Forgiving Lies

“And those were at the restaurant you work at?”

“Yeah, both nights I wasn’t working though. I reviewed all the cameras we have set up in there and checked them against everyone who came in. The only people who didn’t match up with cards paid in cash. I don’t know how he’s doing this.”

“Waitress or waiter remember anything?”

“Ryder told me we couldn’t question her. She’d served too many people that night, and it’d raise flags if we started questioning staff. What about your bar?”

“I check things when I get there early to see if his card was used and we just missed it. He hasn’t been at my bar in weeks. There’ve been three times we’ve had people leave without paying. First was a homeless guy I see all the time. Next was this ancient woman who comes in almost every day. I don’t think she even realized she hadn’t paid when she left, because she always does. Last was a man in a business suit who took off ru

“Shit. This whole two-meals thing is something to worry about, though. And I think that’s why Ryder is calling us in today. Now that Camden might be closing in on someone, I’m sure he’ll want all of us working a lot more.”

“Good, we need to until he’s found.”

Mason lifted his left hand, curled into a fist. “Anything to bring the fuckers down, right?”

We’d been saying that since our first undercover assignment. I smiled and pounded his fist. “Always.”

Rachel

“SO WE NEED to go out and celebrate.”

I rolled over on Candice’s bed and watched as she held up different shirts and studied herself in her full-length mirror. “Oh really? And what is it we’re celebrating?”

“You getting a job. Duh.”

“Candice.” I laughed softly. “Is it really so exciting that I got a job that we need to go out and celebrate? It’s waitressing. It isn’t like I made partner at a firm or—” I broke off quickly when I realized what I’d just said.

Candice was quiet for a second and her eyes lifted to look at me through the mirror. “Are we going to go back to California for the a

“I don’t—I don’t think so.” Every year Candice’s family went to my parents’ graves on the a

“Are you ever going to go, Rach?”

Swallowing audibly, I dropped my head and studied the details of Candice’s comforter instead. “Someday, maybe. I just can’t yet . . . can we not talk about this?”

“Yeah,” she said softly, then more resolutely, “Yeah! Waitress or not, we need to celebrate!”

I loved Candice so much for being able to get us out of uncomfortable conversations so easily. “Candice, we can go out for drinks anytime. We don’t need a reason, especially not this one.”

“Don’t be lame, Rach. I want to celebrate you getting a job. So we’re going to do it. Are the boys home?”

I grunted what I thought sounded like an affirmation.

“Maybe they can—” She cut herself off when her phone rang beside me on the bed.

“It’s Eli.” I answered it for her and put it on speaker.

“Hey, big brother!” we said in unison, and he laughed.

“How are my favorite girls?”

“Good, but Rachel’s being lame. She got a job and I want to go celebrate. She thinks it’s stupid.”

“Ah, well, we have to celebrate that.” What “we”? I thought. “But can we please take my rental? Because it looks so much better than Rach’s Liberty; don’t you ever wash this thing?”

Candice gasped and hurried to get dressed, but I was already ru

“Eli!” I screamed, and ran full speed at him. He caught me and just barely kept us from falling over as he laughed and hugged me close.

“Good to see you too, sis.”

“I can’t believe you’re here!”

He kissed my cheek and turned me to walk back toward the apartment with an arm slung around my shoulders. “Figured I’d surprise you girls.”

“How long are you staying?”

“Just until tomorrow evening. I’m only here on business.”

I pouted but didn’t have time to say anything else, because as soon as we were in the apartment, Candice launched herself at him much the same way I had. She said my words verbatim and I couldn’t help but laugh. Candice and I were so different but at the same time so similar it scared me.

“Well, now we definitely have to go celebrate,” Candice said as she bounced up and down on her toes. “Do you have any more meetings today?”

“Nope, done until the morning.” He patted his flat stomach and looked at his watch. “I’m starving, though, and I heard the Mexican food here is completely different than what we have in California.”

“Then Mexican it is,” I said with a huge smile. “Let me go change, I’ll be ready in two seconds!”

I felt lighter than I had in a long time. Eli had always had a calming effect on me and I was so thankful for it now. He’d seemed to be more mature than other guys his age when we were growing up, and he had this silent intensity about him that I had clung to after my parents had died. He knew words wouldn’t help in those hard times and his presence alone had helped me more than anyone else could have until I was given my journal. But even in times that were happy, like now, that intensity rolled off him and washed over me, making it feel like a huge weight had been lifted. The a

Until three hours into our drinking and eating, anyway.

“Hey, so I heard Blake was in Austin.”

I froze and Candice eyed me warily before downing the rest of her margarita. I grabbed my beer and followed suit.

“Got in touch with him this afternoon. I’m supposed to go meet up with him in about half an hour. I told him I’d bring you two with me.”

This wasn’t happening. “Um . . .”

“I’m game!” Candice said, and nudged Eli’s side. “I haven’t seen him since school let out anyway. I miss him.”

Eli laughed and drained his beer. “I haven’t seen him since all that shit went down with Je

My heart rate had kicked up, but at the mention of Blake’s girlfriend before he moved away, it halted. I hadn’t known anything bad happened between the two of them. I just remembered hating her for being with Blake. She’d been tall, with long, dark hair and blue eyes. I remembered not understanding why he would like her and not me; the only thing she had that I didn’t was boobs. “What—um . . .” I cleared my voice and tried to sound as uninterested as I could in my questioning. “What went down between Blake and Je

Candice’s eyes narrowed at me. She knew I was searching. Eli shook his head and stretched his arms over his head before responding. “They had been happy. Je

I’d officially stopped breathing.

Was Blake the one who attacked her? Is that why she didn’t want to see him? I glanced over to Candice to see her shaking her head at me. She wasn’t glaring anymore, but she looked disappointed in me. Like she knew exactly where my train of thought had gone and was upset I was still putting the blame on her cousin who could do no wrong.