Love, Lies, and Deception(29)

She shrugged. “He was the one who bought your drink, so needless to say he was the first suspect. The police are going to watch the surveillance video and go from there.”

Groaning, I laid back on the bed and closed my eyes. “Alec didn’t do it. He had no reason to.”

“I know,” Kimberly said. I opened my eyes and faced her, waiting on her to continue. “From what I hear he was pretty upset when you passed out. You were brought here immediately, so I honestly don’t think he’d do that if he drugged you.”

“Yeah, I agree. Do you mind letting my friends in? I’d like to talk to them.”

My sister leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. “Sure,” she said softly. “I’m going to call Matt and the girls to let them know you’re okay. They’ve been worried about you.”

Matt was her husband and the girls were my nieces. I missed them, especially my nieces. I haven’t been able to see them grow up since I’d been away to college. “Let them know I miss them, and I’ll come see them soon,” I told her.

Nodding, Kimberly grabbed her cell phone and left the room. Two seconds later, the door burst open and in ran Emily, followed by Kristian, Alec, and Justin. Emily was bawling and threw her arms around my neck. “Rissa, oh thank God you’re okay. I’ve been worried sick. When I find out who spiked your drink I’m gonna kill ’em.”

“What did the police ask you guys?” I asked, glancing at them. Kristian looked angry, glaring at Alec, but Alec didn’t pay him any mind. He gazed wearily at me and came to my side.

“They thought it was me at first,” Alec confessed somberly. “I think they still do.”

Kristian scoffed, pacing the room like a caged animal. “Who else could it have been? You were the one who got her the drink!” he yelled.

Alec fumed, but he clenched his teeth and reined in his anger, taking a few deep breaths. “I have no reason to want to drug her. Sedating women to have sex with me isn’t my thing,” he growled low, pinning a dark glare at Kristian.

In my heart, I knew Alec didn’t do it, but Kristian didn’t look like he was going to back down. Before I could say anything in Alec’s defense, Emily cut in and spoke, “He’s right, Kris. It doesn’t add up to Alec doing it. Why would he drug her just to get help the moment she passed out? Besides, she was willing yesterday afternoon so having to drug her would’ve been moot.”

Immediately, Kristian’s color drained from his face and he froze, his whole demeanor deflating. My heart ached at the idea of hurting him, and it only confirmed that he did have feelings for me by the expression on his face.

Angrily, he threw his hands in the air and started for the door. “I have to go, Mare. I can’t be here right now.”

“Kristian, no,” I hollered out, but he kept going and shut the door behind him.

Alec grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I told you, Marissa. The guy’s got feelings for you.”

Emily’s eyes grew wide and she frowned. “Oh no, and here I was spouting out how you and Alec already had sex. I’m such an idiot.”

“It’s done now,” I pointed out wearily. “He was going to find out eventually.”

Alec leaned over and kissed me gently on my lips at the same time my sister walked back into the room closing her cell phone. “Okay, you guys, I have some good news. Marissa’s going to be released in about an hour and she’s going to be fine. I also just got off the phone with Detective Michaels, and he said they watched the surveillance tape.”

She paused and everyone grew silent, waiting to hear more. She took a deep breath and said, “They saw who put the drug in your drink, Marissa, and as we all know it wasn’t Alec.”

“Who was it?” I asked nervously.

She shrugged. “That’s why they want you at the station. They want all of us to come by in the morning to see if you know who the person is.”

Agreeing, I nodded and turned to Alec. “It’s gonna be weird seeing it all play out,” I murmured softly.

Alec kissed my hand and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “I know what you mean, baby. I was sitting right there and didn’t see anything.”

“Yeah, but you were kind of occupied.”

“Well, what’s even weirder …” my sister began, strolling over to the bed, “… is that the person you’ll be trying to identify isn’t a guy, Marissa. It’s a girl.” We all gasped and stared at her with our eyes wide open in shock.

I was definitely not expecting that.





My sister stayed the night and was offered Emily’s room, but that wasn’t where she ended up. We both ended up sleeping on the couch together and woke up with our muscles aching. I was glad she stayed.

Alec hung out with us for a while the night before and helped my sister cook dinner. It was interesting watching her interact so pleasantly with him, and getting along with him. My sister was a hard person to crack, but I could see in her eyes that she really liked him.

After we had eaten dinner, Alec left, leaving my sister and me alone for the rest of the evening. We watched our mother’s favorite musical, Oklahoma, and ended up falling asleep on the couch, not waking up until morning. My stomach growled, so instead of eating my sad cereal bar, I ended up eating a huge bowl of frosted flakes.