26. Chapter 23
Chapter 23
S earch engines were Lex’s best friend—and the only thing keeping him from a complete mental breakdown.
As soon as the uninvited guests left, he dragged his old laptop out of his car and buried himself under the covers in his room. He pulled up article after article, diving through things that happened forever ago. He stopped only when he needed to blow his nose or chug another dose of cold medicine. Three o’clock slipped into ten o’clock before he realized he couldn’t feel his knees or hips .
Going down for a murder? Spending god knows how many years in prison?
Hell no.
That wasn’t on his bucket list of crap to do in his life. He had plans. Big ones. Getting Jake’s family off his trail before the police were involved was step one.
Finally, he found something worth looking at.
Benji and Kyran weren’t exactly saints.
They’d been involved in something dicey too. Two years ago, at East Bridge—the same high school Lex waded through—a girl had disappeared. Calliope Thomas. She up and vanished off the face of the earth. Almost exactly like Jake.
And because the universe hated him, specifically—his younger cousin was included in the fun.
Noah.
Seeing that fake tan face in the news article tightened Lex’s jaw.
Noah was the definition of troubled kid. All brawn, no brains, with a penchant for diving head first into shit, he shouldn’t.
Like the time he’d gone snooping through Lex’s belongings at a family gathering years before.
Angry didn’t cover it. Neither did fucking furious .
Lex nearly lost it all together, knowing Noah’s grubby hands had been all over his prizes . The Polaroids he’d so lovingly taken, capturing all of Morgan’s best angles. The shirts Morgan would wear to go running, some still damp with sweat.
Noah was the goddamn plague.
Now? If Lex had to wager a guess—and his guesses were very, very good—he would assume all three of them were guilty of something. Even if the article said they were cleared. People didn’t just happen to be involved in a disappearance without something shady going down.
Though from the outside looking in, no one would be able to tell. The apathetic nerd and the rainbow giant didn’t look like they had an ounce of sense between them. Benji’s disinterest was so palpable he’d probably left a chunk of it on the couch, and Kyran had gone through the entire platter of cookies before they left.
The way they spent their entire time poking at each other, arguing while Jake’s mother held back her tears, and his father nearly got into with Morgan… it was kind of funny.
And very useful. A couple of idiots worked in Lex’s favor.
What better way to lose Jake’s entire family than to push the blame onto someone else?
He just needed to figure out which one of the two had the most skeletons rattling around in their closet. Which one had the biggest secret to lose.
Protecting himself was the most important thing. It didn’t matter who went down in his stead.
And damn if it wasn’t a little bit fun.