It felt delicious.
“You’re stressed, Kin. And we can’t rush into anything here, okay?”
“Oh. Okay.” For a moment, she wanted to dissolve into the mattress. She wanted to fall into a deep, forever kind of sleep. And suddenly, she didn’t mind Tyler touching her.
“We need to stop and think. Do we throw this at the police immediately? Or is this our ace-in-the-hole move?”
If there was one thing Tyler knew more about, it was how to handle the police.
“I just . . . I just . . .” She paused, swallowing hard. “I don’t feel right anymore. I feel like the outside frame of a person, and like inside there’s just this hollowness and I need to do something. I need to do something to make something happen. I can’t take much more of this.”
Tyler moved his hands up, and rubbed the skin under her bra strap. “Yes, you can. You can because you deserve better. We both do. I am going to figure out what my parole officer knows. If it’s too much—we give him the flash drive, and then at least it’s clear that Cade instigated the situation. And if he doesn’t know as much as he says, then we’re not in a bad place. Okay?”
She nodded, her head half buried in his pillow. Funny how he considered their current situation to be “not a bad place.” Because it was bad. It was horrible.
Maybe he didn’t have as much of a life to ruin.
“It’s not a perfect confession, Kin. We give that to them and there’s going to be questions. And some of those are going to be about us. It’s a good card to play, but it’s not exactly the get-out-of-jail-free card, you know?”
“Yeah.” Kinley sighed. “Yeah, I know.” She paused. “Hey, Tyler?”
“Mm-hmm?” Her fingers pressed into her skin, smoothing the deep tension from her muscles.
“Why haven’t they found him yet?”
His hands paused on her back, and then resumed, a little more stiffly. “I don’t know, Kin. They should have had him by now, I would think. Someone should have happened upon it. Or something.”
Kinley found it funny how him had become it. Like murder was easier to deal with if the victim was dehumanized.
“Do you think they will?”
“Yeah.” Tyler didn’t hesitate. “It’s just a matter of time.”
“And do you think they’ll find out that Kip didn’t really see him that night?” Kinley asked. Kip was their safety. And as soon as he went away . . . everything would blow up.
“I don’t know, Kin.”
Kinley stayed very still on the bed, letting Tyler knead her body.
“So,” Tyler said. “I needed to ask you a favor.”
Kinley felt herself tense, and she knew that Tyler felt it too. “What kind of favor?”
“I need to borrow your recording system for, like, a day.”
Kinley rolled out from under his hands and sat up on the bed. “What for, Tyler? I can’t just lend it out. What happens if someone finds it? What if it’s traced back to me and my dad?”
Tyler bent his knees and straightened them, shoving his hands in his pockets. Kinley tilted her head. He looked so awkward. Not Tyler-like at all. “Is it that big of a deal, Kinley?” he asked. He removed his hands and rubbed them on his jeans.
Kinley almost felt for him. But she also realized, watching him moving shiftily around his room, that maybe she didn’t trust him.
And he hadn’t found the flash drive yet. So maybe . . . maybe he didn’t trust her, either.
“Why do you need it, Tyler?” She patted the bed beside him, wanting him to stop pacing.
He sat down awkwardly, his back ramrod straight. “Honestly?”
She turned toward him on the bed, one leg pulled up and tucked beneath her. “I think we’re at that level with each other, don’t you?”
Tyler looked at Kinley for a long moment, as if searching her face for something.
“I’m being threatened, okay? And I need to make it clear to someone that I’m not exactly going down for something he’s blackmailing me for.”
Kinley touched his leg. “Does this have to do with Stratford?”
Tyler shook his head. “You know from time to time I get involved with other shit.”
She knew.
Everyone knew.
He turned to her and ran his fingers along her chin. “I understand if you can’t part with it.”
Her mind raced, but she kept her face neutral. He had the other flash drive. She had to keep him on her side. She needed it back. If it was with Tyler, it was like one million percent more likely to be discovered by the police. Or at least his parole officer.
“Sure,” she said finally. “But you have two days. And then you give that back to me . . . along with the other flash drive.”
Tyler fidgeted for a moment. And then he held out a hand. “Deal?”
She ignored his hand and kissed him. Hard. “Deal,” she agreed.
They sat together on the bed, staring at the wall.
“Psych class starts in twenty minutes,” Kinley volunteered after a long pause. “Do you want to go?”
“No.”
“Yeah. Me neither.”
Tyler
Thursday, July 2