Page 13 of Deceit & Destruction

Victoria elbows him, speaking through her perfectly white clenched teeth. “Alex.”

“What?” He defends. “You heard the cops. They’re both lucky to be alive.”

I narrow my eyes.

Back up did he just saycopsand what does he mean by both?

As if on cue, I’m suddenly plagued by a pair of big, blue eyes and long, copper hair and it all comes rushing back to me.

Webber introducing me to Cassie Phillips.

The argument in the kitchen where I told him she couldn’t be our roommate.

Me offering to take her back to the dorms.

Her getting sick again.

The bag.

Oh, fuck…the bag.

I close my eyes, foolishly thinking that will help. That the flashbacks will stop assaulting me. But it makes it worse, because with my eyes closed all I see isher.

Eyes wide and full of confusion as she lifted her gaze from the mountain of drugs that spilled onto her lap.

The confusion morphed to terror, and she yelled for me to watch out.

That’s when I saw the black SUV headed right for us. I swerved out of the way and slammed on the brakes, but the SUV swerved too. Whoever was behind that wheel did nothing to avoid the crash, they wanted to run us off the road.

I swallow hard.

“Cassie,” I rasp, my eyes springing open. Victoria and Alex exchange a look, but my gaze zeroes in on Webber. That’s when he lifts his hand and holds up my duffel bag. I should be relieved, but I could care less about the drugs.

“We’re going to step outside,” Victoria says. “Give you two a minute.”

I don’t tear my gaze away from Webber as she loops her arm through Alex’s and leads him out of the hospital room. Once they’re gone, I grit my teeth.

“How did you get that?”

“Cassie.” He sets the bag on the foot of my bed. “You hit your head on the steering wheel. Knocked you out. She grabbed everything she could, put it back in the bag and said it was hers.”

I narrow my eyes.

“Why would she do that?”

He brings his gaze back to me and shrugs a shoulder.

“Because cops aren’t likely to check a pregnant girl’s bag for drugs when she wasn’t even behind the wheel.”

“Pregnant,” I repeat, as if me saying the word will somehow make it more believable. But in a strange way, it makes sense.

The baggy clothes.

The nonstop vomiting.

What doesn’t make any sense, though, is why she would cover for me. The girl looked completely shook when the drugs fell out of the bag and onto her lap. Never mind the fact she’s pregnant. That’s a huge fucking risk to take on a guy who was a complete dick to her.

“Before you ask, I didn’t know,” Webber asserts, pulling my attention back to him. “She’s been hiding it under those oversized sweatshirts.” He pauses to swipe a hand over his face. “I wonder if she would’ve told us if we had agreed to let her move in and tutor you.”

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