Page 36 of Deadly Little Scandals

“Are they fond of kicking people out of the family?” I asked pointedly.

“Your mama had a friend who was pregnant twenty years ago?” Lily grabbed my arm, then seemed to realize I was still driving and let go of it.

“Yes,” I said.

Victoria countered that question with one of her own. “Back at the gala, why did you step outside alone with Davis Ames?”

“I thought we were playing Truth or Dare,” I said pointedly. “Doesn’t that mean it’smyturn now?”

“Ifwe were taking turns,” Victoria said, her voice low and silky, “I’d pick dare. There’s nothing I won’t do, with proper motivation.”

I wanted to ask her what she wasdoingwith Walker—what her father’smotivationin approaching Davis Ames had been. But she hadn’t chosen truth, and even if she had, Lily was right beside me.

“What if I dared you to jump off this cart?” I threw out the question, allowing the pedal to creep back to the floor.

“Is that a hypothetical dare…or a real one?” Victoria asked.

“Sawyer!” Lily yelled beside me.

I realized too late that we were going too fast. The cart hit what I thought was a bump, but when we went airborne, I realized that it wasn’t a bump.

It was a ledge.

verything hurt.

The cart must have flipped.That was my first thought. It felt immediate, like less than a second had passed since we’d gone over the ledge, but that couldn’t have been true, because, somehow, I was lying on muddy, damp grass, sticks and rocks digging into the flesh bared by my vintage dress.

“Lily?” That was my second thought as I pushed up to my elbows, my entire body objecting. The lights on the golf cart had gone out. I couldn’t see either of my companions. “Lily, are you okay?”

That question was greeted by a moan. I crawled toward the sound until I hit a figure lying prone.Not Lily,I realized belatedly.Victoria.

“I’m fine,” she said before I could ask.

I wanted to tell her that she wasn’t fine, that she was an idiot, that we all were, because what did we expect to happen, off-roading in a vehicle that wasn’t meant for off-roading with limited visibility and unpredictable terrain?

I heard Victoria sit up before my eyes could process what little movement I was able to see. There was a shuffling sound, and then there was light. “Let’s hear it for dresses with pockets,” she said, brandishing her phone.

Flashlight mode let me see just far enough that I was able to spot Lily. She’d landed much farther from Victoria and me than either one of us had been from the other. My brain said that didn’t make sense. Lily had been sitting right beside me. Victoria was the one who’d been in the back.

As I crawled carefully toward Lily, I let my thoughts race, let my brain outline all the reasons that if I was in one piece, Lily had to be, too.

“Lily.” I reached her. “Are you okay?”

Unlike Victoria, she didn’t moan. I told myself that it was because Lily was too much of a stickler for manners, and she found moaning uncouth.

“Lil—”

“Sawyer.”

For a fraction of a second, I was terrified that Victoria was the one who’d said my name, even though it had come from Lily’s direction, even though I was close enough to her body now to practically feel the words on my face.

“You’re okay?” I said.

Lily let out a long and wobbly breath. “I’m in significantly better condition than my dress.”

Leave it to her to be thinking about our clothing at a time like this.

“Victoria?” Lily asked.