KITTY SQUEEZED HER ARMS TO THE SIDES OF HER BODY AND hunched her shoulders, trying to make herself as thin as possible as she sat sandwiched between Kyle and Tyler in the front of Kyle’s pickup truck. “Are you sure the Cavanaughs won’t mind if I barge into their house?”
“Nah,” Kyle said. He took a corner so fast, Kitty smooshed into Tyler. “They’re usually not home so it doesn’t really matter.”
“I texted Rex that we were bringing you,” Tyler added. “So it’s cool.”
Kitty couldn’t imagine that Rex would be thrilled about a girl joining up with the ’Maine Men, and certainly not about her being inducted into his inner circle as Kyle and Tyler had so readily done. “Did he ask why?”
“Nope,” Tyler said.
“Oh.”
“But I told him that you had an awesome idea about this new DGM,” Kyle added. “Which he had to hear.” He glanced at her and smiled. “Rex is gonna be so pumped.”
Kitty had mixed feelings about this field trip to Rex’s house. She’d protested when Kyle and Tyler insisted on bringing her along to visit their de facto leader. They wanted to show her off, share her plan with Rex, and though the visit gave her the opportunity to perv around for the Rolex Amber had supposedly given Ronny DeStefano, the idea of being in his house was almost as nauseating as donning the ’Maine Men shirt in the first place. And that, paired with Kyle’s questionable driving skills, was giving her a raging case of motion sickness.
The brakes screeched and Kitty’s head whiplashed as the truck lurched to a stop in front of a two-story colonnaded McMansion.
Tyler and Kyle opened their doors in choreographed symmetry and jumped to the sidewalk while Kitty eased herself across the bench seat, head still spinning from the drive, and heaved a sigh of relief as her feet hit the solid mass of concrete. Her legs felt wobbly as she followed Kyle and Tyler up the front walk.
Kyle leaned on the doorbell. From inside the house, Kitty heard Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” ring out in electronic bells. They waited for several seconds before Tyler leaned across and rang the bell again.
“Hurry up, dude,” he said over the Beethoven, as if Rex could hear him.
Again they waited. Again nothing.
Kitty felt a gurgling sensation in her stomach. Try as she might to blame it on car sickness, she couldn’t ignore the fact that something felt eerily wrong.
Kyle took a step off the porch and tilted his head back. “Rex!” he yelled up to the second floor of the house. “It’s us. Open the door.”
“Maybe he’s embarrassed,” Kitty offered. “About the video.”
Tyler snapped his fingers. “Good point.” He reached out and depressed the door latch. It clicked and he swung the door open.
“Sweet,” Kyle said. He took the two steps up to the porch in a single bound and barreled past Tyler into the foyer. “Rex! What the fuck, dude? Are you sleeping?”
“Put your pants back on,” Tyler said as he followed his bromantic partner into the house. “And stop playing with yourself.”
Kyle turned to him, fist extended. “Nice one, dude.”
“Thanks.” Tyler returned the bump, then headed up the stairs. “Let’s check his room.”
Kitty stood on the doorstep as the guys raced upstairs. Front door unlocked, the house silent. Something about it made her uneasy, as if she’d just stepped into a scene from a horror movie.
You’re being ridiculous. Kitty stomped her foot against the doormat and forced the fear from her mind. Kyle and Tyler knew Rex better than anyone and they didn’t seem apprehensive. Kitty was just tainted by the last few weeks. With shoulders squared, she stepped into the Cavanaughs’ foyer.
She recognized the decor immediately. Apparently, not much had changed since Rex’s thirteenth birthday party. The foyer was a massive space of gilt paint and marble, with a twenty-foot ceiling and a double-wide staircase that curved up one side. In front of her, an arched doorway led to the living room. She could see the fireplace flanked by floral vases and just a peek of sparkling chandelier above. It was the site of Rex’s humiliation.
“His cell phone’s here,” Tyler shouted.
“Seriously?” Footsteps pounded above her.
“Yeah. See for yourself.”
“Check the spare bedroom,” Kyle said after a pause. “I’ll hit his parents’ room.”
“’Kay.” Tyler darted by the upstairs balcony. “Rex! This isn’t funny. Come on, we need to talk.”
There was an urgency in their voices that hadn’t existed a minute ago. As normal as it had been for Rex not to answer the door, apparently this was the exact opposite. The gurgling in Kitty’s stomach returned, only now it was more of a thundering wave. She wanted to flee the house, to wait outside and let Kyle and Tyler search for their friend, but she just kept staring into the living room.
It took her several minutes before she realized why. There was something on the floor behind the piano. Something that shouldn’t be there.
Kitty blinked, her eyes focused on the object. It was a shoe, a brown Oxford worn by a fair number of Bishop DuMaine’s male population. No, not just one shoe. There were two. Kitty took a few steps farther into the living room, rounding the piano, and froze in her tracks.
Not just shoes; there were legs attached. And a torso.
Kitty’s mind screamed at her to stop, to look away, but her body had a mind of its own. Before she even realized what she was doing, she’d approached the figure on the floor and was hovering over it.
It was the motionless body of Rex Cavanaugh with a belt pulled tightly around his neck.
