Liar (Madison Kate #2)(62)

Steele made a sound that caught Archer's attention. The big guy sighed and swung his gaze away from the TV to look at me with an edge of apology in his eyes. "I know you think he has some redeeming features that your mom fell for, but... he just doesn't. He was a piece of shit even while he was with Deb, and he's a hundred times worse now. You've probably blocked the memories out, but he was quickly dragging your mom down a dark and dangerous path. There's no silver lining to Zane D'Ath."

Disappointment burned through my veins like acid, and I bit my cheek to keep it from playing out across my face. Archer seemed sincere, for once, and I couldn’t think of a reason for him to lie about that.

But where did that leave me?

"So you think it was my stalker at the Clown on Halloween?" I asked him with an arched brow. The TV screen showed our race cars all lined up at the start line, but Archer hadn't hit the button to start the game yet.

He looked back at me with one of those intense, guarded stares—the sort of stare that stripped me bare and made me shiver. "No, I think Zane's right on that. Your stalker, like Deb's stalker, is obsessed in a sexual way. He wouldn't kill you before..." He trailed off with a small cringe, and I could guess the rest.

Before he got a chance to play out all his twisted fantasies. It was probably why he'd shifted his fixation from my mom to me after she’d died. Unfulfilled desires and all that. It was sick, no doubt, but it definitely gave weight to the theory that it'd been someone else trying to kill me that night.

"Also, you said it was more than one person that night, didn't you?" Steele asked, thoughtfully tapping his controller against the arm of his chair. "I think they were after you for something else. The girl that died on Riot Night was an attack on you, too. So this has been going on for a while."

I had nothing to say to that. He was right, of course. I'd convinced myself that the girl killed on Riot Night had just been a coincidence. An accident or something. But the second attempt to murder me suggested it’d been, in fact, a deliberate attempt on my life.

"But why?" I lamented aloud. "I don't get it. Why would anyone want to kill me?"

"That's what we want to work out," Archer murmured. He rubbed his thumb over his lower lip, lost in thought. "Does anyone spring to mind who might want to kill you? Or who might benefit from your death?"

I shook my head, chewing at the corner of my lip. "I've legitimately gone over this in my brain a thousand times, and I can't think of anything. My trust fund, maybe? But it's not even a million dollars. Hardly worth hiring someone to kill me for, considering how much paid killers probably get."

Steele shifted in his seat, and I looked over at him, worried he was uncomfortable or in pain. His eyes were locked on Archer, though, and his brow was deeply furrowed.

"I doubt that's it then," Archer replied, his voice flat and emotionless. He was probably pitying me for my small inheritance when he had the entire D'Ath Estate up his sleeve. Prick.

Steele huffed an annoyed sigh. "Arch—" he started, but broke off when the sound of a door slamming echoed through the house.

My shoulders bunched, my whole body tense with fear, but seconds later the mouthwatering aroma of pizza met my nose, and Kody appeared in the doorway.

"Pizza's here!" he announced. "What did I miss?" His eyes shot to the TV, then to the controller in Steele's hand, and he arched a brow.

"Oh, fuck off," Steele grumbled. "I think I've earned it."

Kody didn't argue but placed the pizza boxes down on the low coffee table in front of us and detoured back into the kitchen to grab drinks for everyone.

When he returned, after handing beers to each of his friends and offering me the options of beer or Coke—I took the Coke—he took a seat on the floor in front of the couch and opened the pizza boxes.

"So, are we playing or..." He shifted his position enough that he could look up at me with an arched brow. "I get the feeling I walked in on a particularly tense conversation."

"You did," Steele muttered, cracking his beer open and taking a sip. "We were discussing why someone would want to kill Madison Kate."

"And getting nowhere on it," Archer added in a sullen growl. He was still sitting so damn close to me; it was like I could feel his presence radiating off his skin. "That bastard who tried to jump Madison Kate at the diner was a hired goon. Cheap one, too."

Kody took a slice of pizza, eating a bite while he seemed to be thinking. "Okay, well, what about the stalker, then? Any ideas on who that is?"

I reached out for the cheese pizza, and he handed me a slice. I gave him a smile of thanks. "Uh, I guess the suspect list is a whole lot longer on that one. It could be anyone that I've crossed paths with, right?"

"It could be Bree," Archer commented, and my gaze snapped to him with fury.

"It's not fucking Bree, you twat."

He cocked a brow at me, those ice-blue eyes curious. "Why not? She has the access—she knows the gate code—and she knows more about you than anyone else. It wouldn't be the first time a girl developed an infatuation with her attractive friend."

I carefully avoided the fact that he'd just called me attractive and addressed his blatantly incorrect theory. "Bree couldn't be my stalker, you idiot. She was eleven when my mom died... I hardly see her developing a sexual infatuation with her friend's mother at that age, let alone being devious enough to do all the shit this stalker is doing. No. Just, no."