Dead Ringers 1: Illusion (7 page)

“But then, she’s never been dumped before,” Maia adds.

“I thought you said Hunter and Adair were taking a break.”

“Taking a break is what guys say when they don’t want their girlfriend to go ballistic because they’re dumping her.” Maia wrinkles her nose. “Why are you so interested in Adair anyway? Are you still hung up on Hunter?”

Like I’m going to admit that to the Mouth of Midway Beach.

“Of course not.” Time to switch subjects. “How long is your break, anyway? Don’t you need to be getting back?”

She pulls out her cell phone and checks the time. “Shit! I’m outta here.”

She takes off running in the direction of the arcade, weaving her way through the sparse crowd. At this time of the late afternoon, people are still enjoying the sun and the sand and the ocean. Business won’t pick up until after dinner time.

I wipe down another miniature motorcycle, spending extra time on the rubber horn. When I straighten, I glimpse a flash of turquoise through the Fun Slide and the Dragon Wagon.

The same shade as my mother’s suit.

“Son of a bitch.” I jog toward the entrance to Kiddie Land and spot the woman in turquoise walking briskly away from the carnival. This time I’m not imagining things. Even from behind, I can tell it’s my mother.

If she truly believes I might be schizophrenic, why is she keeping tabs on me? Could it be that I was right in the first place? That she thinks her enemies might now be mine? Of course, Mom never had any enemies. I’m the only one who does.

The blood rushes from my head when I realize how irrational that sounds. I walk over to the motorcycle ride on wobbly legs, sink into the stool beside it and lower my head beneath my heart. Mom isn’t the only one who thinks something is wrong with me. After I lost the forty-eight hours, Aunt Carol made an appointment for me to see a psychiatrist but I refused to go.

There’s nothing wrong with me
, I insisted. The same thing I said to my mother when she advanced the theory that I could be taking after her.

“Hey, Jade,” Becky calls. “Are you okay?”

I make my lips curve upward and lift my head, intending to tell her I’m fine. The words never make it past my lips. Walking alongside Becky is a guy with black hair and pale skin who’s wearing the orange T-shirt of a carnival worker.

Not just any guy. The guy from the coastal forest.

“You don’t look so great,” Becky says. “Want me to get you some water or something?”

It’s too much of a coincidence that the dark-haired stranger who was skulking around the coastal forest one day turns up at the Midway Beach carnival the next. From the half-grin on his face, he knows that.

“No, I’m good.” I struggle to appear normal. “Just resting up before the rush.”

“Okay.” Becky isn’t convinced, but she won’t call me out in front of a stranger. “Jade, this is Max Harper. He’s gonna be on rides. I’m showing him the ropes. Max, this is Jade.”

In the daylight, he looks even better than he did last night in the gloom. His body is lean but surprisingly muscular. His black hair is thick, his cheekbones sharp and his eyes a clear blue. His nose isn’t quite as perfect as Hunter Prescott’s but his mouth would be better if not for his smirk.

Max Harper’s blue, blue eyes meet mine and dance. “Nice to meet you, Jade.”

So that’s how we’re going to play this. “I’m surprised I haven’t seen you before. Are you from around here?”

“Nope. Came here for the job.”

A job that pays minimum wage. Like that makes sense. “Where are you staying?”

“I got me a place.”

Not many people our age have enough money to rent something while making so little. “With a roommate or by yourself?”

“By myself.”

“Where is it?’

Becky laughs uncomfortably. “What is this, Jade? Twenty questions. Give the guy a break.”

Max winks at me, the same way he’d winked when I drove away from the cabin in the forest before he’d blown me that kiss. “If you’d like, you can come over sometime and see it yourself.”

I meet his gaze. “I would like.”

“Great.” His smile, not a half-grin this time, lights up his face. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

“You be sure to do that.”

Behind Max’s back, Becky lifts her hands and raises her eyebrows in the time-old gesture to indicate she doesn’t know what’s going on.

Neither do I, but I intend to find out.

By the next night, I’m sick of hearing about how hot the new guy is. It’d be different if somebody had the scoop on him. His eyes resembling the color of the Caribbean doesn’t count.

“Can we talk about something besides Max Harper, Becks?”

The carnival’s closed for the night, and we’re walking along the boardwalk headed for a party taking place under the pier. Once or twice a week, word spreads like a zombie infestation that the gang is gathering. Maia’s usually the one announcing the news. Today, I heard it from everybody except Maia, but that could be because she remembered she was mad at me.

“How about that Black Widow?” Becky asks.

Constance Hightower didn’t show up for a court appearance this morning in Wilmington. Speculation is rampant that she’s run off with what money of Boris’s she can get her hands on. The media is reporting the children of the late, lamented Boris Hightower are furious that Constance was let out on bail. They’re afraid she’ll get away with murder.

“I’m sick of hearing about her, too.”

“Okay, then let’s go back to Max. I’m still trying to figure out why you invited yourself over to his place when you’d barely met the guy?”

“I already told you, I want to see what he can afford on our measly salary.”

“Because you’re thinking of moving out of your house?”

“That’s right.”

“I don’t buy it.” She has to take three steps to my two to keep up with me. “Living with your mom sucks but you won’t have the money to move out while you’re going to community college.”

“Who says I’m going?”

“You’ve gotta go,” Becky wails. “If your grades are good enough, after two years you can transfer to UNC and we can still be roommates.”

Becky had been accepted to UNC less than a week after I’d been offered the scholarship. We’d sent in our applications for housing at the same time, requesting each other as roommates. For a solid week, we’d planned how to decorate our dorm room, right down to the horror movie posters on the wall.

All our plans had blown up when senior year grades came out and UNC took back my scholarship and with it my future.

“Let’s not talk about college,” I say.

“Okay. We’ll discuss college later. After we finish talking about Max.”

“We weren’t talking about Max.
You
were. I think we should talk about Porter McRoy. Any progress on that front?”

“None. Talk about shy. I can barely get a word out of him. No wonder I didn’t notice how cute he was until senior year.”

“Maybe he’ll be at the party.”

She noisily blows out a stream of air. “And maybe one of the helicopters on that ride in Kiddie Land will take off and fly.”

“You might have to ask him out.”

“Possibly. But it would mean so much more if he asked me.” Becky bumps my shoulder playfully. “Isn’t that what you’re hoping will happen tonight with Max?”

Since Becky introduced us yesterday, our paths haven’t intersected. Somehow Becky’s figured out the main reason I suggested going to the party under the pier is that I heard Max would be there. It’s not exactly a lie to confirm I’d like some one-on-one time with him.

“Okay. Yeah.”

“I knew it!” Becky exclaims. “Was it really so hard to admit you’re hot for him?”

Becky almost never tries to pry things out of me. Because I tell her everything, there’s no need. I’d like to spill about Max lurking in the forest, but something holds me back.

“This is so great.” Becky claps. “So you’re over Hunter?”

This, I couldn’t mislead her about. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Max is just as good-looking as Hunter, and he’s never gone out with Adair,” she points out.

Max is talking to Adair when we arrive, though. It’s low tide and the two of them are standing in the sand beside a pillar amid a dozen or so teenagers, her blonde head cocked toward his dark one. In the forest, Max claimed he didn’t know Adair. Yet it doesn’t look as though they’re strangers.

Some of our friends are drinking beer, but I’m not even tempted. Why waste calories on something that’s both illegal and bitter tasting? Becky’s driving. She snags us a couple Diet Cokes.

“Let’s make sure Adair doesn’t get your man before you do.” She grabs me by the hand and heads straight for Adair and Max. I hear pieces of conversations as we weave through the crowd, most of them about the missing Black Widow. Becky turns back to me when we’re halfway there with a mischievous smile on her face. “Watch this.”

Her meaning becomes clear pretty quick.

“Hey, Max, Adair.” Becky doesn’t let go of my hand until we’re standing in front of them. “I’ve been looking all over for Hunter. Have either of you seen him?”

“I don’t even know who Hunter is,” Max says, answering Becky but keeping his eyes glued on me. A corner of his mouth elevates.

“Adair’s boyfriend,” Becky says. “Do you know where he is, Adair?”

Adair’s smile looks frozen. “No clue.”

“So it’s true you two are taking a break?” Becky asks. “I’d heard that but I didn’t know whether to believe it.”

“It’s true,” Adair says, still in a voice that sounds dipped in sugar.

“What kind of a break?” Becky asks. “I mean, are you seeing other people?”

“Why do you need to know that?” Finally. The sugar’s dissolving.

“
I
don’t need to know, but Max might.”

He laughs, a rich sound that rumbles like the ocean waves. “Nothing’s going on between Adair and me. Right, Adair?”

“Right,” Adair says. What other response can she give? “Jade, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Before I can say anything, Adair grabs me by the upper arm and guides me away from Max and Becky. She gives me the evil eye from her lofty height.

“You’re not fooling me, bitch,” she bites out. “I know you put your little friend Becky up to that.”

“Up to what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You must have your eye on Max yourself.” She laughs. “Poor pathetic Jade. Go for it. But know this. If I want Max, I can have him. Just like I have Hunter.”

“Had.” I can’t keep quiet when she gave me an opening a giant mutant bug could walk through. “You
had
Hunter.”

“We’ll see about that.” She spins away from me and stalks off, sand kicking up behind her.

Nothing is left for me to do but return to Max and Becky. As soon as I join them, Becky looks pointedly around. “I see someone I need to talk to. Catch you later.”

She leaves us alone in what has to count as one of the most manufactured exits of all time.

“What was that about?” Max asks.

“She thinks I’ve got a thing for you.”

The second corner of his mouth lifts to join the first in a full-fledged smile. “I like the sound of that.”

“Don’t get excited. It’s not true. I only wanted to get you alone.”

He sidles closer to me. “You can have me anywhere you want me.”

I move back. “To talk. About what a coincidence it is that you turn up in Midway Beach a day after we run into each other in the coastal forest.”

“I told you I was on the way to my summer job.”

“Next you’ll say you just happened to run into Adair, the very girl whose father owns the property where you were trespassing.”

“That is a coincidence.” His expression doesn’t change.

“What were you doing out there, Max? If Max is your real name.”

He, too, is drinking Coke. But full-flavored, not diet. He takes a long swallow before he answers. “I don’t get why you’re so suspicious.” He pauses. “Unless it has something to do with what happened to you last winter.”

“How do you know about that?” My tone is sharp.

“I’ve been working the carnival for two days. People talk.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear.”

“I don’t,” he says. “So why don’t you tell me yourself what happened?”

I look around. More people are arriving by the moment. Many of them are within hearing range. Across the party, Becky catches my eye and gives me two thumbs up.

“Not here,” he says. “Let’s walk on the beach.”

I should know better than to go off with a stranger I don’t trust. This is the part of the movie where I’m declaring the heroine too stupid to live and throwing popcorn at the screen.

“C’mon.” He cocks his head toward the ocean. “You tell me your story, I’ll tell you mine.”

It’s too tempting to resist. “Let me tell Becky where I’m going.”