Rushed (The Rushed Series) (26 page)

He snorted. "Yeah. My parents would love you. You're just their type."

"Judging by your tone, I'm not sure I should be flattered by that," I said.

He grinned. "They
usually
have pretty good taste." He paused. "Except about Jordan. They think she's not in my league—not connected enough, wealthy enough, pretty enough. But damn, she's funny and she makes me happy. I should tell them to screw it. I will when I graduate. Until then…"

"You should!" I said, dreaming about doing the same thing.
 

He stared ahead like he was looking at nothing, his face a mask. "Jordan Facebook stalked you. She doesn't like you. Says you're too hot. Too perfect and too perfectly sorority."
 

"That's too bad," I said. "I was going to propose being your decoy girlfriend. Guess she wouldn't go for that."

He turned and focuses on me. "Seriously?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

His eyes narrowed. "You need a decoy boyfriend, don't you? To keep Zach a secret."

Dakota knew the consequences of Zach and me being together better than anyone. I didn't even need to throw my mom's disapproval into the mix. With the way he was able to reach Zach, he could be either our strongest ally or our worst enemy. He'd already guessed at how Zach and I felt about each other. He could blow the whistle on our whole relationship.

I pursed my lips as I weighed all that. Finally I decided to go for broke. What did I have to lose? I could deny anything. "Would that affect our fake relationship?"

His gaze remained steady. "No. I owe Zach one."

He didn't elaborate.

"So we could do this?" I said. "Hang out at the necessary functions, flirt at football practice, and fool everyone so we could have real relationships with someone else?"

He nodded. "We'll be the it couple of the season."
 

"You can convince Jordan?"

"She'll see the light when I tell her how you feel about me and Zach and why you're doing it. She'll be happier knowing I'm not leading you on and you're doing the same thing I am." He paused. "You think Zach is going to buy into it?"

I honestly didn't know. "Yeah. When he sees the merits of our evil plan."

I expected Dakota to grin at my humor. Instead, his expression remained serious, "Alexis, just one thing. I wasn't bullshitting when I warned you about Zach. I didn't have an agenda except to protect you. Zach is dealing with some serious shit. It's not the kind of thing that will just go away."

I hesitated, wondering if I'd missed something about Zach. Wondering how much to say. "He's told me about…things."

"Everything?" Dakota perked up.

"How would I know?" I was putting Dakota on the spot, but I had to ask. "Do Zach's parents really hate him as much as he says?"

He snorted again. "You obviously haven't met them." He took another swig of beer. "Yeah, they do. If anything, he underplays it."

My mouth fell open. It wasn't like I didn't believe Zach. But I'd been hoping he was mistaken. "Why?"

Dakota just stared at me.

"Come on!" I begged. "I need to know. I have the feeling you do."

He stared ahead without focusing. "He should be the one to tell you. I lost the best friend I ever had because I spilled his secret once. Damn, I miss him sometimes."

I swallowed hard, touched by his show of raw emotion. Sad that things had ended badly between them. "Would you like to be friends with him again?"

Dakota focused on me and smiled sadly. "Yeah. Like it's going to happen. Maybe when hell freezes over."

"We could try. I could help." I was getting in deep, maybe too deep. "But I have to know what I'm dealing with."

That sparked something in Dakota, like he was thinking about it. "Part of it's my story to tell. No one can blame me for that." He paused when he realized he was talking out loud. "
If
I tell you, you can't let him know you know." He frowned. "He'll figure out how you found out."

"I won't tell him. I promise!"
 

"Promises can be broken. Take it from me." His frown deepened and he looked deep in thought. "You're friends with Sarah, aren't you?"

I nodded.

"Ah, shit. If she ever remembered what she actually saw at the party that night, she could tell you." He looked like he was waging battle with his conscience.
 

I didn't tell him she already had. But it made no sense to me.

Finally, he sighed. "I'm only telling you this because you seem like you really care about Zach."

"I love him!" I blurted without thinking.

He studied me like he was trying to determine if I really meant it. "Then you should know before you get in deeper." He paused again while I waited, holding my breath. He took a deep breath. "He killed his little sister."

Chapter Sixteen

Alexis

I gasped like the air had been knocked out of me. Suddenly what Sarah had told me about the fight between Zach and Dakota made perfect, terrible sense.

"What? No! How?" I felt sick, wishing I could take back the question. Not believing it, but the look on Dakota's face was so earnest and all the evidence pointed to it being true.

He nodded like he didn't like thinking about it either. "Yeah. Backed over her with the car."

I started trembling. Trying to picture the date of her death on his arm. And the angel. He said he didn't remember her. But if he'd hit her with a car, he had to be old enough to drive…

Dakota set his beer down and covered my hand with his. "When he was three and she was, like, one and a half."

"What?" The horrible images in my mind skidded to a stop, replaced with something worse. "How could a three-year-old—"

Dakota squeezed my hand. "You're icy cold." His touch was warm and reassuring. "Tragic accident. He doesn't even remember causing it. Shit, he doesn't remember his sister, and that kills him. Everything he's missed not having a sister. Everything she missed. Everything that got fucked up because of it.
 

"If you ask me, that's why he loves the house. It's full of sisters. Then you came along. And he doesn't love you like a sister, sister."

My eyes filled with tears. I swallowed against a lump in my throat that wouldn't go away. I felt like crap for upsetting Zach's world. I was asking him to give up too much for me.

"He needs someone to love him," Dakota said. "Unconditionally."

I looked at Dakota through my tears. "Did he tell you any more?"

Dakota's eyes shone with sympathy. "He doesn't remember much. Just vague snatches of images and emotions. His mom crying and screaming at him. Being in big trouble. Incredible sadness. And sirens.

"His bitch of a mom claims she left the kids buckled in their car seats in the car in the garage while she carried groceries into the house. Somehow Zach got out of his seat. He apparently knew how. His mom said he must have let his little sister out of her seat, too. That she didn't know how to do it herself. And opened the car door for her because she was too little to do it." He sighed. "Nice of that bitch to lay a guilt trip on him. She has no clue what really happened. No one does."

He paused. "Zach's mom said he was fascinated with driving. He must have gotten into the driver's seat while his little sister was playing behind the car. Somehow he knocked the car into gear and backed over her.

"His mom found him sitting in the driver's seat, pulling the handbrake, and crying for help. His sister was crushed beneath the back tire. They lifebirded her. But she was dead before she arrived at the hospital."

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" I just kept saying it over and over as wave after wave of horrifying images crashed through my mind. It was easy to see why Zach couldn't live with himself. Why he thought about killing himself. Why he wouldn't forgive Dakota.

Dakota put his arm around me. "His mom never forgave him. His parents blamed each other and divorced. They each moved separately to Seattle from Yakima, remarried, and hushed the whole thing up. They never even brought her up. It's like she never existed. That's crappy, too. Another reason for Zach to feel guilty.

"The idea was to protect Zach from the stigma of the tragedy. I was the only person he ever told. And I threw it up at him in a drunken rage at a party shortly after graduation." Dakota swallowed hard. "I was jealous and tired of always playing second to him." He hung his head and pulled his hand back from mine.
 

"Accusing him of killing his sister to get attention was the shittiest thing I've ever done." He paused. "Now you know why he won't forgive me. Still think you can help? Still want to be my decoy girlfriend?"

I grabbed his hand, feeling both their pain and hating Zach's parents. "
Yes
. More than ever." I had to ask the question. "Is the guilt over his sister's death why he almost killed himself?"

Zach

I waited for Alexis in the shadows on the corner, watching as Dak walked her to the end of the sidewalk and she waved goodbye. Hating that I had to be that guy, the one in the shadows.

Something had changed between them, relaxed, like they were suddenly friends. I saw it in the way Alexis waved exuberantly and her casual, happy posture. Deep in my gut, jealousy burned. Not the kind you would expect. Not like I imagined Alexis had shifted her love to Dak. I felt excluded. And frustrated that the only two people I'd ever trusted had suddenly become tight. I was on the outside. Estranged from one. Desperate not to lose the other.
 

I balled my hands, wanting to slam them into something, preferably Dak's face. Why had I talked Alexis into going to the date dash with him? I was a victim of my own logic. In trying to solve one problem, I'd created another. My damn mistake. In the years we'd been in college, I'd made Dak a cardboard villain and forgotten how charming he could be.

Alexis ran down the sidewalk to me where I waited next to a clump of bushes. When she saw me, she broke into a smile and ran all out, like she couldn't wait to throw herself into my arms. Ran like an athlete—with perfect form, grace in motion, arms pumping, strides long, hair blowing, breasts bouncing. Damn. Breasts bouncing. I got hot just watching those two scoops of perfection.

She ran to
me
. She was mine. Not Dak's.
Mine
. My love for her burned hot and bright. Damned if I could control it. Damned if I wanted to. I opened my arms for her. She slammed into me with so much enthusiasm she nearly toppled me, and her with me, into the thorny barberry bushes behind me.
 

I caught her, and myself, just in time. "Whoa there, QB!"

"Hey to you, too!" She wrapped her arms around me and lifted her face for a kiss.

My breath caught. Even in shadow, she was so damn beautiful. Love sparkled in her eyes. As corny as it sounded, I was the luckiest guy alive. I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her off the ground so her feet dangled.

She laughed and bent her knees so her feet hit that awesome ass of hers. "Am I glad to see you!"
 

Before I could reply, she dropped her legs and climbed me like a stripper pole, pausing to rub against the bulge in my jeans that had grown hard and pulsing. "Someone's happy to see me, too!" She wrapped her legs around my waist and cupped my face in her hands, stroking my cheeks in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

I grabbed her butt, desperate for her. Wanting every part of her, body and soul. "Likewise."
 

I didn't hide the hoarse desire in my voice as I pressed my lips to hers, knowing we could be caught any minute. Half the Double Deltsies were at the Tau Psi party she'd come from and could walk by without warning. The danger of getting caught fueled the thrill.

She tasted like cinnamon breath mints and smelled like tainted perfume. If those scents hadn't been such a turnoff, I would have lost control right there. I cursed myself for suggesting she imitate Jordan. Too many unpleasant memories.

She kissed me back, openmouthed and eager. I was consumed with thoughts of making love to her. Horny for her. "Another kiss like that and I'm going to take you right here in the bushes."
 

"Promises, promises." Her laughter turned to a frown and a pout. "I wish one of us had our own place. Somewhere safe and private we could go…" She ran her hand through my hair.