“Because she was fucked up,” Lacey said. Then shot her a look. “Sorry.”

Izzy dismissed the apology. “You think it was a pact. You think they killed themselves.”

Lacey hugged herself, huffed out a breath. “I mean, they talked about some weird stuff. Whenever we were drinking. Or the boys were getting high.”

“Weird stuff like what?”

“Death? But also living forever. Monroe spent too much time around the artists. She just talked that way to sound cool to them,” Lacey said, and Izzy refrained from pointing out that Lacey was now part of that group, her look complete with dark clothing, pale skin, and an asymmetrical bob. “I think Asher and Mia took her too seriously, though. They kind of wound each other up or something.”

“But not Cash?”

Lacey smiled, that same one that she’d been wearing earlier while looking at the kid’s chubby cheeks. “He’s always been the sensible one.”

Which is how Izzy would have described Mia before this. “Quiet” was the first word that came to mind. But “sensible” was right up there, too. She couldn’t align that woman with the one Lacey was describing. But what did Izzy know?

“Mia seems good now,” Lacey said as if Izzy had spoken her thoughts out loud. It was jarring. “More stable.”

Which was an odd thing to say. Izzy lifted her brows, and Lacey flushed pink. “Not that she wasn’t . . .”

Izzy waited, but Lacey seemed to be done. She debated telling the woman about heading to the mainland, giving Lacey her cell in case anything cropped up while she was gone. But the last time someone tried to leave after they’d been poking around, they’d ended up dead. The fewer people who knew her plans the better.

Just as Izzy stood up, Lacey’s hand shot out, quick like a snake, her fingers wrapping around Izzy’s wrist.

When Izzy turned back, Lacey’s eyes were pleading. “I hope I didn’t make you think anything bad about Mia. We were all just . . .” She shrugged. “Young.”

In that moment, something from one of Izzy’s nights at the bar came back to her. Patty Masterson, talking about Cash and Mia. Lacey’s probably not too happy about Mia being back. It had barely stuck with Izzy at the time; there had been too much other information that needed sorting. But it was there, wedged in beside every other odd thing that had happened in the past few days.

Izzy shook her head. “You didn’t make me think anything.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MIA

Mia found Cash in the middle of the room, surrounded by people who weren’t talking to him. His head was bowed as he stared at the watery white dip and carrots someone must have shoved into his hands. When he looked up, they locked eyes above the chaos that pulsed through the house.