My thoughts are sluggish. I’m vaguely aware of Greyson moving around my room, and then, sometime later, silence.
I’m left with one question.
Why did he come here in the first place?
35
GREYSON
Knox meets me on the sidewalk, his hood over his head and his hands in his pockets. He raises an eyebrow, but we don’t speak until he’s in my passenger seat and we’re well away from the house.
We go toward the point. The cliff that the hockey team jumped off of months ago. I was just out here with my father, at the restaurant that overlooks the lake.
“You gonna loop me in?” he finally asks.
“Jack Michaels.”
He turns toward me. “What about him?”
“He tried to rape Violet.”
Knox is silent.
I don’t know if that’s what he would’ve actually done. If that’s how far he would’ve gone. But I’m assuming it is—after all, why drug her? Why go to those lengths?
My grip tightens on the wheel. “He’s in the bed.”
Of my truck, I mean.
Knox cranes around, but it’s too dark. We’re on a road without streetlights. Besides, I hogtied Jack and bound him to a few cinder blocks. A tarp covers him. It won’t suffocate him, but he’s probably cold.
February hasn’t lightened up on us. Weather-wise.
Which works in our favor tonight.
“What’s the play?”
I smile. “We’re going to make him regret ever coming to Crown Point.”
He nods slowly. “Sending mixed messages, aren’t you?”
“Because of that press release?” I glance over, then back to the road. “She’s mine. That hasn’t changed. It’s just public perception. A necessary evil, if you ask me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We both denied our involvement with each other,” I say. Not sure why I have to explain it, but there’s a compulsion there. For my friend to understand. “It’s not us. It’s everyone else who will care. My dad, her mom…”
“Because of your past,” Knox guesses.
“Something like that.”
“Lot of smoke-and-mirrors shit going on around here.” He heaves a sigh. “Whatever. I don’t really give a fuck as long as we win our game next week. Which means ensuring Jackie boy here doesn’t get us kicked off the team.”
I nod. “I know.”
“So… I’ll ask again, what’s the play? The actual plan, Devereux. Don’t bullshit me. We going to scare him? We going to blackmail him?”
I lift one shoulder. He’ll get the idea when we get there.