Page 195 of Dare To Live

“Are you going to fucking tell me?”

“I don’t know anything.”

“Bullshit. You and Jace were closest to Evan.”

“Why aren’t you asking him then?”

“I already did.”

Kevin’s lip curls up into a sneer. “And you believe him when he says he’s changed. What if he’s lying?”

“Is he?” Bret steps up beside me. “We’ve been watching all of you for a while. Jace is the only one who didn’t visit Evan in prison. You did.”

“Once!”

“Not that long ago.”

My head snaps around to Bret. “When?”

“About six months before he broke out.”

“How the fuck did he manage that, anyway?”

“We’re not really sure. We think he bribed one of the guards, but the security footage doesn’t show anything we can use. He knew where all the camera blind spots were, and must have spent months tracking the guards’ patterns.”

I leave Kevin with Ivan and drag Bret a short distance away. “What the fuck? You couldn’t have mentioned this sooner?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you now.”

“Then why are you?”

His voice is wry when he replies. “Because you were coming to beat the shit out of me and Kevin for what we did to Arabella back then. I’d rather we worked together to find the asshole, than have to arrest you for assaulting me.”

“Do you think Kevin had something to do with his escape?”

He shakes his head. “No, but I think he knows who did. If we can get him to tell us who it was, then we stand a chance at finding him before he tries to come for you.”

I suck in a breath and sweep my gaze over the cemetery. “Do you think that’s his plan? To come for me, not Ari?”

“Arabella was a means to an end. Everything he tried to make us do to her back then was purely to get you to react.”

I return my attention to him. “Why are you here, Bret?”

He frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Isn’t this case too personal for you? Aren’t there rules against investigating something you were involved with?”

“Usually, but when the suggestion was made to bring everyone back for the prom, it made sense for me to come as well. I make the perfect undercover agent. I know everyone. It doesn’t look suspicious me being here.”

“Why as a priest?”

He barks a quick laugh. “Truthfully?”

I nod.

“Because I didn’t want any of the girls trying to get in my bed. I’m married with three kids, happily. I have no intention of fucking that up.”

A yowl reminds us that Ivan and Kevin are still here.

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