drama was already waiting.
“Oh my God, did you hear?” Piper Rocha came running the second I walked in.
I flicked my eyes over toward the table. “What’s going on?” I was accustomed to walking into a room of raucous laughter and endless toasts but tonight, the guys were gravely quiet as they scrolled wildly through their phones.
“The news just came out. There’s a store behind Gabrielle’s townhouse that found surveillance video from their cameras. Someone broke into her apartment the night she went missing. A man. He was wearing a mask and he – ” Her voice broke off with a crack. I looked up to see Sawyer approaching.
“Doesn’t look good,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Sofie and Lyle were supposed to come tonight but with this shit… now we know she didn’t run off. Someone fucking took her.”
Fuck. I dragged my palm across my jaw. Gabrielle Winter was in middle school the last time I saw her. She had been skinny, loud and quirky. But apparently, since I’d left New York, she’d grown into the kind of vulnerable beauty that Jackson and his friends preyed upon. I’d always heard stories about the way the guys premeditated their infidelities. They went for women with something to lose – a reputation, a fiancé, anything that would keep them silent once the affair was over. Regardless of their side hobbies, these guys had a picture of how their lives needed to look. There was no way they’d ever let mistresses tear apart their carefully crafted images.
Looks were everything.
Which was why I felt a sudden, dark and sinking feeling about my brother. Jackson loved Lara. He was obsessed with her. And there was no way he’d ever let Gabrielle stand in between them. He’d rid himself of that problem no matter what he had to do.
“Hey, man.”
My neck tensed when I suddenly heard Jackson’s familiar voice behind me. You’re in public, I reminded myself when I felt the urge to instantly slam my brother into the wall. You’re in public and you’re not supposed to know that he threatened Lara, so try to act fucking normal for even a second. Breathing deep, I finally turned to see Jackson staring at the table where everyone still sat in silence on their phones.
“What’s going on?” he frowned.
“Footage came out. Someone breaking into Gabrielle’s apartment the night she went missing.”
“Fucking shit, are you serious?” Jackson’s eyes went wide but I couldn’t bring myself to believe the shock in his voice.
“Where’s Lara?” I asked, unable to hold back.
“She’s in the car. Sloane called right as we were getting out. I guess about this.” Jackson shook his head. “Christ, man. It’s not looking good then.”
“Yeah, that’s what Sawyer said.”
He immediately sneered. “Fuck what Sawyer said. I’m positive that piece of shit is fucking Lara or actively trying to. You know anything about that, by the way?” he asked, easily changing the subject. I stared before giving a flat reply.
“Pretty certain that’s not happening.”
“Well, if it hasn’t yet I’m sure as hell not going to let it. Really would rather not pull a fucking Glock on Sawyer and put him in the fucking ground.”
A sneer formed on my lips. “Might be a little off-color to talk about killing someone right now. They’re all pretty sure at this point that Gabrielle’s gone.”
Jackson blinked at the sound of her name. “Yeah,” he mumbled, quiet for a second. “Yeah. That really sucks, man.”
My forearms flexed against my rolled sleeves as I clenched my fists. “I’d say that’s an understatement,” I muttered. He’d known the girl. Intimately. Her death deserved more than just a shrug.
Unless he was the sack of shit who’d killed her.
Swallowing hard, I tried to control my fury. But as I stood before Jackson, suspicion crawled like a sickness through my bones. I wanted to sink my fist in his jaw and tell him that I knew it was him – that he was in fact sick enough to get rid of Gabrielle for his own benefit. My knuckles twitched, desperate to swing. I could end it here. I indulged the irrational thoughts that crept in the back of my head. Knock him out, explain to the guys and then see what the police can find.
Though they could always end up finding nothing and sending Jackson back home to Lara. Enraged.
Fuck.
It was a bad idea. I knew it was. But in that moment, there was nothing in the world that I wanted more than to drag Jackson outside and pin him to the wall by the throat. I was going to end it. I’d handle the consequences as they came.
I stepped toward him.
But the second I did, a flurry of light hair and tanned skin came rushing in. My eyes flew instantly to her. Lara in a white lace dress – a reminder of what I truly wanted most in this world. Our gaze locked like magnets as she slipped her phone into her purse. Right away, I checked mine to find her latest text.
Meet me around the left corner.