Chapter 14 The Problem #2
“Wasn’t he gone recently? Paige said he was out of town.”
“Well, he’s back.”
“Since when?”
What does that matter? Theo and I have been friends for—hell, for as long as I can remember. Can’t he just trust me?
“When did he come back, Scarlett?” he insists.
“Friday,” I say, my anxiety spiking when he nods, as if that’s exactly the answer he expected. It feels remarkably similar to answering the phone call from the police when my parents died. Even before they told me what happened, I knew something bad was coming next.
“Here’s the thing,” Theo says, one arm folded behind his head as he awkwardly rubs his neck.
“No.” I stop him. I don’t want to hear the thing. I want to go back in and know that Rafael is the place where I can hide from what happened tonight with Ethan. If Theo’s right, and there’s a thing, well, I plan to ignore it. “Give him a chance, that’s all I ask.”
I walk back toward the pub entrance, but Theo rushes after me. “He’s always been a player. And now that he’s around you, I can’t help but think that—”
“That what?” I ask, whipping around to face him.
“That he’s… using you.”
Using me for what? “Look, I appreciate your concern. I really do. But Rafael has been nothing but supportive and patient. Trust me, I didn’t give him a lot to stick around for.”
“So why was he peeking into your window?”
“He was not—” I scoff, frustrated. I can’t believe Vanessa told him about that. “It was just a misunderstanding.”
“And you don’t find his timing a little peculiar?” He shifts uncomfortably, and my heartbeat immediately spikes again.
“What do you mean?”
“He first showed up at the Single Mingle.”
My fingers tingle, cold seeping through my bones. “And?”
“And what happened before that?”
My mouth opens, then closes, shock preventing me from forming words for a full minute. My birthday. The radio host talking about Catherine Blake, then the Willowbrook Whistle article. “You can’t be serious.”
“Then he vanished. And what happened the night before he reappeared?”
Mallory was killed.
“You think he’s a murderer?” I whisper-scream. “Theo, please.”
“Just think about it for a second.”
I turn on my heels, ready to return to the pub. Fuck Theo.
He comes to stand in front of me. “Scarlett, wait.”
“Why? Why would he do it?”
He looks around as if he’ll find his answer. “I don’t know. Sometimes there’s no reason.”
Wrong. “There’s always a reason—at the very least, a catalyst. A big event in someone’s life that leads them to lose control. A divorce, a job loss, financial troubles—”
“A death in the family.”
My mouth closes.
“That’s a catalyst, right? His father’s death could have pushed him over the edge.”
I stare at him, bile rising up my throat and leaving an acidic taste in my mouth. “That hardly proves anything.”
“You don’t know where he was Thursday night, do you?”
“I don’t know where you were, and that doesn’t make you a killer!” I burst out. “Why would he move back into town and kill two women he hardly even knows? How would they—”
“I don’t know, Scarlett,” Theo says, his brow furrowing. “I have no idea. But I don’t trust him, and I don’t like him.”
“That does not make him a murderer.”
There’s a movement in the corner of my eye, so I look back at the couple making out in the parking lot. I squint. Is that… Celeste?
“It’s not nothing! It’s—”
“I’m leaving,” I interrupt, walking around him and darting inside the pub. I veer for the bathroom and enter the first stall, then take a moment to calm down. Was that really Celeste I saw making out in the parking lot? What the hell is happening to the people in this town?
Theo has always been protective of me, but this is way over the line. Can nobody separate a rebellious teenager from the man he is today?
I step out of the bathroom, running a hand through my hair and trying to shake off the weird tension I’m carrying.
As I look up, I see Theo sitting next to Rafael and facing Paige and Vanessa on the other side of the table.
The moment Rafael notices me, he stands and makes his way toward me, his glass in his hand.
“Hey,” he says, stopping a few feet away and studying my face. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I reply, forcing a lightness into my voice that I don’t feel. “All good.”
Without thinking, I reach for the drink in his hand, fingers wrapping around the glass. I tip it back before he can stop me and down the whiskey in one quick, burning gulp. The warmth floods my chest, and I close my eyes for a second, savoring the strange mix of comfort and fire.
“Whoa, hey.” Rafael reaches out, a hand steadying me by the waist as I lower the empty glass, my lips tingling. “Did you forget what it tastes like?”
“I told you.” I set the glass back in his hand as the whiskey hits me. “Drinking often boils down to motivation.”
He chuckles softly, but his hand doesn’t leave my waist. “Boy, you’re going to regret that,” he murmurs. “Want to tell me what happened with your friend?”
“Not really.” I glance behind him, where Theo, Paige, and Vanessa are chatting at the table. “I’m sorry about them, though.”
Between Vanessa nearly arresting him and the obvious argument I had with Theo, I’m not sure he’s getting the welcome party he deserves.
“Nothing to be sorry about. I’m used to it.”
I watch his easy, honest smile and reciprocate. It might be the whiskey loosening me up already, but I decide right here and now that Rafael would never do what Theo accused him of. He’s a good person.
With a playful glint in his eyes, he leans closer and asks, “But I’ve got to ask. Is that all they are? Friends?”
Oh my God, of course he thinks there’s something between Theo and me. “Yes. Nothing’s ever happened between us.”
He glances back at the group. “Guess I just got a weird vibe.”
“Theo’s… a little worried,” I say. “That’s all.”
“I get it.” He tilts his head. “But I wasn’t talking about Theo.”