Commencement (The Pretenders Book 1) by Ashlyn Pierce

Author:Ashlyn Pierce [Pierce, Ashlyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-05T05:00:00+00:00

Beginning of the End

“Ray, are you busy?” Angela asked; she sounded agitated.

“No. Why?”

“I need to talk to you and the girls about something…I just don’t want to tell you over the phone.”

“Oh. Okay. We’ll meet you at the burger place a couple blocks from your house.”

“What’s up?” Erin wondered, half an hour later as they huddled together in the sticky grey booth.

Angela dropped her eyes to the table in front of her. “Is there something going on in this place that I don’t know about?” she asked finally, there was a note of uncertainty in her voice.

Rachel felt her body stiffen, and the blood drain from her face.

“What are you talking about?” Crystal asked.

Angela took something out of her bag. Rachel’s heart stopped as she showed it to them.

“I found it at the park yesterday.” Angela explained, completely oblivious to Rachel’s reaction.

“Some guy came up to me a couple hours ago and asked if I had it. I told him no because, at the time, I didn’t. He started yelling at me, and said if I didn’t give it to him, he’d get it himself.

“I don’t think it’s his. He overreacted when I told him I couldn’t give it to him…”

Rachel frowned deeply; this was heading in a dangerous direction. She took her grandmother’s necklace from Angela’s hands. Just to be sure, she turned it over and read the name on the back—

ROSALIND EDWARDS

Yes, this was Rose’s necklace. One of Conway’s people had probably lost it in their hurry to move…Angela probably was too scared to even check the inscription.

What do I do now? She could come clean about the robbery. That was the simplest thing to do, though Tom wouldn’t like it, and it would probably lead to a lot of questions she couldn’t answer.

“What did he look like?” she asked, knowing as she spoke her voice had an edge to it. Erin looked at her oddly.

“Mean. He was an older, anyway; tall, muscular….”

Rachel felt her stomach twist. Conway had escaped from prison. But it wasn’t possible. She gazed down at the necklace as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.

“Rachel?”

Rachel took a deep breath, “You’re right, this—” she held up the necklace so they could all see the inscription—“isn’t his. He stole it from my house.” She stopped and waited for the flood of questions that were sure to come.

But they didn’t. Her friends only stared at her, making her feel more uncomfortable than ever about revealing her secret—well, part of her secret, anyway. “I’ll take care of it.”

Erin started to argue, but Rachel held up a hand to stop her. “Believe me. By the time school resumes on Monday, this won’t be a problem anymore.”

“You should talk to the cops,” Kate said.

Rachel smiled sadly; she shook her head. She got up from her chair and walked out of the restaurant while her bewildered new friend watched with wide eyes.

“She’ll be okay,” Crystal reassured them in a peaceful voice. “She can take care of herself.”

“Do you really think she can fix this if the cops can’t?” Angela demanded tartly.

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