Tell Me Pretty Lies(74)

“Holy fucking shit,” she pants, sliding down the shower wall.

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Ditto,” Holden’s voice says from behind us.

Shayne’s horrified eyes snap over my shoulder, and I shield her naked body with my own.

“What the fuck!”

“She was screaming! I thought she was being murdered! I mean, I guess she was, just not in the way I th—”

“Holden! Get the fuck out.”

He walks out, slamming the bathroom door behind him.

“I thought he was gone,” is all she says.

“So did I.”

I step out of the shower, handing her a towel before grabbing one for myself. She wraps it around her, knotting it at her chest. When we step into the hall, Holden’s standing in front of my bedroom door with his arms crossed.

“I just have one question,” he says, looking between us.

“What?”

“When did you get your nipples pierced?”

“Oh my God,” Shayne said, her cheeks turning bright pink. She pushes past him, walking into my room. We follow her in, watching as she disappears into my closet. When she comes out, she’s wearing one of my black t-shirts that hits her mid-thigh.

“Why don’t you seem mad? Or even surprised?” she asks, pointing a finger at him.

“Wait, did you two actually think you were slick?” he asks, chuckling. “You both disappeared for two days, she sleeps in your bed every night, you eye-fuck each other any time you’re in the same room, oh, and let’s not forget the night you went down on her while I was on the couch next to you. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“But you said—” Shayne exclaims, her face turning even redder.

“I lied.” He winks.

“Oh my God,” she says again, dropping down onto the edge of my bed.

“All right, well, now that I’m horny as fuck, I’m gonna go find someone to play with. You kids have fun.”

Holden walks out and I walk over to my closet, throwing on a pair of grey sweats before I sit next to Shayne on my bed.

“So. That happened.”

“It did.”

“Are you okay with that? With people knowing?”

“Are you?”

She lifts a shoulder. “We’re still figuring things out. I just don’t want anyone to ruin it before we have a real chance.”

I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger, forcing her to look at me. “Fuck everyone else. It’s you and me.”

She smiles and I feel it like a jolt in my chest. I miss seeing that smile every day. They don’t come as easily as they used to.

“You didn’t get to finish.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” I say, adjusting my half-hard dick in my sweats.

She bites down on her lip, dropping to her knees between my legs.

“We should do something about that.”




The sound of wind whipping branches against my window pulls me from my sleep. My room is dark, the TV we fell asleep watching earlier no longer on. I slide my arm out from under Shayne’s head, careful not to wake her, then I reach for the lamp on my nightstand, but it doesn’t turn on. Power must be out. I roll out of bed, blindly feeling around for my phone. When I find it, I turn on the flashlight, heading for my door. I swing it open, finding Holden standing on the other side.

“Check the breaker box?” I ask him. It’s probably due to the high winds, but with someone fucking with Shayne, my paranoia is on high alert.

“Not yet. I forgot where Dad left his keys for the basement.”

“They’re in his desk. Come on.”

Holden follows me down the hall and around the corner, into Dad’s office.

“So you and Shayne, huh?”

I ignore him, rounding my dad’s massive desk, pulling open the top right drawer. I use one hand to shine the light inside and the other to sift through the numerous sets of keys, pens, and other random shit. I finally find the one I’m looking for, pulling on the ring, but it gets caught on something. I shine my phone into the drawer once more, and that’s when I realize that one of the keys has slipped beneath something. Something that looks a whole lot like a false bottom.

I clench my jaw tight as a bad feeling hits my gut hard and fast. Somehow, I know whatever’s under there is about Danny.

“Come give me some light.”

“What is it?” He comes up behind me, shining his light over my shoulder, and I set my phone down onto the desk.

“Let’s find out.” I take one of the keys and stick it between the board and the drawer front, popping it up, then fit my fingers in between the gap to lift it.

“What the fuck,” Holden says as I pull out an orange folder. He leans in closer, shining more light to see the words on the front of it.

“This says Dad checked this out a month after Danny died.”

My pulse starts to race, needing answers, but afraid of what I’ll find. I open the folder, finding what looks like a CD case inside with a bunch of numbers, followed by a date.

“That’s the day he died.”

I nod, swallowing hard, and open the case. Suddenly, the power kicks back on, light flooding in from the hall. Holden walks over to flip the light switch, and I take the chair in front of my dad’s desk, powering his computer on. His dinosaur of a computer takes what seems like an eternity to boot, each second making my anxiety skyrocket, and I look down at the police report that was in the same folder, but damn near everything has been redacted. Black boxes litter the page, making it impossible to make sense of it.