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Dee ca did you know about Beth and Dawson?"

I lifted e part of me wanted to lie--wanted to say it wasn’t until Will confirmed it, but I couldn’t "Before Christmas break, I saw Beth And then Matthew confirmed that if Beth was alive, Dawson had to be"

She sucked in a cry and her fingers curled in "Ho dare you?"

I could tell she wanted to slap h she hadn’t I kind of wished she would "We didn’t knoe could find hiet your hopes up only for you to lose hiain"

Dee stared atI’ve ever heard Let uess, it was Daemon’s idea? Because it sounds like hime"

"Dae away Her voice shook "Don’t defend hiood intentions that usually just suck But you--you knoDawson hurt It wasn’t just Daemon who lost his shit I may not have moved the house off the foundation, but a part of me died the day I was told he was dead I deserved to know the ht"

Her body shimmered for a second "Okay Okay…all of that aside If you had toldon with Blake, Ada into We still would’ve done it--believe one into that house to help you--but ouldn’t have been blindsided"

My throat seized up There was a stain on my soul, dark and cold I hadn’t murdered Adam, but I had a hand in his death Like an accessory after the fact People made mistakes all the time, but most of them didn’t cause someone’s death

Mine did

My shoulders sagged under the weight Saying sorry wasn’t going to se the hand of time All I could do noas er seeped out of Dee as she watched s against her chest She rested her cheek on her knees "And now you guys areanother mistake"

"We don’t have a choice," I said "We really don’t"

"Yes, you do We could take care of Blake and whoever he’s told"

"What about Dawson?" I asked quietly

She didn’t answer for a long time "I know I should be able to put aside how I feel about Blake for hi I know But I can’t"

I nodded "I don’t expect you to, but I don’t want things to be like this between us There’s got to be a way…" Pride went out the"Iand that you’re upset with et past this"

"I’m sorry," she whispered

Tears burned the back of my throat "What can I do to fix this?"

"You can’t And I can’t, either" Dee shook her head sadly "I can’t fix Ada with Blake is a good thing And I can’t fix our friendship Sos are just broken"

Chapter 13

Lesa came over after school on Tuesday to help study for our bio exa I could concentrate on was schoolwork Part of me expected Matthew to reschedule, since he knehat I had to do toested it on Monday after class, but oh no, no can do

I rocked back in my computer chair,her notes, and I was supposed to be listening, but I cracked openadult novel forup a quick post, I picked a couple of quick lines with an evil grin ‘I was his power-up--the ace up his sleeve I was the beginning and he was the end And together, ere everything’ I hit post and then closed the pretty a attention," Lesa said, sitting up

"Yeah, I a soanisot this in the bag"

"I’onna fail" I dropped h "I just can’t concentrate I’d rather read so--like this" I waved toward the book I’d just posted about and then to where I knehole stack of other books sat "And there’s this thing I have to do to with Dae starts with an s and ends with an x"

I opened my eyes and frowned "Geez, you’re worse than a dude"

Her curls bounced as she nodded "You know it"

I threw , she closed her notebook "So, what are you doing tomorrow that has you so distracted?"

There wasn’t y, and the need to talk about it snaked pastin Martinsburg to visit some of his friends"

"Well, that sounds like fun"

I shrugged I’d already toldto the ht, curfeasn’t an issue What was an issue was the fact that I had no idea what to wear and the stuff with Dee had put e funk

I popped up from my seat and stalked over tosexy I don’t have anything sexy"

Lesa followed "I’ in here"

There was a sea of jeans and sweaters, nothing like what Blake hinted at Anger crept upback in school, it was just messed up He was a murderer--my lab partner was a murderer