Did that mean she should have sex with Dean?

“So, we’re on for tonight,” Dean said.

“Huh?”

“You haven’t been listening, have you? Where did you go just then?”

“Nowhere. Just woolgathering.”

“Were you thinking about Jake?” Dean pulled away from her and sat back in his chair.

“What? No, I wasn’t thinking about Jake. Actually, I was thinking about-” Are you out of your mind? You can’t tell Dean that you were thinking about having sex with him, to use him to scratch an itch.

Dean glared at her.

“I was thinking that we should pick up a bottle of wine to take to Kris and Ross’s tonight.”

Dean gave her a skeptical look. She knew he didn’t believe her.

“No problem. We can pick up a bottle on the way there.”

Rachel laid her hand over Dean’s. “I haven’t been carrying a torch for Jake all these years. After I moved to Chattanooga with my mother, I got on with my life and I hardly ever thought about Jake.”

“You didn’t ever think about me either, did you?”

“As a matter of fact, I did. Every once in a while.” She punched him playfully on the arm. “I thought about how you were always giving me a hard time.” The minute the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could recall them and rephrase that statement.

Dean grinned. “Interesting choice of words.”

She blushed. Heavenly days! “Don’t read anything into them,” she told him. “They were just words.”

“If you say so, but you’ve got to wonder…”

“I’m not finishing that sentence for you.”

“All right,” he said. “I’ll finish it. You’ve got to wonder what it would be like if we hooked up, did the horizontal”-he lowered his voice and added-“had sex.”

“Even if I might be curious, that doesn’t mean I’m going to jump into bed with you,” she whispered. “Believe it or not, there are still some women in this world who do not have casual sex, and I’m one of them.”

“If we ever had sex, it wouldn’t be casual.”

Before she could respond, Officer Ray Middleton approached them, calling out to Dean as he walked toward Rachel’s desk.

“Hey, Dean, that eyewitness from the Henderson case showed up early,” Officer Middleton said. “He’s pretty nervous, so I thought it best to come tell you and not make him wait too long. He might bolt.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Dean said, then turned to Rachel. “See you later.”

He winked at her again.

And her insides quivered.

Kristen crinkled her nose with worry as she spoke to Lindsay Farrell, who had telephoned while she was in the middle of setting the table in Ross’s apartment dining room. Their daughter Lissa was at a friend’s house studying, so dinner tonight would be a foursome.

“Look, Linds, I’d like nothing better than to cancel the reunion, but Rachel and I are a majority of two,” Kristen said. “Even Mandy, who’s as nervous as a cat these days, says we can’t let some nut job dictate what we should and shouldn’t do. The others agree, so the reunion is still on.”

“I had planned to come in early,” Lindsay said. “And we still might, if-”

“You and Wyatt?”

“Yes, Wyatt and I. Who would ever have thought that we’d wind up as a couple? But then again, who would have believed that we had a one-nighter in high school that resulted in a son who is now nineteen?”

“Why didn’t you tell me or tell Rachel? We might have been able to help you.”

“What could either of you have done?” Lindsay asked. “You were both teenagers, too, and would have agreed that my giving my baby away was the only thing I could have done.”

“I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you, knowing he was out there somewhere. Lissa tries my nerves, but the thought of having no choice but to give her up at birth-”

“If Wyatt and I can work things out with Leo-you know, the three of us figure out what kind of relationship we each want-then I’ll get a second chance with my son as well as with his father.”

“Linds?”

“Huh?”

“Stay safe, will you. Okay?”

“I will. You, too.”

“Not knowing where he or she will strike next is the worst part,” Kristen said. “Ross is so concerned about me that he’ll barely let me out of his sight. And Mandy’s husband is talking about hiring a bodyguard for her. And even Rachel, who’s a trained professional, carries a gun, and knows karate or one of those martial arts, has Dean looking out for her.”

“Are they together now?” Lindsay asked. “Once again, who’d have thought it-Dreamy Dean and our Rach. She was always hung up on Jake.”

“Yes, she was, just as you and I were.”

“We were fools, weren’t we?”

“Yes, we were, but we were just kids who didn’t know any better.”

“Kris, please keep me posted on what’s happening.”

After she replaced the phone on the cradle, Kristen finished setting the table, then went into the kitchen to check the roast in the oven.

If she had her way, they would cancel the reunion, but then again maybe the others were right about not giving in to pressure, not allowing their fears to dictate their actions. And who was to say that if they canceled the reunion the threats would stop? If the person who was behind the child’s arrow stunt, the notes, phone calls, and break-ins had killed Aurora and Haylie, they could strike again at any time. But without proof that Aurora’s death was not an accident and with such damning proof that the homeless bum killed Haylie during a robbery, there was no way to definitely connect either crime to what had happened to Lindsay in New York. Nor could their deaths be connected to what had been happening with her, with the other committee members, and with Rachel.

They were up there now, Kristen and Rachel and Dean McMichaels, with Kristen’s rich hubby Ross Delmonico. Just like back in high school, they were having fun, enjoying the good life, while she was on the outside looking in. Damn them. Damn them all. Kristen, so pretty and oh so smart. And never without a boyfriend. Even Jake had turned to her when he’d broken up with Lindsay. And Rachel, the good sport, everybody’s friend, even Jake’s. It had been unfair twenty years ago that girls like Kristen and Rachel and Lindsay had everything going for them, that they got all the breaks, had all the fun. And it seemed that very little had changed in all this time. Maybe they hadn’t been deliberately cruel to her, but ignoring a person was more than simply being unkind. Sometimes she used to feel invisible, as if none them ever saw her. She had longed to be one of them-really one of them-and not just one of those girls hanging around on the periphery.

She stood outside the building, gazing up at the high-rise apartment that belonged to Ross Delmonico. She had followed Rachel and Dean, wanting to see just where they were going, and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find that their destination was a visit with an old friend. Probably dinner. She’d noticed that Dean was carrying a bottle of wine.

Have fun tonight. Enjoy dinner. Talk and laugh and discuss old times. The last laugh won’t be on me-it’ll be on you. On you, Kris. And on you, Rachel. But most definitely on Lindsay. Bitch!

But killing them would have to wait. She knew now that the time and place for their deaths would come soon enough. But for those three, the end should be special. She had jumped the gun with Kris and even more so with Lindsay, because she hated Linds the most.

God, how she hated those cute little nicknames. Kris and Linds and Rach. She especially despised those names when Jake had used them.

“Ma’am, are you all right?” a voice asked.

Astonished by the fact that someone had spoken to her, she gasped loudly. Her gaze connected with a set of dark brown eyes. A young couple, apparently walking their dog, were standing there staring at her as if she had two heads.

“I-I’m fine,” she replied, then hurried away, up the street. Don’t panic, she told herself. They wouldn’t remember her. Besides, they hadn’t gotten that good a look at her, there in the semidarkness. And who would be asking them about her anyway?