And damn, Sam was right. Jules really didn’t believe in coincidences.
But still...
Someone had come here and kicked in Emily’s front door, and the simplest explanation for that was: whoever they were, they were looking for Emily. They either found her or didn’t—but the fact there were no obvious signs of struggle inside the little house implied that they didn’t.
And yet, if whoever they were, were watching the house, they’d surely made note neither he nor Sam were a twenty-seven-year-old woman as they’d approached the kicked-in front door.
So why open fire onthem?
Unless whoever they were, theyhadalready successfully grabbed Emily, which meant that the shooters’ goal was to kill...them...?
Them being the two-man team responsible for locating the now-kidnapped and/or murdered young woman...?
Could this be an attempt to slow down or even halt this investigation...?
Shit. Sam had been smart. Jules, too, should’ve put on his own shoulder holster this morning before leaving the house.
This investigation just officially went from a pain-in-the-ass and vaguely amusing annoyance to a full triple-complicated and dangerous what-the-fuck.
But hey, it was the Year of the Dumpster Fire.
What else was new?
CHAPTER TWO
Jules: Age Seventeen
Connecticut
New kid.
No one said it aloud, but Jules read it clearly in everyone’s eyes as he walked down the corridor of the high school. He was used to getting looked at—he wasn’t very tall and he knew at first glance he looked more like a freshman than the senior that he was. He was also adorable and undeniably gay—no way to hide that, so he accentuated it, ramping it up to an eleven with the clothes that he wore, with his carefully styled hair, and even with the confident way that he walked.
Back in his old school, which was in a town far more urban and progressive, he was tolerated if not completely accepted and even loved. In his junior year, he’d found David—well, actually David had found him—and together, they’d been invincible. And okay, that wasn’t entirely true, he knew that. But in hindsight, it felt that way.
But now David was gone, off to college as older boyfriends were wont to do. And Jules was here in rural Connecticut, home to tobacco farming, which really felt like it should happen significantly farther south, but what did he know?
School had been in session for three hellish days now, and up to this point no one had spoken to him, let alone sat with him at lunch—where he was heading right now. Although to be fair, one look at the cafeteria on day one, and he’d opted to grab a soda from the machine and take it and his homemade sandwich outside. Which was probably not allowed—this tiny school was a closed campus unlike his old one, where literally thousands of students roamed free. Still, he’d sat alone, writing a letter to David in the sunshine as he ate his lunch on the wall outside of the band room. Some of the teachers had spotted him out there—from his peripherals he’d seen their shadowy shapes through the glass of the doors, but no one called him out and made him come back inside.
It was possible the teachers were freaked out by him, too.
Hopefully it wasn’t because he was gay. Hopefully their hands-off treatment was because they were local and knew his mom. And therefore they knew she and Jules had moved here to be closer to her family because her husband—his dad—had died.
Gay new kid with a dead dad.
Release the confetti and the balloons!
He laughed a little to himself as he continued down the oddly-hushed hall, past all those curious and vaguely hostile eyes, feeling the urge to break into a loud rendition ofJabberwocky. As long as they were staring.Twas brillig and the slithy toves!What would they do? Either crown him their new king, or fall upon him, shrieking, as they ripped his body into unrecognizable shreds.
He laughed again.
Either would be better than this, but sadly Mom would disagree and upsetting her in any way was low on his list these days.
He’d pushed to move here for her. She was so clearly struggling, and since David was graduating and going off to college, the timing seemed right to get her back to her beloved hometown.
In the short weeks since they’d moved, it was already clearly much easier for her, living close to her older brother, back with all of her friends from her carefree high school days. Yeah, she’d walked this very hall, which was fun to think about. Less fun to wonder if she would’ve stared like this at him, too. But probably not, since she’d welcomed his news that he was gay with a hug and anI love youand anOh, thank God. She’d known forever, she’d told him. She was just waiting forhimto tellher. It still made him chuckle. Telling her had been so delightfully anticlimactic.Oh, thank God back at ya, Mom.
“What the fuck is so funny?”
