Outside, the sun had dipped low enough to throw dramatic shadows across the parking lot. I walked fast, pretending I didn’t have a care in the world. But when I reached my SUV, I stopped cold. All four tires were flat—no, not flat, absolutely annihilated. Little rubber shreds decorated the pavement like confetti.
Something in my head buzzed, a hornet’s nest of adrenaline and fear. I scanned the back lot, but nobody was there. I looked down the alleyway, and it was empty. No one was lurking, no cars driving slow, no distant footsteps. Still, the knowledge of feeling like I was being watched earlier pressed against my spine. The letters. The creepy break-in. The weird text.
What the fuck was going on?
I heard footsteps behind me and jumped as I spun around to find my sisters.
“Oh my god!” Birdie dropped the armload of bags she held and rushed over to me, giving me a hug. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I patted her with one arm.
“Who would do this?” Bailey was pulling out her phone as she kneeled beside my car to inspect the damage. “We need to call the police.”
“No,” I barked.
“No?” Both sisters froze and looked at me as if I needed to be admitted into a psych ward.
“What do you mean,no?” Bailey asked.
“Don’t call nine-one-one.” My tone was calm and assertive, even though my hands were shaking. “I have a direct line to a detective.”
Birdie shook her head. “A detective?”
“There’s been some… stuff, going on. I’ll explain everything.” I pulled out the detective’s card and my phone. “I should have told you both. Sorry,” I said in a voice that was supposed to sound apologetic, but I feared it came out sounding sarcastic.
I dialed the number, feeling my sisters’ eyes burning holes into my profile.
“Detective Ramos,” he answered.
“What is going on?” Bailey asked at the same time.
“Are you okay?” Birdie filled out the trio of speakers.
I lifted my hand to quiet them. Once I filled in the detective, I knew, like Lucy, I’d have a lot of explaining to do.
15
ADAM
I was finishing tyingmy shoes when I saw I had two missed calls from Genesis. I thought about calling her back then and there, but I didn’t think the changing room at Bliss Bridal was really the place to have that conversation. I’d call her after I got home and got the girls from Carly.
Having a babysitter next door was like hitting the jackpot. Not to mention another set of twins. It was built in playmates. They seemed to get along, from what I could tell when I wasn’t distracted by how fucking insanely gorgeous Billie looked, and how oddly real the day felt.
I’d been in weddings that were less romantic, less charged, less authentic than what had just transpired between the two of us. And I knew I wasn’t the only one who sensed it. I’d seen Birdie and Bailey exchanging looks.
And even if Billie hadn’t wanted me here today, the hives on her chest, which she’d covered with makeup, were gone within an hour of us shooting together. Clarissa, the makeup artist, pointed it out. She was surprised they’d gone down so fast and asked Billie if she’d taken an antihistamine. Billie told her no and looked at me with an expression that tried to tell me it hadnothing to do with me, but we both knew better. She could tell herself she didn’t want me around, her nervous system calmed down when I was around. She could deny it all she wanted, but her body told a different story.
When I stepped out of the dressing room, I heard raised voices in the back parking lot and asked Zion, “What’s going on?”
He looked up from packing up his equipment. “Someone slashed Billie’s tires.”
“What?”
“I went out to help, but she told me to go back inside,” Zion called after me.
Yeah, that sounded like Billie. Well, I was not a child or someone she just met today, so good luck with her trying to boss me around. I rushed out back and came to a stop just outside the circle. Birdie and Bailey were huddled around their sister protectively.
“What’s happening?!” Bailey demanded.
