Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
PRESENT DAY
Garrett
I jump back from the door and spin around to see Madeline’s stricken face. “What happened? What is it?”
“Something doesn’t add up.” Madeline waves a hand at the photo. “This picture. It’s the only one I have of the three of us because my phone was destroyed when I jumped in the river to look for you. I slipped on a rock and went in over my head.”
My heart aches at the thought of Madeline on the bank of the river that night. The horror and trauma she must have experienced thinking I was trapped in the car, or getting swept downstream, drowning. When I conceived of the plan, I had no idea she would ever be there watching it play out.
“Jason waded in to stop me, to pull me out of the water. He made me run back to the road to get help. He said he’d dive in and find you.”
The guilt is so thick in my throat, I can barely swallow.
“After I ran for help, Jason said he dove in the water, over and over, frantically looking for you. He tried to swim out to your car, and the rescue divers had to drag him out. But when we were sitting on the bank of the river in the freezing rain, Jason’s parents called him.
He pulled out his phone, and it was working fine. ”
The doorbell buzzer goes off a second time.
I glance nervously at the door. “What are you saying?”
She turns to me, eyes wide. “Is it possible Jason never went in looking for you? He could have looked wet from the rain, but that wouldn’t have destroyed his phone like being submerged in a river.”
“Why would he lie about diving in to look for me?” But as the words fly from my mouth, a weight drops in my chest. Why wouldn’t Jason try to save me from the river?
I stare at the photo on the mantel, at the smiling faces of teenaged Jason, Madeline, me.
Best friends. Except that Madeline and I were more than friends, and Jason was the odd man out.
A memory scrapes at the edges of my consciousness.
This same photo slid out of an envelope in Jason’s drawer when Jason’s dad was looking for drugs.
But there were more photos, and Jason gathered them up quickly. Photos of Madeline.
But it wasn’t just the photos in his drawer. I always suspected he wanted her, he always wanted her, from the very beginning.
“I have a bad feeling.” Madeline grabs my arm. “Jason doesn’t seem like he’s trapped working for Waylon. The two of them are always so friendly. And Jason keeps getting these promotions and raises and making more and more money.”
The air in the room seems to thin like I’ve climbed a high mountain peak, and my lungs ache for oxygen.
Have I been wrong about Jason all this time?
When the drugs were stolen at the gas station, maybe he saw his chance to get rid of me.
After all, I’d taken the fall before, when Jason’s parents found cocaine in his pocket, so why wouldn’t I do it again?
And then he could stay on Waylon’s good side and have Madeline for himself .
A decade ago, I never would have believed it. But now… I don’t know anymore.
The sound of the buzzer pierces the air for the third time, in four urgent bursts, like Jason is leaning on the button over and over.
“I have to answer it,” Madeline says with a tinge of panic in her voice. “He’s expecting me to answer.” Her phone lights up with a text from Jason, no doubt asking her where she is.
I swear under my breath. “Can you get rid of him?”
“Yes.” She shoves me toward the hall closet. “Go hide in there.”
I slip into Madeline’s closet just as she presses the button to let Jason in.
Through the slats in the closet door, I hear her greet Jason and apologize for making him wait, and then his reply drifts back to me.
It’s been over a decade since I heard the voice of my childhood best friend, and a wave of memories crashes over me.
Jason was the one person who I always believed cared about me.
The one person I trusted more than anyone.
Is it possible that not only did he knowingly involve me in something illegal, but he used me to take the fall? I can’t wrap my head around it.
“I have really bad cramps,” Madeline says, her voice strained like she’s not feeling well. “That’s what took me so long to answer. I was in the bathroom. Would you mind if we did this another night?”
“We can just chill on the couch,” Jason says. “I’ll make you some tea.”
“That’s so sweet,” Madeline replies. “But I think I want to just take a bath and go to bed.”
I shift, and my head bumps against an empty clothes hanger. I quickly grab it as it clacks against the one next to it. My heartbeat pounds so loud, I’m sure it’s audible.
Jason doesn’t seem to hear any of it though because he’s busy urging Madeline to let him stay. “Come on, I drove all the way over. Let me just hang out with you for a while. I’ll give you a back massage.”
I ball my hands into fists. She asked him to leave. Several times. If a woman asks you to leave, you leave. But it doesn’t completely surprise me that Jason would try to negotiate to stay. He could always wheedle and charm his way into getting whatever he wanted.
Except Madeline. Jason wanted Madeline but she was the one thing he couldn’t have.
At least not until I was out of the picture.
I think I’m going to puke.
“Alright, just let me use the bathroom before I go,” Jason says after Madeline asks him to leave again.
I hear a phone and keys jingle on the counter, and I slide back into the depths of the closet.
Jason’s footsteps tap past me, and it takes every ounce of strength to keep from flinging open the door and punching him.
I hold back only because I know it could endanger Madeline even more.
A few minutes later, Jason walks past again, and Madeline lays it on thick, thanking him for coming and promising dinner when she’s feeling better. I hate listening to her being so nice to him, and even more that I can’t go out there and throw him on his ass.
I’m relieved when the front door swings shut and the deadbolt clicks.
A moment after that, Madeline slips into the closet and finds me in the dark, leaning up and pressing a kiss to my mouth.
I pull her against me, finally able to relax.
She reaches down to take my hand, and I feel something small and metallic press against my palm.
“What is this?” I whisper in case Jason is still out in the hall.
“It’s the electronic key card to Jason’s office. I stole it from his keyring when he was in the bathroom.”
“Won’t he notice it missing? ”
I feel her head shake against my chest. “Tomorrow is Saturday, and he usually plays golf on Saturdays. As long as we get it back on Jason’s keyring before Monday, I don’t think he’ll notice. But we need to go right now.”