Laney
“So…what happened? What did Hunter say?”
Trina and Adam peered at me expectantly from across the café table. I bit my lip and looked down at my mug of hot chocolate.
“It’s a pretty long story,” I said lightly. “But the short version is—we met at that party I waitressed at a while ago. At your house, Adam.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Apparently he tried to flirt with me, but I didn’t really notice. After I left without him having a chance to ask for my number, he tracked me down. I guess I made quite an impression on him.”
“Right.” Trina’s brows knitted.
“He said he came to the diner I used to work at back in Silvercreek, and he tried to talk to me. Apparently we were pretty slammed that day, and I ended up being really rude to him. I don’t even remember it at all, but he said I called him a pathetic douchebag for trying to hit on a waitress in the middle of the busiest shift she’s ever had.”
“Then what?”
I swallowed hard. “That’s it. He couldn’t stand the rejection. So when I showed up at RFA, he wanted me gone, because seeing me reminded him of that humiliation,” I said. “But we’ve talked about it now, and we’ve sorted everything out, so it’s fine. No more blacklist.”
Adam and Trina exchanged glances. Then they looked back at me, brows raised.
“Can you tell us the truth now?” Trina asked.
I feigned an innocent expression. “What?”
“I don’t think Hunter would blacklist someone for that,” Adam said. “There must be some other reason you’re not telling us.”
“No. That’s it.”
“It’s not. You’re hiding something. I can tell.”
“Me too. Also, no offence, but you’ve been acting really weird lately,” Trina chimed in. “Like the texts you sent me this weekend. None of them sounded like you at all. I could tell something was wrong.”
“You were acting weird at my house earlier, too,” Adam said. “You were being all jumpy and suspicious.”
“So… what aren’t you telling us?” Trina asked.
Shit.
I focused on my mug again, mind spinning. I couldn’t tell my friends about the kidnapping Hunter staged to terrify me into submission, or the murder and cover-up I was involved in years ago, but I couldn’t keep lying to them either. They were too perceptive to let me get away with it.
I decided to settle on a half-truth. I could tell them Hunter’s motive for adding me to the blacklist without revealing the dark truth about everything else. They might even be able to help in the search for Lindsay’s killer.
I looked up at them. “I’m sorry for lying,” I said softly. “It’s just a really delicate situation. I didn’t want to upset anyone.”
“Why would we be upset?” Trina asked.
I focused my gaze on Adam. “Because it’s about Lindsay.”
“Lindsay? What about her?” he asked, brows furrowing.
I rubbed my temples and drew in a long, deep breath. “Hunter doesn’t think she committed suicide,” I said in a low voice. “He thinks someone pushed her off the roof.”
Trina’s eyes practically bulged out of her head. “What? Are you serious?”
“Yes. But please… keep it down. We need to keep this to ourselves for now.”
Her voice dropped a decibel. “Sorry.”