Page 204 of Pretty Little Lies

“I didn’t notice Judah missing until the next day,” Matteo claims. His face twists in irritation that he’s being interrogated. “I wasn’t his fuckin’ babysitter. He’d run off with girls all the time and get his dick wet. That wasn’t something out of the ordinary.”

“Body parts,” Reeve repeats. “Why were there?—”

“They were in the middle of thewoods, Stanton. I’m not sure what got to him, but I’m sure it was coyotes or black bears. Again, I wasn’t babysitting him.”

“What would be her reasoning for killing Judah?”

“I don’t know, to be honest. Maybe there’s more that Judah knew that I didn’t.”

“Why did you blame it on someone else then?” Reeve steps forward, taking the lead on questions I can’t form. “You turned a dude in for that murder.”

“Because I didn’t trust Emilio, for one,” Matteo claims placidly. “I show up with his son and, what, he’s going to believe me when I tell him a girl did it? And two, I wanted to see if she’d ever turn on me. Believe it or not, I loved Bay. I gave her everything she could’ve ever wanted and planned on making her my queen one day. She fucked that away when I overheard her on the phone with Levi. How they were waiting for the right moment to take what I built and burn it to the ground.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Reeve and Matteo both look at me as I stare at the rims of one of the Escalades.

There’s no way my girl murdered my brother.

He can’t be dead.

You’ve been in denial about this, and you didn’t even notice.

“Then let me know if you’re going to keep this going,” Matteo says matter-of-factly. “Because I’m gonna head south if you are. You didn’t think you were stupid enough to let pussy blind you, but maybe you are like Judah after all—” I lunge for him, ready to throw every ounce of rage into his body because how the hell does he know everything? My brain is ping-ponging everything that’s ever happened. The power plays that could be forming behind our backs, and I’ve done everything I said Iwasn’tgoing to do with her.

However, De Leon is saved by Reeve’s mom-arming me to a stop from landing a punch.

“You stupid son of a bitch,” I spit out, saliva barely missing him in the process. “Just because she doesn’t want your dick anymore?—”

“Women like Bay are a dime a dozen,” Matteo barks back. “I don’t want someone like her within my midst. Especially when she has Levi feeding her the knowledge she needs to take everyone down. Did you make you believe that she didn’t want it? That Levi was just a phase? It’s your funeral. I lost the Titan seat to take her down with Wallace, but he will use her to take you guys and Emilio down. She is his daughter, isn’t she?”

“I didn’t see her pull the trigger,” Reeve retorts sharply.

“Well, sorry bruh”—Matteo scoffs—“but I couldn’t control the moon that night. If I were there, I would’ve stopped it. Judah was my other half. We had plans to intercept our own drugs to start rollin’ in dough that we needed. However, Wallace somehow got a handle of that information and stomped it out. I’ll give you one guess on who spread that.”

Reeve drops his arm, confident that I’m not going to move again. “Sounds like a personal problem, De Leon.”

“Not anymore.” He points at the both of us. “It’s yours now, or it’s gonna be. You all seem infatuated with her, and that’s cool, she’s a fun ride, but all she claims is how much she’s not a part of this world while lying through herteethabout it. My only regret is that Judah didn’t tell me what he learned. What kind of shit we were really in with her being in it. He didn’t go chasing her for nothing.”

“I still don’t get why you had an innocent man claim that he killed Judah,” Reeves says through my choked silence. “Makes no sense, dude.”

“Makes total sense when you don’t want to die. Don’t tell me you’re both delusional as fuck to not have seen how Emilio handles competition. Hence why I never ran through The Landings. However, now she’s the most valuable piece of it all. Emilio’s daughter. Heir to a Titan seat. Another one that Wallace already has. And what currently stands in his fucking way?”

Us.

Would you go to war for me?

“Get the fuck out,” I grind out, tossing the cell back to the man who handed it to me. “And don’t let me find you approaching us again.”

“Your funeral, Wildes. Why do you think I kicked her to the curb? She laid all my shit bare to Wallace, and if I would’ve killed her…let’s just say, I wasn’t built for that yet.”

He pivots, striding away as he puffs away at his cigarette and leaves me in a sea of turmoil. He knows that if he keeps speaking, I’ll snap, and it’ll be over.

Just like Bay and I are.

FIFTY-SIX

bay

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