Steel Rush (In the Shadows#5) by P.T. Michelle Page A

you so much, Talia. You have no idea. I’m sorry I’ve been a mess the last few months and that I never told you about my past. I promise to one day, but right now I just…things here are just so messed up.
    “Beth thinks I’m an evil temptress and a liar, Celeste has gone AWOL, but I believe she’s really missing, and God, I don’t have any underwear. Can you believe that’s all I could think about while Beth selected one of Celeste’s outfits for me to wear to this stupid interview happening in less than an hour? That I want to wear my own freaking underwear underneath the ‘Celeste’ costume I’m expected to present to the reporters. This was just supposed to be a dinner party and that was it. None of this was supposed to happen.”
    “Whoa—slow down. Take a breath, Cass. Sebastian filled me in on what’s going on, and while I’m sorry Celeste might be missing, you don’t owe her a thing. Right now I’m more worried about you .”
    Just hearing her calm voice makes me feel better. I take a couple of breaths, then pick up a carrot from the plate and munch on it. While I eat the sandwich and vegetables Calder brought me, I fill Talia in on everything that has happened so far. I’m careful not to mention Jake or Brent because I know she’ll worry, and I don’t want that part getting back to Calder through Sebastian. Thankfully Brent appears to be a separate part of Beth’s life, away from Carver social events. I don’t think her father even knows he exists. But if he did show up for an event, I would be completely blindsided since I never saw his face.
    The uncomfortable realization has me pulling down Celeste’s sophomore class yearbook and skimming through our class page for any classmates named Brent while Talia expresses her concern. “This whole situation is so messed up, Cass. I wish you could just walk away.”
    “You know I can’t, Talia,” I say as I turn pages. “And neither could the investigator in you.”
    She snorts. “That’s so true. And you can’t pry me away from helping now that I know. Oh, by the way, Sebastian’s guy, Elijah, couldn’t trace who wrote the Deceiver’s text to Celeste. But I did just hear Sebastian tell Calder that the abandoned rental car’s GPS was mapped to a women’s clinic in New Jersey.”
    “Really?” My heart constricts and I pause skimming the names and class pictures. “What was the name of the clinic?”
    Paper rustles in the background. “Jersey Women’s Services. Is that the same one you went to today?”
    I close my eyes and inhale slowly. “Yes, that’s it.” I don’t need blood test results to know that the blood in that car belongs to Celeste.
    “Are you okay, Cass?”
    Blowing out a breath to release the tension building inside me, I open my eyes and turn to the very last page of the sophomore class. Not a single Brent in the whole bunch. “I’m fine.”
    “Are you sure?”
    Worry laces her voice, so I give a stronger answer. “I’m okay, Talia. I just need to get through tomorrow night. If Celeste isn’t found by then, the Carver’s event will be my best chance to collect a DNA sample to prove Phillip is the baby’s father. My gut tells me that Phillip is the Deceiver. I think that he caught up to Celeste and that’s why she never made it to the clinic for her appointment. If that is her blood they found in the car, Phillip definitely has a strong motive to want to keep her pregnancy and the baby’s paternity from being revealed in the blood work results, especially considering her father just announced Celeste’s engagement to his son, Ben.”
    “Wow, if you’re right, that’s all kinds of screwed up. Do you really think Phillip would hurt the woman carrying his child?”
    Jake briefly pops into my head. He was pretty pissed last night, but I dismiss him as a potential threat to Celeste as I shut the yearbook. “Other than her guard, whose faults are many but he has no reason to hurt Celeste, the only other