few months.”
“We’re cursed,” I said softly.
Boden’s grip on me tightened. “What?”
“We’re cursed. Car accident, overdose, another car accident, and now this? How else do you explain that? Maybe none of us were supposed to make it past that night. Maybe this is the Universe trying to right that.”
“Or maybe someone is helping the Universe along,” Hayes said.
I stiffened, my spine going ramrod straight.
“What do you mean,helping?” Boden growled.
Hayes scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I’m reopening the investigation into Scott’s death, and I’ll be taking a much closer look at Lisbeth and Mitch.”
Boden looked down at me, not letting go of my shoulders. “They were all in the car accident with you?”
I swallowed, my throat desert-dry. “We were driving from the lake to a party. Three separate cars. We passed someone on the road who was clearly intoxicated. Jase flashed his lights at him, trying to get him to slow down. He didn’t like that. He forced us off the road, and the rest of the vehicles were in a pileup. But Jase was the only one who didn’t make it.”
“What about the guy that drove them off the road? Have you looked into him?” Boden asked Hayes.
“He got out of prison a little over a year ago. Moved back east. I’m making some calls to locate him.”
I could still see Robert Aaron’s face as clear as day. It was burned into my brain. How emotionless it had been as he stood trial. He didn’t even blink when the judge read his sentence. One that had made the town rage for how light it was—manslaughter, when it should’ve been murder. The defense attorney wove a case that we had provoked Robert on the road. Kids out looking for a party.
Boden bent his head so that his lips were next to my ear. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too.”