Free Sliding Past Vertical by Laurie Boris Page B

told him the truth. Either
way he would have gone berserk. But this way, he wouldn’t go berserk at
her.  
    “Okay,” Sarah started quietly.
“You have five seconds to explain how your friends knew I had it.”
    Jay turned on her with an
evil sneer. “They’re not my friends. I don’t know how they knew.”
    She wanted to slap him. “Bullshit.
What are they, telepathic? Have super-human scent glands, they could smell it
from the Pike?”
    “Sarah—”
    “They killed Dee Dee’s
parakeet.”
    He gaped.
      “And I won’t even tell you what they did
to the shirt you gave me. It’s like they were sending you a message.”
    Color drained from his
cheeks. He stared straight ahead. The rain picked up, bombarding the car. The
deluge seemed to go on forever, during which neither of them spoke. Sarah was
too angry, and Jay, apparently, had lost his voice.
    She crossed her arms over her
chest and threw herself back against the seat. “I spent five hours cleaning
last night and the place still looks like Bosnia. And my roommate’s smoking
again, thanks to finding her tampons shredded and little Petie dead on her
bedroom floor.”
    She let that soak in a while.
He wasn’t so smug anymore. Even his cut-glass cheekbones seemed to have
softened.
    “You don’t know,” he said
finally, voice cracking. “These guys...you short them or something, they don’t
exactly forgive and forget...”
    He swallowed a couple of
times and started drumming on the wheel with his index fingers. He looked
scared. It was about time. Maybe he’d finally tell her what was really going
on. “Do they have something to do with the reason why your friend never called
for his stuff?”
    He shook his head. “He did
call. He got picked up and had to lay low for a few days. Since I already had
the money, he wanted me to give his stuff to the guys who bailed him out, for
payback. Turns out they’re the ones who broke my windshield. I told you, these
aren’t happy-go-lucky guys.”
    Sarah had a sudden, awful
feeling Jay was into this deeper than he knew. And by association, so was she.
“So I’m guessing you put off calling them?”
    He turned away. “Something
like that.”
    “And maybe...they came
looking for it themselves? And somehow figured out on their own that you’d
given it to your girlfriend to hold?”
    His eyes darkened. “Don’t
push this.”
    “Why?”
    “Because...I might tell you
something you don’t want to know.”
    She glared at him and then turned
toward the window. A maple tree shuddered behind a curtain of water on the
pane. “Fine. Then don’t tell me.”
    He let out his breath. His
palm landed on her knee, sending a jolt up her leg. “Sarah...baby, I didn’t
want you mixed up in this. All you wanted to do was help me...”
    He slid closer. Leather
squeaked against leather. “I’m really sorry this happened...”
    The hand traveled up her
thigh. He was nearly breathing in her ear. Did he actually think—?
      “Baby, I’m so sorry...”
    The words vibrated through
her. She began to respond like a well-tuned Stratocaster. Boiling with fury, at
him and at herself, she whipped around, scaring him off of her.
    “Too little, too late by a
long shot!”
    “I can’t turn back time!” His
voice was hoarse, his hands outstretched. “I’ll buy Dee Dee a new parakeet.
I’ll pay for all the damage. Anything you want. I’ve still got most of the
guy’s money.” He reached for his wallet.
    She couldn’t look at him. “I
don’t want your freaking money.”
    “Then what can I do?”
    Get
help , she thought,
but the words stuck somewhere along the way. Her eyes dampened.
    He slumped against his seat,
pushing a hand through his hair. “Man,” he said, after a long stretch of
silence. “I really fucked this up, didn’t I?”
    Sarah wiped her eyes with the
back of her hand.
    “Just when I thought you and
me, we had something special...”
    Something in her heart went
“click.” She’d assumed he was