Page 94 of The Engagement Party

Sierra remembered the gun Ruthie held. Cassie had one as well. As the tension spiraled and dark energy swirled around them with suffocating precision, all Sierra could think about was Mitch. Mitch hurting a woman. Mitch losing control. None of that fit what she knew about him.

“It’s exactly what you expect. Mitch made a pass and it backfired. He tried something with Emily. She was into it, but then . . . I don’t know, I guess she decided it was a mistake? She shoved him and things escalated.” Alex talked faster now. Wordstumbled out of him as if they needed to escape. “Mitch clearly thought he had a green light.”

Sierra could count the holes in that story. “What exactly are you saying happened?”

“Mitch... he... pawed at her clothes. She hit him. He threw her down and she must have hit her head.” Alex’s uneven breathing buried some of his words. “Cassie tried to help.”

“I did what I always do.” Cassie put her hands on her hips, clearly pissed off that her name had got dragged into this. “I fixed the mess. Mitch lost control and went too far. I got there and saw the blood... I had to step in. We weren’t the only ones in the area. Other students were drunk and walking through the woods. You could hear them singing. We didn’t have much time.”

Not an admission but not a denial.

The pieces came together in Sierra’s head. She thought about who Cassie was and how far she’d come from the kind of life she despised and escaped, and what she’d had to do to make that jump. “You did all of this to save your future, right? Because if you were there when Emily died, or if Alex was implicated, your plan for the future imploded.”

“Do not blame this on me.” Cassie glared at Alex with a look that saidfix this.

“I tried not to...” Alex shook his head. “I would have gone to my grave not saying a word.”

Mitch stared at him. “Why?”

“Why?Because you didn’t deserve more pain and police questioning. It was so awful... I mean, poor Emily. But you didn’t mean to do it. It was the alcohol. That wasn’t you. It was an accident, but I knew no one would see it that way.”

Mitch made a strange humming sound. “The killer’s son turned killer.”

“Yeah.” Alex shrugged. “I guess.”

Sierra nearly screamed in frustration. Mitch needed to be definitive. To deny. His instinct was to hide from conversations he didn’t like or that invaded his personal space. He’d play word games. Be sarcastic. Not answer. This time she needed him to respond and be clear. Not toy with people to evade a hard issue.

Mitch finally spoke up again. “There’s one problem with your theory, Alex.”

Sierra braced for the worst.

Mitch’s blank expression didn’t change. “I never went to the labyrinth that night. It wasn’t me.”

Chapter Sixty-Six

Ruthie

Mitch denied the accusation without any drama or hint of hedging. He forced Alex to tell all, to spell it all out, and then refuted every word with a simpleIt wasn’t me.

Ruthie let out the breath she was holding not because this mess was finally over, but because she suspected Mitch was telling the truth. His noand the way he delivered it affirmed her view of him. He could be a psychopath and utterly without remorse or emotion, but she didn’t think so. She’d watched him with Sierra. Saw him in the private moments when he looked at her with a love and a yearning he didn’t recognize and was powerless to control.

Ruthie couldn’t imagine that guy, one who had seen the damaging impact of murder on such a fundamental level, would kill a woman over a rejected pass. Ruthie guessed she wasn’t alone in her relief when Sierra’s body relaxed. Her shoulders fell and the tight line of her jaw eased.

“You didn’t,” Sierra said.

Mitch gave her a quick side glance. “Of course I didn’t kill Emily. She didn’t come onto me. She joked about doing it to freak all of them out, but that was earlier in the evening. Whatever happened later that night I can’t say because I wasn’t there. My night ended with the group when I dropped them off on campus, as I said hours ago.”

Alex sighed. “Look, I supported you for years but—”

“Listen to me. We’ve been friends for more than a decade. You know me. What you’re describing didn’t happen.” Then Mitch’s focus shifted. “Did it, Cassie?”

“I told you. I’m not getting sucked into this.”

“But you are in it.” Ruthie didn’t doubt that for a second. “This disaster has your manicured fingers all over it.”

“You were there that night,” Sierra said. “You talked about saving them.”

“I hate to break this to you but simply denying something doesn’t make it true.” Cassie shifted her arms behind her. “You need to be realistic. I know you don’t want to hear that because you love Mitch. I love him, too.”

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