Betrayed (9 page)

"Are you kidding? If you don't read it now, I'll probably go insane." A moment after the wordinsane came out of his
mouth, his face flushed a deep, painful-looking red. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's just some sounds," Rae told him. But her curiosity seeped away. She couldn't help remembering how Marcus
had been when she was in the hospital. Or how he hadn't been. He'd barely come to see her. Yet he'd found time to
hook up with Dori.

"Read it, okay?" Marcus smoothed out the papers. Rae hadn't realized she'd crumpled them.

"Okay," Rae said. She raised the first page up in front of her so it would hide her expression from Marcus. "Things
I-" She pulled in a deep breath. "Things I love about Rae," she finished in a clear voice.

Her eyes ran down the list, picking up random words and phrases. That was all she could take right now.

Cheesecake monster, earlobes, March 9, 11:14, Raemondo, nuggle bunny, the drawing of me, butterfly kiss,
mispronounce middle name, cries watching Frosty the Snowman, bubble gum lips.

Rae couldn't turn this page over. And there was no way she could move on to the second page. "Marcus, this is so
sweet," she said, her voice trembling with emotion.

Marcus gently took the list away from her. He leaned close, and she knew he wanted to kiss her. She didn't try to
stop him. She closed her eyes, waited, andthen felt his lips lightly brush against hers. It felt… nice.

Rae opened her eyes and got busy picking up the list and folding it. "This was, is, was, so sweet," she said again.

The kiss was sweet, too. But she felt not even a spark of what she'd felt when Anthony kissed her. She realized
that even during their wildest make-out sessions, when Marcus's hands were moving all over her body, she'd never
felt the way she did during that one kiss with Anthony.

Not that Anthony gave any sign of ever wanting to kiss her again. But now that she'd realized what a kiss could
feel like, how could she return to sweet? There had to be somebody out there who could make her feel the way
Anthony did. Someone besides Anthony.

"Rae?" Marcus said. Her name formed a question, the question. Did she still love him? Half of her wanted to say
yes and throw herself into Marcus's arms. Where it would be safe, safe and sweet.

"Marcus," Rae managed to get out through the lump that had formed in her throat. The way she said his name
gave him his answer. She could see it in his face, in his eyes, before he turned away.

"I don't know what was going on in the firsthalf," Coach Mosier said, speaking so softly,Anthony could barely hear
him. "I don't want to know," he continued. "All I want is for it to stop. You have fifteen minutes to figure out how to
accomplish that."

He turned around, walked slowly and deliberately to his office, and shut the door behind him with extreme care. A
moment later the blinds slithered down, covering the big window that looked out over the locker room.

Anthony hadn't been on the team for long, but long enough to know that Mosier was a yeller. When you did good,
he yelled. When you screwed up, he yelled louder.

"Do you think he's really a robot?" McHugh asked. "Or possessed by an alien, like in that movie The Faculty?"

"He is pissed," Sanders said. "If we don't figure out a way to turn this around-"

"We don't need fifteen minutes for that," Ellison interrupted. "We don't need fifteen seconds. All we need to decide
is who's going to take Salkow out back and put him out of his misery." "Shut up," Marcus muttered, eyes on his
feet.

"The man speaks the truth," McHugh bellowed, looping his arm around Ellison's shoulders. "And the truth cannot
be silenced."

No one laughed. The thing was, Ellison was right. Marcus had been messing up since the first play of the game. It
was like somebody had opened up the guy's brain and fried every part that knew anything about football. They'd
removed some muscles from his hands, too. Or that's the way it had looked out there from the number of times
Marcus had dropped the ball.

"What was going on with you?" Sanders asked Marcus.

"Nothing, all right? You worry about yourself, Sanders," Marcus snapped. "Like none of the rest of you have ever
messed up," he muttered as he stalked toward the Gatorade cooler. He grabbed abottle and chugged it without
returning to the group.

"Maybe he's on the rag," McHugh suggested. He got a few guilty-sounding laughs with that one.

Anthony expected one of the guys to go over and talk to Marcus. But no one made a move. Okay, so I guess it'll be
me, Anthony thought. And why the hell not? I'm the guy's friggin' Dear Abby. He grabbed a towel off the closest
bench and wiped some of the sweat out of his hair as he made his way over to the cooler. He grabbed an orange-flavored Gatorade and took a swig. Because he had no idea what to say. He had no idea why he'd even thought that
he should attempt to say something.

"I know you said I should give Rae time," Marcus burst out. Crap, Anthony thought. Rae again. Crap.

"But I couldn't just wait around, doing nothing," Marcus continued.

Anthony squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "What did you do?" he asked.

"I made a list of all this stuff about her. A stuff-I-love-about-Rae list," Marcus answered. "A girl should die for
something like that, right? I mean, Dori would have-"

"You didn't start going out with another girl while Dori was in the hospital," Anthony cut in. Heknew he was
supposed to be helping Marcus get back into game head, not busting his chops, but the words had come out flying
out of his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Marcus mumbled. "But the list. You should have seen it. It was three pages long. And it had
everything on it. Like how she used to call me nuggle bunny, which came from snuggle bunny, which she thought
up one night when-"

"I get it," Anthony said, cutting him off and taking another long swallow of his Gatorade to wash the bitter taste out
of his throat. "So what was the upshot? What'd she say when you gave it to her?"

Marcus shook his head. "She said she wasn't ready to get back together. That's it. But the way she said it, it was,
like, I don't know, like she'd already decided it was never going to happen."

Cords of heat shot from his belly up and down his body, like he was having an internal power surge. What, you
think because Rae doesn't want Marcus today that means something? Anthony asked himself. Yana told you that
she's still in love with him, remember? The girl is obviously just getting a little payback. And good for her. Marcus
deserved to be tortured for a while.

Anthony glanced over to where the other guys were huddled. Time to get back on track. "So, theRae thing, is that
why you're having trouble… concentrating out there?"

"I guess." Marcus dropped back his head and sighed. "It's like I keep thinking there's something I can do to make
her change her mind right now."

"I already told you what I thought," Anthony answered. "You've gotta prove yourself to her. And that could take a
while." He forced himself to go on. "But it'll happen. I, uh, heard one of her friends saying that she's not over you."

Marcus's head snapped up. "Really? Who said it?"

Anthony felt like he'd eaten an ice cream cone too fast. There was this cold pain building behind his eyes. He
ignored it and gave a shrug. "I don't know her name. But the girl sounded like she knew Rae pretty well."

"You're sure you heard her right?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah. So you think you can pull your head out now and get us through the rest of the game?" Anthony asked.

Marcus smiled. A ridiculously big smile. "I think I can manage that. Now that I know I've still got a chance with Rae."

Why'd you even doubt you would get what you want? Anthony wondered. Don't you know guys like you always
do?

***

"So, you think the guy who kidnapped me is the same guy who killed this girl's mother?" Jesse asked Rae as they
headed down Mandy Reese's street. "And also the same guy who tried to off you?"

"Yeah. I'm not absolutely sure, but yeah," Rae told him.

Jesse nodded. Rae could see the muscles in his throat working. "What are we going to do when we find him?" he
asked.

"Turn him over to the police, I guess," Rae said. She couldn't believe she'd never thought about that. "All I care
about is that he's kept far away from all of us."

"Better ways of doing that," Jesse muttered. His eyes seemed to be made of blue steel, and for that instant he
looked… inhuman.

"Let's worry about finding him for now," Rae said.

Maybe I shouldn't have brought him here, she thought. I could have figured out a way to distract Mandy on my
own. She shot another look at Jesse. He really looks like he could… God, like he's prepared to kill someone. I
should have left him out of this. It's not good for him.

Too late now, she told herself. And she had to admit it felt good to have someone on her side again.

Especially considering what she was about to do. It had seemed so obvious when the thought struck her this
morning-the fact that there was another way to learn more about Amanda Reese's murder. Mandy had told her and
Yana that the car her mother was carjacked in was back at her house, sitting in the garage and never used
anymore. Which meant it probably had some prints on it-possibly prints that could give Rae a clue about Amanda
Reese's killer. Still, the prospect of getting up close and personal with the car Amanda had been in before she was…

Well, it wasn't something Rae was looking forward to.

"Mandy's is that yellow house up there," Rae said, pointing it out to Jesse. She picked up her pace, almost trotting
when she swung up Mandy's front walk. "You ready?" she asked him when they reached the door.

Jesse snorted. Rae took that as a yes and rang the bell. Mandy answered so quickly that Rae suspected she'd
been standing a foot away, waiting for them. "Thanks for letting me come over again," Rae said. "I was wondering if
I could see that group picture with my mom in it again. I don't have that many of her." It wasn't true, but it pretty
much guaranteed Mandy's cooperation.

"Sure. Um, who's that?" Mandy jerked her chin toward Jesse.

"Oops. And my dad actually did force me to go to charm school when I was, like, eight. He was worried that I'd
miss out on critical mom socializing, I think." Rae gave a polite smile. "Mandy, I'd like you to meet Jesse. Jesse likes
skateboarding and comic books. And Jesse, this is Mandy. Mandy, well, honestly, I don't know. Mandy, what do you
like?"

"Well, um, I, God, I can't think of anything." Rae noticed that Mandy kept shooting Jesse these little looks. He is a
cutie, she realized. She'd never thought about how a girl Jesse's age would see him.

"Doesn't matter," Jesse told Mandy. "Rae's being an idiot."

Thank you, Jesse, Rae thought. But she couldn't get even a little irritation going because she could see that Jesse
was shooting little looks right back at Mandy. Wonder when she'll realize she hasn't asked us in.

"Oh!" Mandy said about three seconds later. She backed up into the door, gave another "oh!" and managed to
usher Rae and Jesse into the house. "I'll go get that picture. You guys wait in the living room."

Rae wondered what Jesse would think of Mandy if he could see her bedroom. It was even more of a mess than
his. He probably wouldn't care. Unless he thought of girls as a whole separate species and wasshocked that one
actually lived surrounded by pizza boxes and dirty socks. "Aren't you going to go?" Jesse whispered to Rae.

"Yeah. Of course. You just tell Mandy I'm in the bathroom and keep her talking until I get back," Rae answered. She
headed down the hall, slowing down when she caught sight of the kitchen. She inched inside and took a peek.

Empty. Good. She didn't want to deal with Mandy's sister, if she was even home.

Now, there's the door that I'm hoping goes to the garage, Rae thought as she hurried to the door she spotted next
to the fridge. She pulled it open. Cool, musty air hit her face, and she shivered. On the other side of the garage she
could see what she assumed was the car, the car Mandy's mother had been driving the day she died. It was covered
in a tarp, and Rae couldn't help thinking it looked like a ghost. She hesitated, not wanting to get close to it. It's just a
car, she told herself. Yeah, a part of her answered. Just a car where somebody died.

"She didn't die in the car," Rae whispered to herself as she forced her feet to start moving across the garage.

"They pulled her out." When she reached the car, she whipped off the tarp without hesitating. She didn't want to
give herself time to get more creeped out.

Now get in, she ordered herself. Her body didn't obey. Instead Rae carefully folded the tarp, making sure all the
edges were even. Okay, now get in, she ordered herself again. But her body didn't move. You've got to do this.

Mandy's going to be back any That thought got her moving. She gently ran her fingers over the door handle,
picking up a burst of static. She couldn't make out a single word. A lot of people touched this car after the accident,
she thought. But there's got to be something left.