Page 61 of The Engagement Party

“That’s not true.” Cassie leaned forward, looking desperate to drag Dylan’s attention toward her but failing.

Mitch had attended Brendan’s funeral. Of course he had. The information didn’t surprise Sierra. Mitch’s life revolved around trauma and death, and going might have been a way to deal withthe newest emotional blow. He also likely saw a bit of himself in Brendan, someone the press referred to as a loner. Someone, like Mitch, who she guessed retreated into a safe world he’d created to avoid the real one that beat him down.

Whatever the reason, the ongoing talk gave her chance to cover her movements. She pricked her thumb with the knife. Annoying, but now she knew how to hold it to saw through the binding cutting into her wrists.

“Mitch, here, was the only one who bothered to show up. He hid in the back. I saw him because I was hiding, too.” Dylan let out a dramatic exhale. “I could never figure out if your unexpected and unwanted attendance showed a hint of decency or if it spoke to your guilt. Want to solve that puzzle for me?”

“You can’t hold our refusal to go to a memorial service against us. Brendan killed our friend,” Alex said.

Dylan turned away from Mitch just long enough to point the gun at Alex. “You would be smart to stop saying that.”

“You were Brendan’s alibi.” Mitch’s voice never rose or slid into a whisper. He lulled Dylan in with a discussion the man clearly longed to have. “The online friend.”

“As I said, friend and cousin, and the one person who knows for sure where Brendan was that night.” Dylan looked around the room. “And the answer isnot with Emily.”

Sierra needed him calm. Pissing off the man with the gun struck her as the wrong strategy. The longer he talked, the greater the chance one or more of them could get their hands free. She saw Ruthie’s skirt shift again and Alex, who’d been mostly quiet, appeared to be concentrating on something other than Dylan. The only person she couldn’t read was Will, but thatwasn’t a surprise. He’d been almost comically frozen since Dylan gave up the cop pretense.

“You don’t really want answers. You wouldn’t believe them anyway.” Sierra shrugged her shoulders, hoping the move came off as genuine and not as a way of getting a better grip on the knife. “All of this is about revenge.”

“You’re a smart one.” Dylan winked at her again before glancing at Mitch. “You were really going to let her get away?”

Cassie and Alex seemed to pass a silent message between them before Cassie started talking. “You have to understand. We were young and confused. Those days were so bleak. We were all mourning and not at our best. Nothing seemed real.”

Dylan groaned. “Stop trying to win your opening argument, lawyer lady.”

She didn’t give up. “I know this is hard to hear. Believe me, I do. But Brendan killed Emily then killed himself.”

“No part of that sentence is true.” Dylan’s jaw clenched as his anger visibly rose.

Sierra tried to ratchet the tension down before it exploded. “You’ve proved your point.”

Dylan scoffed. “Not yet.”

“You know what happened to us in college. And now, all these years later, you somehow set all of this up. With Ruthie’s help.” Cassie glanced at Ruthie. “What do you have to say?”

Dylan made that annoying clicking sound again. “I’ll ask the questions.”

“Fine,” Cassie snapped back. “Now what?”

Sierra wanted to grab Cassie and tell her to stop. Taunting a homicidal psychopath was a terrible strategy. Unless Cassie hadsome big secret plan, she was bringing them closer to the brink, and if she had a plan, she should either clue the rest of them in somehow or deploy it.

Dylan rubbed his thumb over the side of his gun, almost caressing it. “Simple. You’re going to admit what you did twelve years ago.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Alex said.

“I’d rethink that response because the first one to tell the truth gets to live.”

Sierra hated that answer. She had a feeling she’d hate the response to this question even more. “And the rest of us?”

Dylan didn’t hesitate. “Are you familiar with the termbloodbath?”

Chapter Forty-Six

Alex

With every sick comment Dylan uttered the walls closed in on Alex. He’d been so busy trying to concentrate and follow along over the slamming in his head that he’d almost missed it. Sierra’s arms. They were no longer tight against her sides. She’d shifted and shifted, moving every time Dylan looked away from her.

She’d done... something. Loosened the ties somehow. Alex kept trying and couldn’t get the plastic to budge, but Sierra had figured out a solution. The flash of relief in her expression hinted at her progress. But outrunning a bullet sounded impossible. All Alex could do was keep the conversation going, try to ease it away from the topics that could get him killed and away from Sierra.

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