The Jealousy Game novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Rule Three

I told Brett no to dinner and yes to nothing.

Sorry, I wrote. I'm wrecked. Tomorrow, before the party. Bring it then.

He answered with a thumbs-up, the same one he had put on every text to Dean.

At seven that evening I was crouched behind the hull in Casper's shed, with Dean's shoulder against mine.

His phone was held low between us, recording.

The red dot on the screen was the only light on our side of the boat.

"Rule three," I had said to Casper an hour before, in the doorway, with my arms crossed.

"You never speak to Brett alone."

"I know."

"Break it."

He had looked at me for a while.

"On purpose?"

"On purpose. With me in the room. Say whatever you have to say to bring him in."

He took out his phone and typed with one thumb.

I read it over his arm.

She's done with me. Took the notebook, left. I want out of this, and you owe me for it. Shed, 8.

He sent it before I could change my mind.

Brett answered in under a minute.

On my way.

Now it was five past eight.

Dean's knee was jumping.

I put my hand on it, and it stopped.

Gravel crunched outside.

A car door closed, a short polished sound I would have known anywhere, and then the shed door rolled up.

"Engstrom," Brett said. "Nice place."

"Shut the door."

It rolled down.

I could see a slice of them through the gap between two planks.

Casper was at the workbench with his arms folded.

Brett stood in the middle of the floor in his good coat, looking at the tools.

"Where is she?"

"At the bakery, I think. She wouldn't talk to me." Casper's voice was flat and tired, and I knew he had not had to act it. "She hit me, you know."

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