Take the Fall(68)

“I was meeting her to pick up the cash . . . five thousand dollars. It’s not what it sounds like.”

There’s a drumming in my ears. He did know about the money. And if he lied about his feelings for Gretchen, he could be lying about everything else. “Then where does Alex Burke come in?”

“Who?”

I frown. “The guy who’s sitting in jail instead of you?”

“I’d never even heard of him before this week.”

“The sheriff says he’s a drug dealer.”

His face darkens. “Oh, then I must know him. Since my parents are addicts and that’s how that works.”

I pause. “That’s not what I—”

“Look, you don’t need me to tell you Gretchen wasn’t into drugs. I don’t have the first clue what she was doing with that guy, except that he seems to fit her type.” He glares at me, but there’s hurt in his eyes. “Apparently she assumed I was a bad boy too, or right now my life would be a lot less f*cked up.”

I pull my hoodie tight. It’s colder out here than I expected. “Then I don’t understand . . . what was the cash for?”

He turns his head, staring into the shadows of my uncle’s yard. “I told you, my grandmother’s been sick. She ran her finances into the ground fighting my parents for custody, and then her medical bills reached the point where she was going to have to sell her house to pay her debts. It wasn’t even a huge amount of money, but it was more than she had.” He shakes his head. “After everything she did for me, I couldn’t let that happen.”

“Okay . . . so you asked Gretchen for money and she decided to give you five thousand dollars out of the goodness of her heart?”

Marcus sits on the edge of a large wooden planter. “Why don’t we cut the bullshit, Sonia.”

The air thickens in my chest. His gaze is black.

“You know the things Gretchen was capable of, probably better than I did. Goodness wasn’t one of them.”

My face goes hot, even though I wasn’t the one to say it.

“We slept together right away, even though I barely knew her. I have to admire how tactical she was—there’s power in vulnerability.” He looks at the ground and pauses.

I shift my weight, trying not to imagine these details in my head.

“It didn’t take her long to figure out my grandmother’s situation and offer to ‘help.’ I was selling paintings here and there and working at Evil Bean, but it wasn’t enough. She had access to cash, her dad’s a philanthropist . . . at the time it seemed to make sense. Five thousand dollars was more money than I’d ever seen in my life, but she made it seem manageable, something I could pay back.” He takes off his cap, raking his hands through his hair. “Unfortunately, my grandmother deteriorated. Five thousand dollars became ten thousand, then another five . . . if she’d given me what was in her purse that night, I would’ve owed her twenty grand.”

My pulse races. Everything inside me wants to reach for him, but I clench my fists in my lap. I need to be careful about this. “Twenty thousand dollars . . . that’s a lot of reasons to want someone dead.”

“You know I didn’t kill her.”

“I didn’t say you did.”

He looks at me and frowns. “It’s funny, for a while I figured you had to be in on it—what she did to people. But once I really paid attention, I changed my mind.” His eyes soften. “It was worse for you than anyone, wasn’t it?”

My cheeks flash hot. I look away into the shadows. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He rises from the planter and steps toward me. “How long did it take her to get you right where she wanted you?”

I step back. “Look, Marcus, I’m sorry you and Gretchen had such a screwed-up relationship, but—”

“What would she have done if you said no to her? When was the last time you tried?”

I swallow, but my mouth is dry.

“Did you know Reva Stone would’ve been valedictorian before Gretchen died, but Gretchen made her f*ck up her grades just enough so she could be on top?”

“Wh—why would Gretchen do that?” I ask, not even convincing myself.

“Because a long time ago, Reva made the mistake of coming on to Gretchen.”

I look at my feet. I’m not ready to talk about this. I never will be.

“Reva’s parents don’t know she’s gay—maybe they won’t even care. But Reva isn’t ready to come out and she didn’t want Gretchen to do it for her.” His face is stony. “Did you know Tyrone Wallace started using steroids at Gretchen’s suggestion? His parents put all that pressure on him, but he couldn’t quite find his edge—so Gretchen ‘helped’ him kinda like she helped me.”

A gust of wind sweeps across the yard, making the trees dance in the shadows. My hair blows across my face, forcing me to blink. I was cold a second ago, but now I’m burning up. “How do you know all this?”

His lip curls. “That’s just the kind of Girl Scout she was. She got me so far under her thumb, she just had to gloat about what she’d done to everyone else.” He steps closer to me, his scent like paint and cedar. “You already knew, didn’t you?”