Page 159 of Brutal Prince

“Where. Is. The. Video?”

Addy bursts into tears, shaking her head. Her hands are up now, pressing into Briar’s chest. Not digging in, not fighting. Just keeping him back.

“Where is it?” he bellows.

Addy’s eyes squeeze shut, and she lifts her arms over her head as if Briar’s about to start pummeling her.

I surge forward, but my foot catches on the backpack. I go to the floor, grunting as the wind knocks out of me. I kick, trying to free my foot. When it remains tangled in the bag, I roll onto my ass and give it a furious yank.

The zipper was only partially closed. As I tug at the bag, it opens wider and spills out a neat stack of bills.

I stare at it. Gape up at Briar. Realize both of them are still totally fixated on each other.

“What’s the… what’s all this money for?” I ask, clearing my throat halfway through so I can get everything out.

“Don’t think for a second I’ll believe you’re not part of this,” Briar snaps, glaring at me over his shoulder.

“Part of what?” Addy says, and his attention goes back to her.

A video. A cellphone.

Evidence?

Is that what Briar and Marcus were talking about that night at the church? Does Addy have a video of Jessica’s rape?

No, that makes absolutely no sense. Something that damning would have put them both behind bars. She’d have used it a long time ago.

Except if she only just found it. But when? How?

“Addy, what video is he talking about?” I ask.

Briar is the furthest thing from innocent here, but I knew that going in. Addy’s been lying to me from the start. Maybe even now. Fuck knows why she’d want to assume innocence, but I don’t pretend to know a thing about her or her motives.

“I don’t know!” Addy shrieks.

“Who the fuck else could it have been?” Briar grabs her around the neck and pushes her against the wall. Addy breaks down into hysterical wails while I watch, feeling so detached from this moment I could be in a cinema.

“There was someone else there,” I say. My feet take me forward even though I never gave them permission to move. “You said it yourself: you were fucked. Marcus was fucked. Someone else could have been following you up those stairs.”

Briar releases Addy in a rush and pivots to face me. I expected shock on his features, but there’s nothing.

Nothing.

“Suddenly you know everything,” he says. Addy slides to the ground and collapses on her side. When she starts sobbing, she sounds so absolutely riven I want to fall down and start crying too. But I hold back everything — my fear, my sadness, my confusion.

I shove it far out of reach and match Briar for each of his steps until we’re right up against each other and he could grab me by the throat and strangle me if he wanted.

“She says she doesn’t have anything.”

“She’s a lying cunt.”

“And you’re not?”

Briar’s mouth thins.

“You told me you didn’t remember anything about that night, but that’s a lie, isn’t it?”

Still nothing. His face could have been carved from frozen cream. “How long have you been following me?”

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