Unexpected Rendezvous

Chapter 18

Leigh's POV

I only half believe what I'm saying until Jade sags against the wall, rubbing a hand across her jaw. "Yeah," she says tiredly. "I did."

"Wait. What?" Perrie asks. Her eyes are so huge, she looks like an anime character. "You've been selling drugs?"

"Zoe has," Jade says. "And I...haven't stopped her."

My frayed nerves, already stretched thin from trying to decipher Aaron's babbling while these two were getting cozy in the bathroom, snap at her words. "So all this time, while we've been trying to figure out what happened to Nelson, you knew she was a drug dealer?" I ask. "You saw her lying there with a syringe practically dangling from her arm and thought, Eh, probably not relevant, won't mention it?"

"I didn't know Nelson was involved," Jade insists. "Zoe wouldn't tell me who she was selling with. She kept saying, The less you know, the better."

My first instinct is to snipe How convenient, and I force myself to swallow the words because I don't know where they're coming from. Do I think Jade is lying, or am I just angry with her? Both? I need more information before I can decide. "Did you know about Aaron?" I ask, trying to keep my voice even. 

Jade hesitates. "Not exactly. But I saw the name on Zoe's phone this morning, and she acted all sketchy, so I wondered if one of the people she was selling with was named Aaron. Then all of a sudden Nelson's dead, and there's this list with her name circled, and Aaron's, and mine, which made no sense. So I wanted to talk to Aaron about it."

I glare at her. "But not to us, huh? Even though we straight up asked if there was any connection you could think of."

"Pills," Perrie says faintly. "But that's what- oh God, I never told you did I?" Jade furrows her brow, confused, until she adds. "That's what my Mum's award is about. She was the lead statistician for the report on Ecstasy abuse."

Jade's shoulders slump even lower. "Shit, I didn't- I had no idea."

I fold my arms. "Would it have changed anything if you did?"

She doesn't reply, and Perrie speaks up again. "Is that why you went into Aaron's house alone?" she asks, her gaze fixed intently on Jade. "Because you didn't want us to know what Zoe's been doing?"

I almost ask how brave she thinks Jade is now, but manage to bite it back. It's a cheap shot, and Perrie's not the one I'm angry with right now. 

Jade's face turns a dull red. "Yeah. I should've said something, I know. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking straight." She throws Perrie an apologetic, almost pleading look, and the fact that she's worried about her reaction, when I'm the one who just spent ten minutes trying to coax sense out of Aaron, makes my temper spike even higher.

"Were you thinking straight while you were selling X?" I snap.

"I wasn't the one selling," Jade says, a hard edge creeping into her voice.

Usually when Jade sounds like that, I back down. I'm not tough by any stretch of the imagination, but for the first time all day, I'm not the one who needs to justify herself. It's Jade's turn, and she's more than earned it.

"Does it matter?" I ask coldly. "You knew. Maybe if you'd bothered to give us a heads up, we wouldn't have walked into Aaron's ransacked drug den like a bunch of clueless-" And then I freeze, all the rage draining out of me as I'm struck by a single, horrifying thought. "Wait a sec. Aaron said he doesn't keep his stash at home, so whoever ripped his house apart didn't find what they were looking for. If they're working from the list, they probably moved on to your house. Is anyone home?"