Read When a Secret Kills for Free Online

took a deep breath. “Thank you. Now,” he cleared his throat and opened his eyes, “could you please tell me about graduation night?”
    She nodded, glad to move past that difficult topic. Not that this next one was going to be any easier. “All right. I went looking for you that night, but you weren’t in the gazebo.”
    His features softened a fraction. “I was having a hard time getting away from my dad. He wanted me to go to that party at Uncle Frank’s and I had no interest in it.”
    “I know. When you didn’t show up at the gazebo, I thought maybe you’d decided to go after all.”
    “No.” He looked away and sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “I was about thirty minutes late getting there.”
    “When you didn’t come, I wasn’t sure what to do.” She gave a shake of her head. “It was one of the few times I wished I’d let you buy me a cell phone.”
    He studied her. “You were pretty stubborn about not taking much of anything from me.”
    She set her jaw and stared at him. “You know why.”
    “You didn’t want me to think you were interested in me because of my family’s money.” He paused as his features softened. For a moment he reminded her of the boy she’d fallen in love with. He nodded. “I knew that. I never saw greed in your eyes.”
    His words shocked her. They were true, she just hadn’t expected him to say it. “Well . . .”
    The hardness returned. “Anyway, after you saw I wasn’t there, what did you do?”
    “I thought about just going on to the graduation dance, but I really wanted to find you. I needed to . . . I was—” She broke off and swallowed hard. She wasn’t ready to tell him why she’d been so desperate to see him that night. “It was a pretty night, so I started walking and found a pay phone. When you didn’t answer your cell phone, I called as many people as I could, but no one had seen you.” Colton had been in her graduating class and they had been planning to skip out on the graduation party to spend time alone.
    “I didn’t have my cell phone with me anymore,” he murmured. “My dad threatened to cut me off if I didn’t start doing things his way, told me I’d have to make it on my own. I pulled the phone and my car keys from my pocket and threw them at him. Told him I didn’t need him or his money. And then I went to find you.”
    “Only I had left by the time you got there.”
    “I figured that’s what happened. I thought maybe you went on to the dance so I went over to the gym, but you weren’t there either.”
    She shook her head. “I didn’t get there until later, like ten o’clock.”
    “Why?”
    “Because,” she drew in a shuddering breath, “I went to your uncle’s house. I wondered if you’d decided to go to the party after all, so I went home and got my mom’s car and drove over there.”
    “I never went to Uncle Frank’s house that night.”
    Jillian looked down at her hands. “And I wish I hadn’t.”
    “Tell me.”
    His simple command somehow made it easier to go back in her mind, to voice the details she’d never forgotten yet never spoken about. “When I got there, it was loud. I could hear the band playing, the people talking. I looked everywhere for you.”
    He lifted a brow. “How did you get past security?”
    “It was easy. I was already dressed for the graduation party.” She shrugged. “People were parking on the curb and checking in at the gate. I simply followed along behind a couple. The guard took me for their daughter.”
    “Huh. Uncle Frank wouldn’t be too happy to hear about that.”
    “Once I was inside, I started looking for you. Even snuck into the private sections of the house. When I realized you weren’t there, I went out to the pond to sit and think about what to do next. People started leaving, but I waited because your parents hadn’t left yet and I hoped you would show up eventually.”
    “I was out looking for you. It never occurred to me to check that