Page 77 of The Engagement Party

Cassie. His Cassie. God, he’d loved her so much back then. Was so entranced with her drive. This stunning mix of brains and beauty reeled him in until he lost his way. She’d always been so clear, so in charge, Alex understood the pummeling terror she must be feeling as the shored up and carefully reinforced resistance she’d helped Will develop dissolved.

Will shook his head as he stared at the ground. “It was just supposed to scare him. We wanted to take him to the bridge and... and... I don’t...”

“What was your real goal that night?” Dylan’s voice grew rougher with each demand.

“Get him to talk.” Will lifted his face. A mix of tears and rain streaked his cheeks. “We were trying to get... closure.”

Ruthie shook her head. “You mean revenge.”

Alex listened to Will’s surrender. A halting voice but the bumbling words all made sense. Will had broken down. Lost it. The promises and the guilt he’d tried to quiet by getting lost in numbers unwound, leaving him mewing and desperate.

Pain dripped from Will’s voice. Alex knew he didn’t deservesympathy. None of them did, but to see his friend, someone so outwardly unemotional, expose the shattered pieces he hid under a thick layer of practicality proved crushing. So did Mitch’s dazed expression. His mouth had dropped open as if he intended to say something but was unable to form the words.

Will’s admission took them down a road that would lead to a hailstorm of devastation. While Ruthie and Dylan might gain insight, they’d never be able to understand or forgive... and the rest of them would be ripped apart. No amount of careful wording and emotional triage would put them back together again if they even managed to survive the night.

Dylan kept his focus on Will. “Tell me about the bridge.”

“We went to Brendan’s apartment. Told him who we were, but he knew.” The words came out as a jumbled mess of heavy breathing and painful hiccups. “He tried to kick us out, but...” Will’s voice died out but rose again. “We hit... we overpowered him. I pulled my car up to the building’s loading dock. There was this... I don’t know, a rolling bin kids used for moving. We put Brendan in there then dumped him in the trunk. We didn’t think the police were watching him... but... no one stopped us or ever questioned us.”

There it was. The grab. The first step in a series of decisions Alex would give almost anything to take back.

Sierra huddled closer to Mitch. “Oh my God.”

“Who iswe?” Dylan asked. “Don’t look at them. Look at me. Who?”

“Me and Jake.”

Will... no...Alex wanted to view this as luck but being omitted just compounded his guilt. All these years of keeping secrets and this one ached to get out.

Dylan hummed. “Two of you.”

“We...” Will glanced at Alex but just for a second. “We wanted Brendan to confess. That’s all.”

Dylan was fully in control now. “And the bridge?”

“The water was out. They... the state... whatever...” Will inhaled, gulping in a big breath. “They dam up... The bed was dry.”

“Enough with the water lesson. What happened?”

“We dragged him out of the car. He was conscious by then. He kicked and fought. Kept saying he didn’t go near Emily, but the police said he did . . . ” Will’s voice trailed off to silence. He watched Dylan but didn’t speak for a few seconds. “There was evidence. You need to understand—”

Dylan didn’t lose focus. “What did you do at the bridge?”

Alex saw the end now. The world he’d so carefully built cracked and tilted. The foundation dropped as it crumbled beneath him.

Dylan set Alex away from him. Still held him up and held the gun but there was distance between them now. Alex tried to pivot away but Dylan didn’t give an inch.

“We held him over... the side.” Someone, it sounded like Sierra, gasped and that made Will stop, but not for long. “There was a bar. He shouldn’t have gone over, but... he was jumpy and yelling. He had to stop yelling.” Will covered his head with his hands again. It looked like he fought to keep the truth from seeping in, but the truth leaked out. “He kept insisting... you know, saying... but we didn’t believe him. So we...”

“You killed him,” Ruthie said in a rough voice.

Will was in tears now. Dragging in deep breaths and throwing out words through his begging. “God, you need to listen to me. We just wanted him to talk but he bolted. One second weheld him, and he started thrashing. I don’t even know how it happened. He . . . he lost his balance and fell. We tried to stop it. To grab him in time.”

Mitch’s shoulders fell. “Fucking unbelievable.”

Everything stopped. No talking. Hell, Alex could no longer feel the chill air or hear the whoosh of the wind as it raced through the fire-pocked house somewhere behind him.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.” Will’s body slumped as the last of the energy ran out of him. “It was an accident.”

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