Read Online Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn - Free Book Online Page A

crazy?”
    â€œWhat does crazy mean?”
    â€œYou know, hearing voices. Seeing things.”
    â€œDo you hear voices or see things?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen you must not be crazy.”
    â€œWell, why can’t I remember what happened?”
    Dr. Waverly clapped her hands together and sat up in her leather chair.
    â€œYou conquered a fear, Jamie,” she said. “That’s a wonderful thing. Taking a chance like that. Embrace your success.”
    â€œBut I didn’t mean to conquer it. I don’t even know how I did it.”
    â€œDoes it matter?”
    I stared at her. “Doesn’t it?”
    â€œYou tell me.”
    â€œI thought I just did!” God, this was getting so stupid. I got to my feet and walked over to the wooden dollhouse that she kept. A mouse family sat at the dining room table. I picked one up. Sat it on the roof of the house then tried jamming it down the chimney. It wouldn’t fit. I found a yellow Tonka truck and stuck one of the mouse dolls into the driver’s seat. Then I placed the vehicle on the peaked roof of the dollhouse and gave the back bumper a little nudge. The truck and the doll went spilling onto the floor.
    I smiled.
    â€œWhich doll is that?” Dr. Waverly asked.
    I turned around. “Huh?”
    â€œWhat doll are you playing with?”
    â€œDunno.” I leaned over and picked it up. “It’s the mom.”
    So that got us talking about Angie and it got us to stop talking about Cate and the horse. I didn’t stop thinking about it, though. My sister, I decided, could generate her own magic, something more powerful than mine. Something even someone like Dr. Waverly couldn’t understand. That’s the type of force Cate was.
    For all I know, it might be the type of force Cate still is.

SIXTEEN
    Later that day, it turns out Hector’s wrong. I don’t have to do any stalking to find my sister.
    Cate finds me.
    I’m driving in the Jeep with the radio on when I hear my phone—that soft, syncopated rhythm of Monk’s famous “Evidence.”
    I glance down at the screen.
    Unknown caller.
    My pulse picks up. I answer.
    But I already know.
    â€œHey, bro,” she says like it’s nothing, like she can just do this. “Miss me?”
    â€œWhere are you?” I ask.
    â€œWhere are you ?”
    My fingers curl tightly around the leather steering wheel. It’s not her deflection that gets to me. It’s her voice. Cate’s voice is the same. Still husky from not enough sleep, not enough food, too many cigarettes, too many—
    I take a deep breath. “Driving up Oak Canyon.”
    â€œDon’t crash.”
    â€œI’ll try. Are you with Danny?”
    â€œNot anymore.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œThings between us weren’t meant to be. He’s probably in a frat these days, don’t you think? He probably has douchey friends who wear leather flip-flops and Polo cologne.”
    â€œI thought I saw you with him yesterday. On College Avenue. But that would’ve been too much of a coincidence, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œCollege Avenue, huh? That’s interesting,” Cate says. “I guess nothing’s a coincidence. Not for you. But things got kind of heated up there last night, didn’t they?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œâ€˜What do you mean?’” She mocks me with one of her crueler tones. “God, you’re dense. Well, for starters last night was the night I told Danny about what I might’ve done with one of his douchey flip-flop-wearing frat brothers. That kind of got the shit flying. You know how it is.”
    â€œWait, what ? You did that to Danny? Why?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI don’t know. I guess, it’s just kind of, sort of—you know.”
    â€œKind of, sort of what, Jamie?”
    I swallow. “Nothing.”
    â€œSlutty?”
    â€œI didn’t say