“My mother? Richards thinks my mother might have been drugging me.” I thought back to all the lazy afternoons in middle school when all I could do was lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling. Or the nights when my belly had hurt so bad. Images of the blue pills clutched in Clare’s hand flashed. “Did Brit continue this sick practice? Did she get the pills she gave me from you?”

His jaw tightened, drawing the cords in his neck tighter and flexing the tail end of a snake tattoo. “Brit and I always helped each other out.”

“I’ll just bet. It was no accident that you gave me a strong dose the night we had sex.”

He raised a brow. “You wanted it. I didn’t have to ask twice. Besides, I thought if you relaxed, you’d have more fun.”

I’d been so out of it that I had never questioned his sexual advances. “Does Jo-Jo know you’re here?”

“I told her I’d take care of you. I told her not to worry. She knows I’m good at taking care of everything. She doesn’t ask too many questions. That’s why we get along so well.”

Had Jo-Jo shown me the camera because she wanted to help or because she knew I’d suspect David? What did she know about Jack that she’d failed to disclose? Jack’s DNA didn’t match Clare’s baby. But as Richards said, the baby daddy might not have killed Clare.

“You look upset. You don’t need to be,” Jack said. “We’re old friends, right?”

“Did you kill Clare?” I pressed.

“No. I didn’t hurt Clare.” He traced the wet rim of a shot glass. “I was with you the night she died, remember?”

“No, I don’t remember. You gave me enough to knock me out all night.”

His brow furrowed. “That was a mistake. I just wanted you to relax.”

“There were at least six unaccounted hours. Plenty of time for you to drive to Jo-Jo’s party and kill Clare.”

“I didn’t go to the party. And I didn’t kill Clare.”

“Where did you go while I was passed out?” I calculated the distance to the door behind me. Or if I screamed, would someone on the floor below hear me? The cameras in my apartment weren’t recording, and there was no alarm system to trigger. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“First, I need us both to take a shot for Clare.”

He might have lured me with drugs once, but not again. I wasn’t that stupid, desperate kid anymore. “I’m not fucking drinking it.”

His eyes darkening, he held up a glass and gently swirled it. “You want to drink it. I know that beast inside of you is growling with thirst.”