Twisted Secrets: A Dark High School Romance (Twisted Pine Academy Book 3) Page 14

  Miles' smile drops and he looks at me. "Just because we're talking to you doesn't mean we're okay with you being with Jackson."

  "What the fuck are you doing with that guy?" Kade says. "You know he's our enemy."

  "Why? Because Braden doesn't like him?" I roll my eyes. "That's a stupid reason to hate someone."

  "We hate him because he left," Miles says. "If he'd stayed we would've gone to State last year."

  "He didn't want to be here," I say. "He's not going to stay at a school he doesn't like just to make you guys happy."

  "I don't know why he didn't like it here," Theo says, sitting down in Braden's seat. He's the only one allowed to sit there besides Braden, and it's only because he's the second string quarterback. But if Braden comes back, he has to move. It's so dumb.

  "Jackson had the power," Theo says. "Braden would be nothing if Jackson was still here."

  "Braden's quarterback," Kade says. "He'd still have power."

  "Jackson played better, and everyone liked him. They'd follow him and not Braden. Doesn't matter if Jackson wasn't quarterback."

  "He's right," Dante says, starting on his second plate of food. "Jackson would've ruled Twisted Pine, and he would've kept Braden in line."

  "Wait." I lower my voice. "Are you guys saying you actually like Jackson?"

  Miles shrugs. "He was okay. But the fucker left so I hate him. He's off winning games for another team. He's a fucking traitor. And so are you for dating him."

  "I'm not a traitor. And Jackson isn't playing anymore so it shouldn't matter."

  "That's right. Jackson's out." Kade smiles. "We could actually win against Legion this year."

  "Unless they drop the charges," Theo says, pulling a protein bar from his pocket and ripping off the wrapper.

  "They're not dropping the charges," Kade says. "He's the only one they're looking at. And it happened at his fucking house. Who else would've done it?"

  "Jackson didn't do it." I shove my tray aside and lean toward the guys. "If he was going to kill her, why would he leave her body behind his house?"

  "He dumped her in the ocean," Miles says.

  "Yeah, but everyone knows the body will end up washing up on the shore, especially if it wasn't taken very far out. Whoever did this wanted the body to be found there."

  Dante stops shoveling food in his mouth and looks at me. "Shit, that actually makes sense. So who do you think did it?"

  "Jackson did it," Kade says, like it's obvious. "She's just covering up for her boyfriend. Trying to save him from jail."

  "That's not what I'm doing." I glance at each them around the table. "Think about it. If you killed someone, would you leave the body on your property where you know it'd be found?"

  "When you kill someone you're not thinking straight," Miles says. "He probably panicked and dumped her in the ocean because he didn't know what else to do."

  "Jackson's rich. He could've hired someone to get rid of the body."

  Miles laughs. "Yeah, I'm sure you can just call up a service and have that done."

  "His dad could," Dante says, his mouth full of food.

  My eyes dart to Dante. "What do you mean?"

  "His dad's in the mob," Dante says, like it's no big deal.

  "Wait—what?" I lean across the table. "Are you joking?"

  "He's not in the mob," Kade says.

  I lean back, sighing in relief.

  "He's connected to the mob."

  I turn to Kade. "No, he's not. He's a movie director."

  "Who has connections to the mob. How do you not know this? Jackson never told you?"

  "No. Because it's not true. I've met Roman. He's in town right now, staying with Jackson. Who told you he's connected to the mob?"

  "It was in the tabloids," Alyssa says, rolling her eyes. "Like three years ago. Someone saw that story and spread it around school that Jackson's dad was in the mob. It's not true. The guy's are just messing with you."

  Miles laughs. "But did you see her face? She fucking believed us."

  "I believe it," Dante says. "A lot of that shit in the tabloids is actually true."

  "I thought it was true when it was going around school," Theo says. "Now I'm not sure I believe it."

  "It's not fucking true," Kade says. "If it was, then Novak would've done what Rumor said and got rid of the body."

  "Okay, can we stop talking about this?" Alyssa shudders. "I don't want to talk about dead bodies and killing people. Kristen was our friend. We shouldn't be talking about her dead body. It's disrespectful."

  "Speaking of dead people," Theo says. "Is anyone going to Jason's thing on Sunday?"

  Kade shakes his head. "I'm not."

  "Me either," Miles says.

  "Why the fuck not?" Theo says. "It's a couple hours. I'll drive."

  "We need to let it go, man," Kade says. "It's sad, and I'm sorry the guy's dead, but I don't want to keep reliving it."

  "His parents asked us to go," Theo says, getting angry. "He was our teammate. You can't fucking show up for a few minutes?"

  "It's not a few minutes," Kade says. "It's going to be an hour of watching his mom cry while his dad talks and they show photos. I sat through all that for the funeral. I'm not doing it again."

  "Dante?" Theo says.

  He shrugs. "Maybe. I need to think about it."

  Theo huffs. "You guys are assholes. Jason is the reason we even came close to going to State and now you won't even go to his memorial service?" He shoves up from his chair, then slams it against the table.

  "We already went to his memorial," Kade says, as Theo walks away. Theo flips him off as he continues through dining hall. Kade shakes his head. "Why the hell are his parents doing this again? One memorial wasn't enough?"

  "They want to remember him," Alyssa says. "It's not that unusual to do a service on the anniversary of someone's death."

  "Fine, but I'm not going."

  "But you're going to Kristen's service, right?" Alyssa says in a tone that says he doesn't have a choice.

  He blows out a breath. "I don't know."

  She glares at him. "What do you mean you don't know? You said you're going with me."

  "Yeah, well, maybe I changed my mind." He gets up, taking his tray. "I'm sick of all this dead people shit. I'm sick of going to funerals. We're in high school. We should be going to parties, not funerals."

  He walks off.

  "Kade, if you don't go to this, we're done!" Alyssa yells. He ignores her. "Sometimes I really hate him." She takes her tray and leaves.

  "Told you." Dante holds his hand out to Miles. "Pay up."

  "Not until I know for sure they're broken up."

  "He left," Dante says. "You know how pissed she gets when he walks out during a fight."

  Miles sighs and reaches in his pocket. He hands Dante a twenty dollar bill.

  Dante smiles. "Good doing business with you."

  "You guys place bets on them breaking up?" I ask Dante.

  "When they'll break up, not if. We know they'll break up. They do it all the time. We bet on when they'll break up and when they'll get back together."

  "I didn't think he'd fight with her this week," Miles says. "With all the Kristen shit going on."

  Dante glances at Miles. "You really not going to Jason's thing?"

  "No." Miles is looking at his phone. "Even if I wanted to, I can't. No one can."

  "What do you mean?"

  Miles shows his phone to Dante. "Braden scheduled a practice on Sunday."

  "He can't do that. He's not the coach."

  "Read the text. He got Coach to agree to it."

  "Shit," Dante says. "Theo's going to be pissed. Now we'll have to deal with those two fighting."

  "Theo fights with Braden?" I ask.

  "Not directly. He just complains to the team when Braden's not around. Tries to get us to go against Braden, which none of us do."

  "Why not?"

  "Because it doesn't do any good. You piss off Braden he plays like shit. If w
e want to win, we have to keep him happy and let him think he's in charge."

  "He did it on purpose," Miles says. "He knows Jason's memorial is Sunday."

  "He must've really hated Jason," I say.

  "He did. He didn't like some kid from the projects getting a free ride at Twisted Pine just to play football. And he was really pissed when he saw how good Jason was on the field. Jason started taking attention away from Braden, which you know he hates. The more popular Jason got, the more pissed Braden got. He said Jason didn't deserve the attention. That he didn't earn it."

  "Did Braden go to his funeral?" I ask.

  "We all did. Coach made it a requirement. He only did it because of Braden. The rest of us didn't even question going but Braden didn't want to go so Coach made him."

  "Why didn't he want to go?"

  "He said he doesn't go to funerals. But he went to Jason's so Coach wouldn't suspend him from the game that night."

  "How did Jason die?" I ask, seeing if Miles will tell me something different than what I've already heard.

  "A heart condition," he says. "That's all I know. I'm not good with medical shit."

  "He wasn't feeling well that day," Dante says. "He told Coach it felt like his heart was racing. He was sweating really bad. Getting dizzy. It'd happened to him before but that day it was really bad."

  "But he kept playing?"

  "It's football. You don't miss a game when you don't feel good. You push through it." Dante checks his phone. "Shit, it's late. I have to go to my locker before class."

  As we get up, the bell goes off. I have English next. Ms. Pruitt's class. I didn't study or do the homework, which means it's guaranteed she'll call on me, then give me that disappointed look when I don't know the answer.

  When I get to class, Ms. Pruitt isn't there. We have a substitute, the same lady we had the first week of class.

  "Ms. Pruitt is feeling under the weather," the substitute says. "So I'll be taking over her class for the rest of the week."

  Ms. Pruitt's going to be out all week? How could she be sick enough to miss that many days? She seemed fine yesterday.

  As the day goes on, I notice I'm not getting dirty looks from people anymore. Sitting at the football table seemed to restore my social standing, or at least not make me an outcast. I'm sure Braden's furious with me, but that's nothing new.

  When I meet up with Trystan after school, he starts to drive off as I'm getting in.

  "What the hell?" I yank on my seatbelt. "I wasn't even in the car."

  He laughs. "I love giving you shit. You get all annoyed with me. It's fucking hilarious. Almost as funny as Braden's face when you sat at his table at lunch. I can't believe you did that."

  "His rule was stupid and I didn't have anywhere else to sit."

  "Did he tell you to leave?"

  "Yes, but I ignored him. The other guys didn't want me to go."

  "Even Kade?"

  "Kade's mad at me for dating Jackson. So is Miles. But neither of them told me to leave."

  "Braden's gonna go off on you when you get home."

  "Yeah. What else is new?"

  Trystan laughs.

  As soon as I walk in the door, Braden comes up to me, shirtless and holding a protein drink. "If you think you won today, you're wrong."

  Chapter Sixteen

  "I didn't know it was a contest," I say. "I was just having lunch with my friends. Why aren't you at practice? What are you doing home?"

  "None of your damn your business."

  "And who I talk to isn't YOUR business, so stay out of it."

  He gets in my face, so close I can feel his breath. "I own that school and you're not gonna change that. Don't even try. For the last person who did, it didn't turn out well."

  "Are you talking about Jason?"

  Braden smirks. "For someone you never met, you sure talk about him a lot."

  "He sounded like a good guy. Great football player. Popular."

  "He was a fucking fake. He didn't belong there. Never should've been there."

  "So you made sure he wasn't." I stare into his eyes. "Isn't that what you do, Braden? Eliminate the competition so you're the one in the spotlight?"

  His lips turn up just slightly. "Let it go, detective. There's nothing to find. The kid collapsed on the field. Everyone saw it. Nobody was murdered."

  "I didn't say he was."

  Braden grips my arm, his eyes locked on mine. "This ends now. Stop accusing me of shit or the same thing's gonna happen to you."

  "Meaning what?"

  He smiles. "Officer, I'd like to make a statement. I was trying to protect her because she's family but I just can't let her go free knowing what she's done. I heard Rumor talking to Jackson. They were talking about the murder. Laughing about it. Reliving it. Rumor was saying how she held Kristen down while Jackson strangled her with his tie. I didn't want to come forward with this but I felt it was my duty as Kristen's friend. I didn't want her murderers to go free."

  I roll my eyes. "That's all you got? You overheard something? You really think the cops would believe you? You're being investigated for murder. Your testimony would be worthless. They wouldn't believe you."

  He backs away. "Guess we'll just have to find out."

  "Guess so," I say, walking around him, heading to my room.

  More threats from Braden. Would he really do it? Would he tell the police some made-up story? I think he would if he wasn't being investigated. If he told them that story and they found out he lied, he'd be in even more trouble, which is the last thing he needs right now.

  When I'm in my room, I call up Jackson.

  "Hey, beautiful."

  I smile. "Can I come over?"

  "Yeah, but my dad's here."

  "I don't care. I just have to change and then I'll be over."

  "Hey, bring your books this time."

  "Why?"

  "I have homework to do and so do you. I was serious when I said I don't want you falling behind."

  "Homework can wait. I don't want to waste our time together doing school work."

  "We'll still be together. We'll just be studying instead of watching TV."

  "Can we still do other stuff?" I say in a flirty tone.

  "There's always time for that."

  "Okay, give me a few minutes. I'll be there soon."

  I change clothes, then grab my backpack, deciding not to waste time figuring out what I need. I'll just bring it all. I doubt I'll even study.

  As I'm leaving out the front door, I stop when I hear Brock talking. He's by the garage, his back to me, the phone to his ear.

  "It's been weeks since I've heard from him," he says. "I know what I told him but I've told him that numerous times and he always comes back."

  Is he talking about Devon? It kind of sounds like it. I remain on the porch, ducking behind the wall so he won't see me if he turns around.

  "I need you to find him," Brock says. "I don't want him coming here but I need to know where he is. Rumor said she heard from him but I don't know if she was telling me the truth or if she said it to test me, to see if I'd tell her more."

  He's quiet, and I listen for footsteps, hoping he's not walking over here.

  "Yes, go ahead," Brock says. He sounds closer to me but I can't look to find out. "El Centro? Are you sure? When was he last seen there?" Brock gets quiet, then says, "If he was that close to the border he could be in Mexico by now. Let me know what you find out."

  I quickly go back in the house.

  The door swings open. "Going somewhere?" Brock asks, noticing my backpack.

  "I'm studying at Jackson's house."

  "I thought he wasn't going to school this week."

  "He's not, but he's doing the homeschool thing. He has homework to do."

  "Good. I'm glad you two are doing something productive. When will you be home?"

  "I don't know." I go around him to the door. "Were you out taking a walk?"

  He chuckles. "I don't take walks. I was just outs
ide getting some fresh air."

  "Oh. Okay, well, see you tomorrow." I go out the door.

  "Tomorrow?" he calls after me.

  I ignore him and keep walking. I didn't pack anything to spend the night but if Jackson's okay with it, I plan to stay over.

  When I get to Jackson's, his dad answers the door.

  "Rumor," he says, his brows rising. "Was Jackson expecting you?"

  "Yeah. We're studying together."

  I'm sure the mob story wasn't true but having that idea in my head is making me feel anxious around Roman.

  "Can I come in?" I ask.

  He steps aside. I feel his eyes on me as I walk past.

  "That was quick," Jackson says, jumping up from the couch as I go in the living room.

  "I just changed and left."

  He pulls me in for a kiss. "You could've left the uniform on. You know what it does to me."

  I smile. "Next time."

  "You want something to eat? I ordered a pizza for lunch. There's leftovers in the fridge."

  "Later." I glance down the hall. "Could we maybe go to your room?"

  "I would, but my coach might be stopping by."

  "Your football coach?" I say, sitting down on the couch.

  "He wants to talk about Friday's game." Jackson sits beside me. "We're going over the plays that need to be changed without me there."

  "They can't do the same plays?"

  "The guy taking my position isn't as good as me. We need to alter some stuff to make sure we win." He pulls me onto his lap and kisses me. "I missed you today."

  "Jackson," Roman says in a gruff tone.

  We pull apart but I'm still on his lap, which is awkward with his dad staring at us.

  "What do you need?" he says.

  "We're having dinner with one of my associates around seven. I need you to be ready at six-thirty."

  "Why am I going? Can't you go alone?"

  "He graduated from USC. I want you to talk with him about the admission process. He has a lot of contacts there."

  "Yeah, okay. I'll be ready."

  Roman looks at me before leaving.

  "I don't think he likes me," I whisper to Jackson.

  "Sure he does. Why do you think he doesn't?"

  "He acted annoyed that I showed up here today. And when I'm over here, he never talks to me. He only talks to you."