Page 34 of Deadly Forever

“You’re not the police, though,” Darcy pointed out. “How did you see the file?”

“We know people,” James said, grinning. “We can’t tell you how we saw it because we don’t want to get anyone in trouble. We saw it, though, and then we went to your house to … I don’t know … talk to you, I guess.”

Darcy widened her eyes. “Do you think they took the guns to the mall because of me?”

“I can’t answer that,” James said. “We’re not even sure what exactly happened to you.”

“But you said you saw the file.”

“We did,” Mandy said, drawing Darcy’s attention back to her. “The file is just a list of charges and actions, though. It doesn’t tell us what really happened.”

“We would like to hear your story,” James interjected. “That is, we would like to hear your story if you’re willing to tell it to us. If you’re not, if you’re uncomfortable and don’t want to share information with us, we totally understand.”

Darcy looked conflicted as she chewed on her bottom lip. She looked younger than her eighteen years. “I don’t know.”

“Think about it,” Mandy prodded, dumping her almost completely melted ice cream cone into the garbage can and smiling. “We can order more ice cream while you’re thinking and make Grady fetch it for us.”

Grady made a face. “I am not your slave.”

“Oh, look at this girl,” Mandy said, resting her hand on Darcy’s arm and internally smiling when the girl didn’t flinch. “She’s sad. She needs ice cream. I need ice cream, too.”

“You just had ice cream,” Grady protested.

“I got distracted and it melted,” Mandy said. “I want another cone.”

“I want one, too,” Maverick called from the office.

Grady scowled. “Why do I have to get it?”

“Because I’m the boss and I said so,” James answered. “Get everyone ice cream cones. Get that pain in the ass in the office one, too. In fact, I think Emma is upstairs with Avery. Get her and the baby ice cream, too.”

Grady was beyond annoyed. “And how am I supposed to carry all of this ice cream?”

“You’re a smart boy,” Mandy said, smiling brightly. “Figure it out.”

“I DON’T know where to start,” Darcy said, dipping her spoon into her Oreo blizzard and avoiding eye contact as she focused on her dessert. “It’s so … embarrassing.”

“It’s not embarrassing,” Mandy countered. “It’s not even remotely embarrassing. You didn’t do anything to deserve what happened to you.”

“You definitely didn’t,” James agreed. “Those boys were in the wrong. You weren’t in the wrong.”

“But … I wore a short skirt that night,” Darcy admitted. “My father said that was the reason it happened.”

Mandy’s stomach twisted. She expected someone to blame the girl. For her father to do it, though, was depraved. “That’s not the reason it happened,” she said. “None of this is your fault. The reason it happened is because those boys felt a sense of entitlement and they took something that wasn’t freely given.”

“Mandy is right,” James said. “I don’t think that blaming yourself is healthy. You didn’t do anything to deserve this. Some people are simply broken.”

“I don’t want to go into a lot of detail,” Darcy clarified. “I was at a party at the Kaspar house when it happened. Mr. Kaspar is a guidance counselor at my school, but his son Jacob was in my grade. Mr. Kaspar was out of town for the weekend so Jacob threw a party.”

“Did Jacob die at the mall?” James asked. “We still don’t have one of the kid’s names.”

“It’s not Jacob,” Darcy answered. “It’s Chad Barlow. He hung with that group. I have no idea why they’re not releasing his name, though. His parents travel a lot and he’s always home alone. Maybe that has something to do with it.”

“Maybe it does,” James agreed, filing away the name so he could run it later. “Go back to your story.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” Darcy said. “I was in the living room and someone handed me a drink. It was Dakota. I’m sure of that. I didn’t think anything of it, though. I always had a crush on him and he seemed to be flirty so … I drank it.

“It only took a few minutes for me to feel woozy,” she continued. “Dakota made a big joke about me not being able to hold my liquor and helped me upstairs. I thought he was going to take me to the bathroom so I could throw up or something, but instead he tossed me on a bed in one of the guest rooms.”