She pulls her face from her knees and looks up at me, blue eyes full of tears. “I was so afraid for Austin. I thought she was …dead.” She sobs.
Me too. “She’s gonna be okay. She’s strong.”
Becky nods once. “She is.” Then she gives a weird hiccupping laugh. “She managed to tie you down.”
I smile and agree. “She did.” My phone begins to ring in my pocket. I answer and place it on speakerphone when I see it’s Shelby, allowing Becky to hear whatever update she has to give us on Austin.
“Hello?”
“Cole?” she whispers. “Where are you? Get back here! Austin is freaking out.”
I snatch the laptop off the bed. Becky and I are already walking out of the room by the time she stops speaking. “Why? She okay?”
“The police are back here to talk to her. I tried to tell them no, but she said it was okay. Well, once they mentioned something about a recording of what happened at the Lowes’ residence, she started bawling, so I told them to give her a few minutes to calm down.”
“Do they expect her to listen to it?” I demand. That’s the last thing she needs to hear. She’s already lived it once.
“They haven’t got that far. Deke is in there with her right now—”
“Take him your phone.” I interrupt her.
Becky and I are running out the back door. We’re in my car before his voice snaps through my speakers. “Cole.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Now I’m glad I left him there with her. “Do they expect her to listen to that fucking tape?”
“I think so.” He sighs, and my Bluetooth picks up the conversation. “They mentioned that she stabbed him. And by the amount of blood loss they found in the house, they said he would either be dead or in an ER.”
“So?” I snap, flying down the road. Becky remains silent in the passenger seat.
“So they’ve called all surrounding hospitals, and he’s not a patient anywhere.”
I glance in my rear-view mirror, making sure I’m not about to get pulled over since I’m doing twenty over the limit. “They think he’s dead.”
“Pretty much. Austin’s eyes went wide with fear when they said that was their conclusion. You could tell the cops know whatwedid, and they thinksheknows what we did. So he told her they knew it was self-defense because they heard the tape … and she just lost it. I mean, hell, the bastard has been dead for four days now! They have to know they aren’t gonna fucking find him!” he whispers harshly.
I look over at Becky, and she’s looking straight ahead out the windshield and a tear runs down her cheek. Deke just told on himself. She knows I lied to her, and I didn’t kill Kellan on my own.
“I’m almost there. Let me talk to her.”
“Cole?” Austin’s broken voice comes on seconds later.
My chest tightens. “Hey, sweetheart. I’m on my way back. Don’t say anything else until I get there. I’m gonna call my father’s attorney.” I kick myself for not already doing it, but I didn’t think they would go to her. The recording should have been enough for them to wrap up the damn investigation.
“What? Why?”
“It was self-defense, Austin. They can’t—”
“No, Cole.” She interrupts me. “I don’t care about that. They have it on tape.” She begins to cry again. “Kellan told me that he watched me burn Jeff’s body.” Becky’s head whips over to look at me. “The car we stole …”
“Austin …”
“And that your final dare was to kill Bruce.” She sobs. “They know everything. You can’t come back up here. They’re gonna … arrest you.”
I ignore Becky, knowing she’s thinkingwhat the fuck?“Babe, listen. It’s all okay. The one we gave to the police isn’t the original copy.”
“It’s not?” She sniffs, trying to calm her sobs.
“No. Bennett altered it. They know nothing.”
