CHAPTER 37
LANDRY
The leaves on the trees around campus were growing back beautifully, enveloping the campus in rich greens as mid-afternoon sunlight shone through the branches.
My last class of the day had ended early, so I had decided to treat myself to an iced coffee on my way back to the dorms. As I stepped around the corner of the stairwell into our hall, I stopped dead in my tracks as I found Cashton sitting against the wall by our door.
“Cashton?” I asked, my heartrate picking up speed at the sight of him. I was beginning to think it was something that would never stop happening around him.
His head snapped up, eyes a deep green in the low lighting as he took me in.
“Hey princess. I was wondering when you would get home from class,” a cheeky smirk showed off a dimple, though his eyes didn’t match the sentiment. He looked… Tired .
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
His smile fell slightly, as if he was just now remembering why he was here in the first place.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
My breathing stalled. Was he here to talk about us? We had yet to discuss everything that had transpired between us, and I wasn’t sure that I even knew what to think when it came to him. Seeming to read my mind, he quickly put a halt to my train of thought.
“Not… Not that. It’s not what you think.”
“Okay…”
I moved to unlock the door as he stood and followed me inside. I was far too aware of his presence at my back, the smell of cedarwood and mint driving my senses wild like it always did. Keeping my hands off of him while I was anywhere around this man was harder than I cared to admit.
Placing my backpack by the door, I made my way to one side of the marble island as he moved to stand across from me. My nerves were on high alert as I wracked my brain to think of what this could be about.
He cleared his throat, looking around hesitantly before starting.
“Do you remember the night you went to the Stoneview bonfire?”
Well, that was certainly not what I had expected.
“Yes?” I responded, my brain racing a million different directions.
“Do you remember what that one girl said as you were leaving? ”
There had been so much going on that night, between what had happened with Cashton, and then the fact that I had physically assaulted someone. By the time it was done, my mind had been nothing but a jumbled blur. Seeming to realize this, Cashton continued.
“ We didn’t have a choice . That’s what she said. And then on New Years’ Eve, your dad said that it should have been you—Not her.”
My mind came to a halt.
“How do you know what my dad said to me that night?” I asked, fearing that I already knew the answer. He only looked at me apologetically, his tone gentle.
“I had Kaptan pull the security footage from outside of your house. I needed to know what happened.”
Ice shot through my veins. Had he… I steeled myself before asking my next question, praying that he wouldn’t have gone that far.
“Did you… Did you kill my dad?”
“No.”
His eyes bore down into mine, pleading for me to see that he was telling the truth. Relief washed over me.
“But I would have. For what he said to you.”
My wide eyes shot to his.
“But that’s beside the point. Don’t you find all of it strange? The CEO of the largest architecture firm in the city loses a daughter the exact same night that the senator loses his wife—Both in some accident.”
My heart began racing once again as I tried to put the pieces together. Sure, it was strange. But it could just as easily be a coincidence .
“Where are you going with this?” I asked.
“I started looking into everything after that night with your father. Something didn’t sit right with me about what he said. About how it should have been you, not her. I sent in a request to get Emory’s autopsy report pulled and sent to a specialist to take a closer look at the cause of death. It had been such an obvious case of alcohol poisoning that the county pathologist had opened and closed it quickly in order for us to be able to move on with the funeral. And then I was planning to pay a visit to your father the next morning to ask him some questions, but…”
“But he was already dead when you got there,” I finished for him. My mind was racing a million miles a minute. If someone had known that Cashton was planning to interrogate my father, they would have wanted to silence him first. We both stood there, Cashton letting everything sink in for a moment. I had so many questions, I didn’t know where to begin. This could all just be a coincidence, there was no proof of anything.
“What did Emory’s autopsy report say?” I dared to ask, my words barely above a whisper.
There was a long pause before he answered.
“There were opioids in her system the night she died. Enough to dramatically slow down her central nervous system. It wouldn’t have been enough to kill her, but mixed with how much alcohol she had…”
I forced myself to swallow. Based on the little I knew about Emory, she didn’t seem the type to voluntarily take drugs. And though Savannah and Francesca definitely partied, they wouldn’t have access to something like opioids. Even if they could, pills weren’t their thing. Someone had to have given them the drugs.
We didn’t have a choice .
I shook my head, forcing myself to come to terms with this new reality.
“So, you’re saying that you think somebody set everything up to get rid of my mom and Emory that night?” I asked.
His eyes turned sad as he held mine before dropping his gaze down to where his hands were firmly planted on the kitchen island. Oh gosh…
It should have been you, not her .
A silent sob wracked through me.
“They were after me.”
I brought my hand to my mouth, a silent tear finding its way free. Cashton didn’t say anything, only kept staring down at the counter.
My dad had known.
It should have been you, not her.
He knew that they were coming for me. And he hadn’t cared… That was why he so badly hadn’t wanted my mom to come pick me up that night.
“Savannah and Francesca… That night, they kept trying to get me to drink. I remember them trying to pressure me like they never had before. Do you think…”
Cashton’s jaw clenched, the muscles in his arms tensing. He was coming to the same realization that I was. Two birds, one stone. Except I had ruined their plan by leaving early. The crash must have been a last-ditch attempt to finish the job .
If I hadn’t called my mom, if I hadn’t left early, she would still be here. It was me they were after. I sank to the ground, the tears flowing freely as I processed everything. Cashton was there within seconds, his arms wrapped around me as he rubbed comforting circles along my back.
“I know what you’re thinking, but don’t let yourself go there. It wasn’t your fault, Landry. But we’ll figure out who did this, I promise.”
He was patient with me as I let everything sink in, embracing me tightly as we sat on my kitchen floor. It felt like hours had passed before I finally spoke, my voice raspy from the crying.
“Where do we go from here?”
—
I held my breath as I stepped into my family home the next day. All of my dad’s possessions had been passed down to me through his will. Considering how little he seemed to have thought of me, I’m sure that wouldn’t have been the case save for the fact that I was his only living relative. That, and public image. A senator not listing his only daughter as his beneficiary would have raised some serious questions.
I looked around the same living room that I had grown up in, feeling like a complete stranger. Cashton stepped up behind me, waiting for me to take the lead but still giving me space until I was ready.
I let myself take a moment to embrace this new reality before making my way to my father’s main office upstairs. Cashton helped me kick down the locked door, finding it just how I remembered it as a kid.
We spent the next few hours digging through everything we could find, primarily consisting of legal paperwork that I didn’t even attempt to understand. Thankfully, Cashton had learned enough from working for his stepdad to understand the majority of everything. By the end of it, I just let him snoop as I admired him from the top of my dad’s desk.
“Nothing,” he finally relented, dropping the folders to the floor.
“Shit,” I muttered, climbing down from the desk to meet him. Could it be possible that we had just been over-thinking all of this?
His phone dinged with a text message before I got to him, reaching him just as he finished reading it.
“What is it?” I asked, worry snaking its way through me as he slowly tucked the phone back into his pocket and met my eyes.
“Savannah and Francesca both left the country the week after the bonfire.”