Jaden (Jaded #3)(31)

I looked at Corrigan. “You asked if this venture had been worth it?” I passed the screen to him. “It was more worth it than you can imagine.”

Right there, on the screen, Maria wrote, I cut the brakes. Now that bitch won’t be in the way.

Guadalupe responded, Good. Bryce is mine.

“Whoa.” Corrigan’s eyebrows went up. “It’s right there.” He pressed a few more buttons and handed it back to Bryce.

“What’d you do?”

“I sent that shit to the cops. Now let’s watch ’em squirm.”

My sentiments exactly.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

We were met in the front entrance by my dad and Beth. I had one second to take in the fury and balled fists before my dad started yelling. He was throwing questions at me, and I felt déjà vu from the reporters again.

I checked out. I’d been through the wringer just now. I wasn’t going to sign up for another one. Bryce and Corrigan took over, though. I went to the back and rested while I let all of them duke it out.

Somewhere, in between my dad’s constant yelling and Bryce swearing back at him, I heard my dad yell, “Then what the hell were you thinking? This doesn’t help her case at all! It’s all over the news! Our personal phones are being flooded with calls.”

Corrigan flung his hands up in the air. “Fuck her case then.”

My dad went rigid. His eyeballs almost popped out. “Excuse me?”

“I said, ‘Fuck her case.’” Corrigan folded his arms back over his chest and leaned back against the wall. He glanced to Bryce, the two shared a look, and Corrigan seemed even firmer in his statement. “I said what I said.”

“You said what you said?” My dad shook his head in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? Are you KIDDING me?”

Corrigan frowned.

Bryce moved to stand next to him.

My dad burst out again, “Her case is everything! They only have circumstantial evidence on her, but with this stunt—this is actually something. The media has this now. They can see her yelling and cursing. You think people are going to like that? Public opinion matters. If the pubic hates her, that doesn’t help her case.”

Yelling and cursing. I started to laugh to myself. Of course that was all he had heard. He hadn’t looked past the volume of my voice. He didn’t actually hear the message I was sending. For some reason, this struck me as hilarious, and the laughter kept pealing out of me. I couldn’t stop it. The tension in the room was thick, and I knew this was inappropriate, but f*ck it, how Corrigan said, just f*ck it. This was hilarity gold. My own father had no clue the message I was sending to the real killer.

“You think this is funny?”

It wasn’t my dad who expressed judgment. I had expected it from him, but I glanced up, wiping tears from my eyes, as I couldn’t contain myself. It was Beth who stood with her hands formed into fists, resting on both hips. Her feet were spread out and a firm look of disapproval was on her face, it was worse than my father’s. A glaze of dislike mixed with it. That helped contain my laughter, and I stood, rolling my shoulders back, and I tilted my head to the side.

“Oh boy,” Denton muttered behind me.

I stepped toward her, but caught another look shared between Corrigan and Bryce. All three of them knew the shift that had just happened, but they didn’t say anything. They knew. They had learned. No one judged me, not unless they earned that right to judge me, and this time, this girlfriend of my father’s, had just made a huge mistake.

I asked coolly, “You disapprove of me?”

A flattened look entered her gaze, and her hands fell from her hips, but she didn’t move back. She held her ground.

That was a point for her, for now. I moved even closer, so it was just her and me, staring at each other. Face to face. On the same eye level, I asked, so softly now, “Do you think I’m not acting appropriately?”

“Sheldon—” My dad started toward us, but I caught movement from the corner of my eye. Both Bryce and Corrigan blocked him with their heads slightly down. They were going to let me finish what Beth had started.

“Do you?” I prompted again. She hadn’t said a word since her first outburst. I was waiting. I was hoping for it.

“I think—” she stammered, then stopped to regroup. Then her tone came out firmer, clearer, “I think your father has done nothing except try to help you, but you have only met his actions with a level of ungratefulness that I’ve never witnessed before.”

“You think that?”

“Yes.” Her gaze was firm. “I do. It would be in your best interest to listen to him. He’s only trying to help.”

Then I laughed. It was soft, almost tentative at first, and then grew to a harsher, mocking sound. As I kept going, Beth pressed her lips together.

“Do you think I was acting inappropriately when I was stalked in high school?”

Just a slight flicker of confusion appeared before it was masked. Her chest rose and dropped as she made a sound of annoyance.

I nodded. “Do you think it was appropriate for my father to leave me during that time?”

Another small flicker of question. Did she not know the history? I cocked my head to the side and scratched at my chin. Maybe she didn’t? So I asked, “How was I supposed to act when two girls that I liked and wanted to call friends were killed?”