Sweet Deadly Lies (A Dark Academia Mystery) Watty Winner ✔️

Thirty-Five

When Drew steps on the boat, his body stiffens. "What are you thinking? You're going to get us all killed!" he yells at his father. As he adjusts the hood of his rain jacket, his gaze flits over me and Jessa in the cockpit.

My heart pounds as I wait for further acknowledgement, but he doesn't pause long enough to look me in the eye. "Drew, thank God you're here! Your father —"

Mr. McKenzie doesn't let me finish. "Why are you here?"

"Drew, please —" I try again, but my lungs are weak with fear, my voice breathy as it's drown by the wind and waves; the relentless ting of rain drops as they strike against the roof.

Same as before, I'm interrupted. "I watched you leave the dock. Are you fucking insane? It's still storming!" Drew says, his arms gesturing wildly around us.

His father gives him a disapproving glare. "Watch your language."

From somewhere deep inside me, I summon the energy to shout. "Your father kidnapped us! He killed Ava and Kate, and he wants to kill us, too!"

Disturbed by the commotion, Jessa slumps against the wall, her face skewed with intoxication.

When I turn back to him, Drew's staring at me as if he's finally realized I'm here. I push past the panic collecting in my throat. "Please, you have to help us get out of here!"

With sealed lips, he turns to his father with disgust. "You weren't supposed to leave until the lightning stopped."

As his words sink in, an icy puddle of dread pools in my stomach. He knew. Drew knew what his father was going to do.

"And you weren't supposed to leave until I told you to," his father says. "Why are you here so early? I thought we had a plan."

"I told you! I saw you pulling away."

Mr. Mckenzie scowls. "I had no choice. The storm is only getting stronger. Let's just get this over with so we can head back home. We have guests to attend to."

"They're gone," Drew says, his tone turning flat.

Mr. McKenzie shakes his head. "What do you mean, gone? Where'd they go?"

"To a hotel. They wanted more privacy." Contempt clouds his eyes. "You may have heard, they just lost their only daughter."

Annoyed, Mr. Mckenzie releases a breath. He throws up his hands and storms back to the cockpit. Drew follows after him, his angry expression morphing into alarm. I scream his name, but he won't even look at me. "Are you sure this is the only way? There must be something else we can do."

"We've already been over this! Now that you've planted the phone in Xander's bag —"

"Wait—you planted the phone?" My face is on fire. I knew Drew hated Xander, but trying to frame him for murder isn't something I can comprehend. How can he do that to an innocent person? Haven't enough lives been ruined?

Drew ignores me and continues to stare down his father. "Only because you made me!"

"I'm sorry, son, but this is how it has to be." Mr. McKenzie snatches the bottle of Jack from next to the steering wheel and spins around to face him. "You only have yourself to blame. If you hadn't gotten some random girl pregnant, none of this would be happening right now." He points the bottom of the bottle at me and Jessa.

Drew's fists tighten at his sides. "She wasn't some random girl. I loved Ava," he says through clenched teeth. "I told you we were going to make it work, but you never gave us a chance."

Drew and my sister were together? The thought spins my head, but not because I'm surprised. I should have seen this coming, and maybe on some level, I did. Something never sat right concerning how well Drew and my sister knew each other. Whenever I said Ava's name, an emotion I couldn't place slid across his face. Now I know. That emotion was love.