The Grille, Five Points, Noon

I can’t believe he’s dead.” Juliette Coleman felt sick to her stomach. She pushed away the menu. This was her favorite lunch spot but there was no way she could eat and have this discussion. It hurt too much.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Agony flooded her being. What did she do now? How did she move past this? Stop the images from flashing over and over in her head?

She shut down that line of thinking. She couldn’t go there. Not right now.

“This can’t be.” Elliott Carson turned his hands up and surveyed the rest of the group seated around the table. “No way. What about his wife and kid? Jesus Christ.” He hung his head, obviously stunned and horrified by the news.

He was the one she would have expected to be torn up about this. Elliott had always been the most kindhearted of all the guys. Yet he was the one who had the most reason not to be. With his former celebrity status as a Major League Baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, everyone had expected him to turn into a self-centered ass, but he never had. Instead, after several amazing seasons and a shoulder injury that forced his retirement at the height of his game, he came right back here to Birmingham and started a training camp for young athletes. He spent a lot of time giving back to the community.

Somehow over the years she’d forgotten what a good guy Elliott was… How had they come to this?

Don’t go there, Juliette.

“What the hell happened?” Aaron Taylor demanded. He had no patience for beating around the bush; he never had.

“You’re kidding, right?” Kevin O’Reilly, the son of Birmingham’s media mogul Clinton O’Reilly, directed this at Aaron and then spent a long, dramatic moment in silence, staring across the table from one to the other.

Even if they weren’t discussing the death of a lifelong friend, Kevin would pull out his whole trunk of theatrics. He’d been a drama queen back in high school and he was still one today. Part of him was probably glad Scott was dead. One less person for Kevin to be jealous of. Juliette banished the ugly thoughts. This was not the time.

God, what was she going to do? Agony welled inside her all over again.

“I warned you this would happen if Todd Penney ever came back,” Kevin said knowingly. “Scott should have listened to me. All of you better start paying attention.”

“Oh my God.” Juliette couldn’t believe he’d just said that. Anger overrode the pain and regret. Kevin thought he was the only one who could solve a fucking problem. Worse, he was making this about him! He made her sick.

As if he’d read her mind, he glared at her in warning.

She glowered right back, hoping he saw just how much she hated his guts right now.

“You can’t really believe he would do this?” Aaron challenged. “What could he possibly hope to gain?”

Answer that one, you sawed off little bastard, Juliette wanted to scream at him.

Unlike Kevin or Elliott, Aaron was the logical one. It was the attorney in him. Like his father and his grandfather, he had been born to analyze and to challenge. But a courtroom was the only place where he pulled out those sizeable balls of his these days. The cocky football star from high school was as queer as a three-dollar bill but he didn’t have the nerve to come out of the closet. Instead he’d taken a fake wife and pretended they were waiting until their careers were established to have children.

Juliette resisted the urge to shake her head. And the gang thought she was the only one who lived a lie. This little family was in for a major wake-up call. As much as she had loved all these guys at one time… there was something rotting away between them. She could hardly bear to sit at this table… but she had to. They’d made a promise. She, for one, intended to see that they all held up their ends of that bargain. She was not going to prison for anyone or anything.

Not even for Scott…

Beneath all the bravado and self-centeredness, they all had one nasty little secret in common—they were cowards. Even Aaron’s innate reasoning skill hadn’t helped them that night twelve years ago.

A new kind of fear welled so quickly inside Juliette she could hardly breathe. If anyone ever found out… What was she thinking? He knew. And if Kevin was right, Todd Penney was back and wanted revenge for the death of his best friend.

After all these years.

This couldn’t be happening. Not on top of everything else…

But it had happened. Her stomach twisted with agony… Scott was dead.

Anger warred with the other emotions whirling inside her. Scott had been a coward too. A coward and a liar.

She bit her lips to hold back an anguished cry. He’s dead. Scott was dead. She couldn’t believe he was gone.

Kevin shook his head at them as if they were all pathetic. “You just don’t get it, do you?” He stared directly at Aaron as he spoke. “He’s back and Scott’s dead. You can pretend it’s a coincidence and that what I’m saying to you is ludicrous all you want, but when another of us dies, you’ll see.”

“Okay.” Elliott glanced around the private banquet room they’d paid the waitress a huge tip to get. “When did Penney return to Birmingham?”

“We don’t know for certain but within the last week,” Kevin said in that I-have-all-the-answers way of his. “He’s staying with his mother because he’s still a loser just like he was back then.”

“So,” Aaron said, “you think this big mama’s boy loser killed Scott? Listen to yourself, Kev. It doesn’t make sense. More likely Scott messed with the wrong guy’s wife.”

“How can you say that?” Juliette growled like a mother lion. “He was our friend.” She knew for a fact that the only wife he wanted was his own. The pain twisting inside her sliced like barbed wire. He’s dead. He’s dead. Scott’s dead.

Aaron turned to her, no sign of sympathy on his face. “He was our friend, Jules. You need to get over the idea that you two were high school sweethearts. He dumped you for the minister’s daughter, remember? Scott could be an asshole just like the rest of us when necessary. Not everyone can be perfect like you. And none of us have been friends like that in a very long time.”

Juliette stood. She’d had enough. This hostile survival-of-the-fittest mentality was the reason this group had fallen apart. “I will not sit here and listen to this bullshit.”

Kevin grabbed her hand. “Please, Jules.” His plea almost sounded sincere. What an actor he was. An Academy Award–winning performance. “I’ll admit right now that I’m terrified. We have to do something about this. We can’t just pretend it never happened.”

Incredibly, even Aaron didn’t have a smart-ass comeback for that assessment. It was almost worth listening to this crap just to see him squirm.

Juliette dropped back into her chair. “Fine, but no more unnecessary remarks.” She looked straight at Aaron as she said this.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “All right, all right. I’m chill.”

Juliette suddenly wished it was Aaron who was lying in the morgue instead of Scott. Her chest squeezed. She should feel guilty about that thought but she didn’t. After they were done here, she needed to go directly to confession. She’d already been once today.

That was what she’d done that night… a dozen years ago.

The night the five of them committed murder.