Fame

Chapter Eight

Sawyer broke the palpable silence first.

"What did you mean back there? When you said the fight was because of you?"

His gruff voice sent shivers careening down my spine and I rubbed my hands over my arms to quell the sudden chill his words had evoked.

"I told you, there are things about that night that you don't know about, things that I don't tell anyone. I only told the detectives because they had to know. My parents don't even know the real extent as to what happened. What makes you think I'd tell you? I hate you."

He sucked a deep breath in, as if to stave off the irritation that came with my harsh words.

"Okay, but why keep it a secret? What if it leads to finding the son of a bitch who killed Ryan?"

He turned to me and the passion in his eyes was so unyielding that it brought me back to a time when things were different, simpler.

"Trust me, telling you wouldn't get the police closer to finding him. I'm the only one who knows what he looks like and I already gave them a sketch. If they need me for anything else, they have my number. And since Ryan's body is being exhumed to get DNA from him, they seem to be closer to finding him than they ever have before."

Sawyer's fists were clenched on the steering wheel and he looked like he was ready to punch someone. I almost recommended the punching bag back in the gym, but he spoke before I could add my snarky commentary.

"You're the one who gave the description for the sketch? I spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out who it was, but they kept saying the information was sealed."

His words threw me for a loop.

"Why would you want to know who drew the sketch that badly?"

"Because that meant they had witnessed the fight. I wanted to know every detail about that night."

His fists slowly uncurled and with them so did the ball of anxiety inside my stomach.

He raked his hand through his dark hair and I couldn't stop myself from staring. Hell, I would've started drooling had I not remembered that I hated the man before me.

The air inside the car was so filled with tension I felt like I could reach out and grab it as if it were a tangible object.

"Well, looks like your PI wasn't so helpful. I was a minor when it all went down so they couldn't release information regarding that night when it came to the details I was involved with."

"What did you have to do with that night anyway? I didn't even know you were there."

I knew he was simply too busy flirting with almost every female in the vicinity and that I was basically invisible to him back then except for when it came to him talking down to me when I tried to remind him that we used to be best friends.

A fire was ignited inside me and I felt the anger brewing, almost impossible to extinguish.

"Why would you have known I was there? You were too busy treating me like the garbage underneath your feet to ever notice me after you chose Ryan over me. And look how that turned out?"

He didn't say anything, but the clenching of his jaw told me that he wanted to respond very badly but was keeping himself from doing so.

"What? All out of insults?"

He slammed his hands down on the steering wheel and I jumped, the noise loud enough to be heard outside of the car. I didn't realize it before but we hadn't even moved from the spot in the parking lot.