The answer churns in my stomach, sending up a wave of nausea that makes my mouth water. I stare out the window and try not to throw up while the conversation moves on to the progress Micah and his team have been making—very little. Not a stitch of evidence, no sign of anything that would have been on her when she slid into the water. Her cell phone, maybe, or her jewelry.

“A pair of gold hoops, a pearl bracelet, a watch and her grandma’s diamond-and-ruby ring,” Micah says, “all of which are pretty much impossible to find in a lake the size of Lake Crosby. Don’t go spreading that around town, by the way. Dad’s trying to keep the list of jewelry quiet.”

“You can’t honestly think you’re going to find her jewelry in the lake,” Diana says, filling a glass at the sink. “The killer would have to be a real idiot to put it in the same place he dumped her body.”

Micah’s phone beeps, a muffled sound from deep inside a denim pocket. He fishes it out and checks the screen. “Looks like the guys have picked up something. Keep the doors locked and the alarm on, and don’t even think of stepping outside without backup. If Jax is desperate enough, we all know where he’ll end up.”

Micah disappears out the back door, and a tingling starts on the top of my head. It spreads down my scalp, ringing in my ears with the one word he didn’t say.

Here. Jax will end up here.

28

Buddy’s BBQ is little more than an ancient, rusted-out trailer shoved to the back of a clearing, but like most every night, the place is hopping. Packed with throngs of diners standing in clumps around the counter, spilling down its rickety deck. Cars are parked every which way on a stretch of trampled-down dirt, a field that’s more weeds than grass and scattered with picnic tables. On the opposite end, a giant smoker burps smoke into the nighttime sky.

Paul leans into the windshield. “Are you sure about this place? It looks kind of...unhygienic.”

They’re the first words he’s said since leaving the house, not that I’ve said much, either. I’m still worried about Chet, still pissed at Paul for sneaking out this morning and staying away all day, still confused about whatever had Jax and Paul looking for each other around the time a woman was murdered.

And I can’t shake that feeling, that cold and oily wave that went through me when I thought Sienna was here because of Katherine, because of Paul. I can’t just scrub those suspicions away. They hold power now, simply by the act of thinking them. Even if I don’t believe them anymore, what does it say about me that I did? What does it say about my marriage?