Kings of Linwood Academy - The Complete Box Set: A Dark High School Romance Series by Callie Rose (sight word books .TXT) 📕

Chase leans forward, spreading his legs and planting his elbows on his muscled thighs. He’s wearing dark jeans and a forest green shirt that draws out the green in his eyes.

“River was keeping as close of tabs as possible on what his dad knew about the police investigation. Granted, that wasn’t everything—it’s not like the cops call up the lawyer with every little piece of information they get. But Mr. Bettencourt was running his own investigation too, trying to dig up stuff the police missed to prove that Iris’s death wasn’t an accidental hit-and-run. That’s what the Lepianes hired him for.”

“Yeah,” Dax chimes in, picking up smoothly where Chase left off, as if the two of them share a damn brain or something. “And as far as River knows, his dad didn’t have any clue your mom was on Dunagan’s radar. Not until after she was arrested.”

“We didn’t keep anything from you, Low.” Chase shakes his head. “It wasn’t like we all saw it coming and lied to you about it or didn’t tell you. We were as surprised as you were.”

Something in my chest loosens a bit when he says that.

I got roped into this thing with them, dragged into the inner circle of this tight-knit little group because I was with them when they witnessed a murder. But for a long time, it felt like I was just “the girl who was there too”, the annoying little thorn in their side who they had to keep from doing anything stupid.

It took a long time for me to feel like they actually trusted me, and to start to actually trust them back.

The night we snuck into Mr. Bettencourt’s law office and dug around for information on Iris’s investigation, I thought something changed between us all. It was the night I found out about River’s hearing impairment, and I made the guys promise to stop keeping me out of the loop on things.

And I thought they had—until my mom got dragged away in handcuffs.

When that happened, part of me was sure the guys had all known it was coming, that they’d planned for it, and that they’d deliberately kept me out of the loop as they conspired to betray my mom.

So it doesn’t make everything better, but it sure as fuck helps to know that they were as shocked as I was.

Assuming Chase is telling the truth.

“How can I believe you?” I tug my hair out of the knot at the top of my head, running my fingers through the long brown strands. “You guys lied to me and kept me in the dark about so much shit. I found out from girls in the fucking locker room that Lincoln hooked up with Iris last year. He could’ve told me about that, and he didn’t!”

Dax rolls his eyes. “Yeah, well. Linc’s personal issues aside, I promise you, Low—we didn’t know. If we’d had any idea your mom was gonna get arrested, we would’ve told you.”

“And that’s the whole fucking point!” Chase adds. “Somebody set her up.”

Seemingly unable to contain himself anymore, he jumps up from the bed and strides toward me, grabbing my shoulders and steering me toward the easy chair. He presses downward gently, and when I perch on the edge of the seat, he crouches in front of me.

“Who do you think called in that tip on your mom?”

“What do you—?”

“The man in the black mask.”

My heart feels like it stops beating, sitting like a lump of clay in my chest. “What?”

“We don’t have proof yet, but that’s our best guess. I mean, think about it, Low. Why would someone frame your mom for a murder you witnessed? It all ties up too neatly to not be connected somehow.”

“Yeah.” Dax steps forward to join his brother. Their shoulders brush as they both crouch before me, two sets of blue-green eyes gazing up at me. “And Detective Dunagan said they got a credible tip. That means it had to come from someone who knew enough about the murder to offer a believable piece of evidence implicating your mom.”

“But…” I shake my head, sucking in a breath. “That’s even worse. If whoever killed Iris framed my mom, then—”

“Then they think they’ve won,” Chase finishes, cutting me off. “As long as she’s in jail with evidence piling up against her, the real killer will think they’re safe. It gives us time to keep looking—to keep digging.”

“While my mom rots in fucking jail!”

The words come out louder than I mean for them to, but I can’t help it. My volume control goes down when my anxiety goes up, and my nerves are like live wires right now.

“Yeah.” Dax grimaces. “That’s why I said this was the best of several shitty options.”

“Even if we all started raving about a man in black, if Lincoln showed that detective guy the pictures on his phone, and if we all claimed we were witnesses to the murder—it wouldn’t have been enough to keep your mom out of jail. It might’ve been enough to get Dunagan to look into it, but in the meantime, there would’ve been a pissed off psychopath out there who knew exactly what we knew. Your mom wouldn’t have been safe… and neither would you.”

Chase stops talking and shrugs, biting his lip as he gazes up at me.

I feel my jaw go slack as I process his words.

Fuck.

Fucking fucking fuck.

He’s right.

If they had backed me up, if they’d convinced Detective Dunagan to take me seriously, all we would’ve been doing is antagonizing a killer with no clear idea of how to stop him.

And if the cops hadn’t taken my mom away, if I’d managed to stop them, who’s to say the killer wouldn’t have gone after her next?

I slump back in the chair. The biology textbook is still on the seat, and it digs into my back as I slouch, but I can’t work up the energy to move it.

“How… how did you all see that when I didn’t?”