Page 76 of The Engagement Party

It was clear Dylan thought he’d discovered the group’s weak link. Now he sawed through the last strings tying Will to his old story. Sierra could almost feel the lies unraveling beneath them, ready to drop them into the abyss.

“No...” Will gulped in a large breath. “We’re not the ones who said he killed Emily.”

“Three.” Dylan’s attention flashed to Sierra. “Stop moving or I put a bullet in him.”

“You don’t... please...” Will folded his arms over his head. His body rocked back and forth as if the words pounded inside him, begging to get out. “I didn’t mean...”

“Spit it out.” Dylan’s eyebrows rose. “Cassie? Mitch? Will? Last chance to chime in.”

But Alex was the one who moved. He pressed against the arm choking him from behind.

“No.” Cassie shook her head. “Stay quiet.”

Dylan continued. “Two.”

Tension whipped around them, pushing against them. Could the air punch and kick? Because that’s what it felt like. A collision of the elements and a history that refused to rest. This strangling pressure that closed in and pummeled their defenses, battering against their worn and exhausted bodies in an attempt to force the horrible words to tumble out.

Sierra held her breath as the group struggled in silence. The pleading looks. The uncomfortable shifting. The debilitating fear that coated and corroded everything it touched as the fog rolled over them.

Cassie looked at Sierra. “Do something.”

She only knew one way. One possible thing. “Ruthie. Now.”

“One,” Dylan said at the same time.

They all started talking. Most of them stood up, except Will, who curled closer to the ground. Cassie reached for Alex, who’d lost all color and hung limp in Dylan’s hold. Sierra could feel Mitch’s hand on her arm, pulling her back from the collective, unconscious lunge forward.

“Stop. God, stop.” Will’s arms were fully extended now. Stiff and up and in the air as his head dropped forward. “Please don’t kill me.”

Dylan wore an unreadable expression. “Say the right words.”

Will’s chest rose and fell as the words rushed out of him. “It was me. Brendan is dead because of me.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

Alex

Alex rallied even as his brain and his body begged to shut down. He craved the sweet oblivion of sleep. Anything to make the throbbing at his temples stop. He focused on the wild look in his wife’s eyes. He tethered to her mentally, attempting to force her energy into his muscles before the collapse came.

The strained words echoed in Alex’s head. Will had admitted to killing Brendan. He’d opened a can they’d promised to seal and bury and never touch again.

“Will, don’t do this.” Alex meant to yell the words, but they came out as a pained whisper.

“I’d let the man talk, if I were you.” Dylan was right there. His voice and his arms. He refused to back away and let Alex fall.

Will’s arms slowly lowered until his hands lay open on the soaked lawn by his sides. “It was... you don’t... It was an accident.”

“Wrong. Try again.”

The rush of angry breath behind Alex intensified the ache running through him. Like every day since that night, he wanted to call it all back, to close his eyes and pretend it never happened.The way Dylan’s arms contracted served as a painful reminder that this retelling wouldn’t lessen the damage. Nothing could.

“Will.” Ruthie looked near tears as reality crept up on her. “How could you?”

How could he do it... how could he live with it?A list of justifications and explanations rushed up on Alex, but he kept silent. Not because he wanted Will to shoulder this burden alone, but because no answer made sense.

Cassie shook her head. “Will, please. Don’t do this.”

“One more word out of any of you and I shoot. Got it?” Dylan’s firm voice suggested he’d do it.

---