It just happened.
He didn’t mean to. He didn’t even want to. It just was. And the worst part and the best part is that it didn’t feel wrong.
It felt good. Really good. Her lips were warm and soft and her hands on his back turned him on like crazy, and he put his hands in her hair and gently pulled her closer.
She moaned, softly, and moved against him, and he crushed his body against hers, needing her completely.
Cade
Friday, June 12
Cade tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. Everything was closed. Everything.
“I don’t even know where to buy chemicals!” Mattie burst out. “Especially at ten thirty at night!”
He and Ivy were in the backseat together. Cade had insisted on driving.
“We have to figure something out,” Ivy said quietly, her voice still choked with panic. “There has to be something.”
“Mattie’s right,” Cade said. “Even if we find something, who knows how much it’s going to cost? And what am I going to do, put the chemicals on my dad’s credit card? And what happens if they’re the wrong ones?” He hit the steering wheel with a fist. “This was a stupid plan, you guys.” He lowered his voice. “Stores have cameras. The school might not, but any store nowadays has cameras. Like, all of them. And what happens if we buy the wrong chemicals, and someone finds the body, and we just happen to have that strange combination on our receipts?”
Cade knew. They couldn’t go in there.
“So what do we do?” Mattie asked. “Just go back?”
Cade didn’t answer. There was nothing else to do. He started the car and began to pull out of the parking lot. A faint bolt of lightning erupted in the distance. The storm was leaving, but the rain was still falling—not hard, but steadily.
“Yeah. I mean, what else are we going to do? Any genius ideas?”
He watched in the rearview mirror as Mattie and Ivy exchanged glances. Ivy had retreated into a corner of the car, her back against the door, like she could disappear into the upholstery if she tried hard enough.
“No,” she whispered finally.
“No,” Mattie admitted. “Let’s go back.”
“?‘How do you get rid of your dead professor’s body?” Ivy laughed, suddenly, but it was harsh and grating, like a metal chain dragged over gravel. “I guess I should have paid more attention to the mystery novels my mom has.” She laughed again, and Mattie reached over to take her hand.
Cade fought the sudden urge to yell at her. The truth was, he was barely keeping it together, and if someone went over the edge, he wasn’t sure if he could handle it. What was wrong with him, anyway? He was the one who should be in charge here, not that brat Kinley. Sure, Kinley was from a well-known family, and her father was powerful, but they weren’t rich. Not like his father.
But why the hell couldn’t he think of one goddamn thing to do? He was the one who knew how to work people. He’d worked Bekah for two years before she’d caught on and ditched him.
He fought a lump in his throat as her memory floated across his mind. God, he wanted her now. He could have never told her, but he wanted her. She was so serene. She just went along with stuff. She’d calm him down now, or maybe he’d calm her down, and all this would seem just a shade more okay.
They didn’t talk on the way back to the farm, not even when Cade took two wrong turns and nearly fishtailed into the ditch. They got quietly out of the car, and Ivy and Mattie followed Cade back into the barn.
Cade clung to the quiet. Quiet meant no one was losing it. Quiet meant keeping it together. He counted his breaths. Concentrated on his steps. And then found Kinley and Tyler in full make-out less than twenty feet from their professor’s body.
“What the hell?” Cade shouted. “Are you kidding me right now?”
The couple separated. Kinley scooted away and ducked her head, but Tyler just sort of shrugged. “You guys were gone for a while. Chemicals?”
Cade shook his head and explained the situation. “We need another plan. Can’t we just bury him somewhere?”
Tyler stood up and began to pace. “With what? I think I saw a rusted pitchfork in the back. But that takes time. It’s not like in the movies where you can just knock out an eight-foot hole in twenty minutes. It’ll take all night. And with the mud? The rain? No way, man.”
“You’d know,” Ivy quipped, but Tyler ignored her.
“We could burn him,” Mattie offered. “It would get rid of the DNA, right?”