Sila didn’t let him finish that sentence.
More water damage to this place wasn’t going to make a difference, so when it sloshed messily over the sides, he merely took that as incentive to fuck Bay harder.
Chapter 21:
“Do you recognize her?” Sila asked as he pulled the car into the empty lot at the side of the road. They were close to the Academy but it was early enough in the morning no one was out and about yet, aside from them and the person they were meeting.
The obscure location was by design, the place chosen by the young woman who was standing off the side of the lot near the tree line, watching as they entered.
Bay frowned and leaned forward in the passenger seat so he could get a better look as Sila drove them to a spot and parked. “I don’t. Should I?”
“Her name is Nila. She was dating Haroon two years ago.” He exited the car and then waited for Bay by the trunk before continuing. “The police spoke to her a few times after you tried filing that case. She was marked down as a witness. You didn’t know?”
Bay shook his head. No one had told him there’d been any witnesses. He inspected her as they approached, but she looked like every other university student he’d ever seen.
Nila had a backpack strapped over both shoulders and was dressed in long pants and a windbreaker. Her auburn hair had been left down, but she’d pulled a wool cap over it as though that would help keep her inconspicuous. She seemed nervous as they drew nearer, but held her ground.
“Going somewhere?” Sila spoke first once they were within earshot, motioning to her pack.
“If I was smart?” she grunted. “I’d be taking a long vacation, but this being my final year at Guest…”
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“I’m thinking you didn’t tell on the others either,” she said. “August and Lan? Look at them now.”
Did everyone assume it’d been Haroon who’d killed them? That was odd.
“Well,” Sila lifted a single shoulder, “they’ve already been cremated so, not much to see.”
“The fact that Haroon somehow found out they’d been talking to you is bad enough in my book,” she countered. “I don’t want to die.”
“Should have thought about that before getting involved, no?” Sila laughed to show he was only kidding, the light, friendly sound of it had the desired effect on her. “How were those two involved anyway?”
“I made the mistake of telling Lan about it,” she admitted. “I don’t know for sure about August, but my guess is Haroon slipped up. I’m honestly shocked he was able to keep it a secret this long. He’s got such a big mouth. What did I ever even see in him?”
“Don’t be too hard no yourself. We all do dumb shit when we’re young.”
Bay glanced between the two of them, an uncomfortable feeling piercing through his chest at the way they volleyed back and forth. So far, Sila had brought many emotions within him back from the dead, and Bay had been excited over each and every one, even the painful stuff.
But he was over the jealousy.
He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses, giving Sila a pointed tight expression before turning his attention to the girl they’d come all this way to see. “How do you two know one another?”
“We met over the summer,” Nila dropped her gaze, as though she were unable to meet his eyes. “When he called asking me about what happened two years ago, I knew I had to get this off my chest once and for all.”
“What does it have to do with you?” Bay frowned. If she was still studying at Gift Fine Arts, then she was younger than him and Haroon by a couple of years. He’d never paid much attention to who Haroon was hanging around with outside of the classes they took together. The two of them hadn’t been very close back then, but Bay would have considered him a friend, which was what had also made the situation worse when he’d found out about it.
Even if his grandmother really had been wasting her time and money gambling at Haroon’s makeshift booth, a good friend would have given Bay a heads up. Haroon had said nothing.
“We were dating at the time,” she explained. “I was at Lady Lucky a lot.”
Lady Lucky had been the name they’d spray painted on the outer flap of the green tent they’d pitched between two rundown buildings on the outskirts of the city. It’d been pathetic and grungy, a joke amongst their peers at Vail. Back then, the Shepards were known as Brumal wannabes. It wasn’t until after Haroon had gotten them a house—Idle Delmar’s—and funding—also Idle’s—that they’d become more notable to society.
Although, not by much.
“The police wanted me to tell them if I’d ever seen your grandmother there before.”
“What did you say?”
