Page 5 of The Ruse

“It was nice to meet you too, Asher.”

“Glad to hear I made a good first impression,” he said. He paused, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to say his next words, pressing his lips together. Then he added, “We’ll see whether you think it was nice to meet me or not after your friends fill you in.”

“O-okay.” I frowned as I studied him once more, wondering what this guy’s story must be.

But since it was weird to keep standing there staring at this guy who didn’t seem interested in expounding on his cryptic comments, I turned and followed in the direction Nash had gone. As I walked up the marble staircase to the second story, I couldn’t help but wonder who this Asher Park guy was and why he expected me to automatically dislike him.

2

ELYSE

“Doyou know the story behind Nash and Asher?” I asked Nash’s sister, Cambrielle Hastings, as we put the game pieces for Secret Hitler back in the box. We’d played two rounds, and it had been loud and fun and everything I loved about the game. But Mrs. Hastings had just announced through the intercom system that dinner was ready, so we decided to clean up before heading down.

“Did they have another run-in before you came up?” she asked, glancing down the hall to where Carter, Nash, Ava, and Mack were already on their way to join our parents downstairs in the formal dining room.

“Not a run-in, per se,” I said. “I was just introducing myself to Asher when Nash came downstairs to get me, and they acted really weird around each other.”

Cambrielle put the last stack of cards in the box. “That doesn’t surprise me.” She pursed her lips, as if considering telling me her thoughts on the dark-haired boy who played the piano.

“Is there something wrong with Asher then?” I handed her the lid to the box.

Cambrielle was Nash’s younger sister—a year younger than the rest of us in our friend group—and aside from Ava, she was probably my best friend. And though her brother obviously wasn’t a fan of Asher, I figured Cambrielle would give me neutral feedback on the boy I’d met downstairs. Cambrielle was level-headed and stayed out of the drama her more dramatic brother often found himself caught up in.

Aside from the passive-aggressive interaction between Asher and Nash, and the cryptic comment from Asher at the end, our interaction had gone okay.

At least I thought it had. Though, I did have a history of seeing interactions with really cute guys through rose-colored glasses sometimes.

“It’s kind of hard to say.” Cambrielle placed the orange lid over the game. “Like, I always thought he was cool—smart and mysterious with a bit of that bad-boy vibe us nice girls tend to fall for.” She winked, telling me she remembered our conversation from a few weeks ago about how I’d had a weakness for bad boys at my old school. “He was pretty well liked by most people.” A half-smile slipped on her lips. “Most people aside from Nash anyway, since they’ve been rivals for years. But then there was the whole thing with Bailee last spring…” She drifted off, as if not sure she should say her next words.

“A thing with Bailee?” I asked, having no idea who she was talking about.

Was Bailee a girl that Nash and Asher had both liked? Someone they’d fought over?

“Well…” Cambrielle chewed on her lip, her blue eyes wary. “I don’t want to spread rumors, since I know everyone deserves a second chance and nothing was ever proven…”

Nothing was ever proven?

“What happened?” I asked, a foreboding feeling welling up in my chest as I realized whatever happened was probably more serious than fighting over a girl.

Cambrielle looked toward the hallway again, checking to make sure no one was coming back to overhear our conversation. She turned back to me and said in a hushed tone, “Asher’s girlfriend disappeared last April, and the police thought for a while that he was responsible for it.”

“What?” My heart started pounding so hard it thundered in my ears. “The police thought he did something to his girlfriend? Somethingbad?” I whispered the last word.

“Yeah.” She looked at me carefully, in a way that told me she was uncomfortable with the subject. “I guess someone said they saw Asher and Bailee arguing at The Italian Amigos the night she disappeared, and the rumor was that he did something to her.”

“Do they think he killed her?” I whispered, my eyes going wide with shock.

She swallowed. Then she picked up the game box to put it in a closet nearby. “That’s what the police were looking into. But they never found her body or really any other evidence to say what happened to Bailee that night, so they had to drop the charges.”

“That’s crazy.” I thought back to my interaction with Asher earlier and how I never would have guessed I could have been talking to a possible murderer.

He wasn’t charged with murder,I told myself before I could get too creeped out.

You can’t have a murder case without a body.

But just because they didn’t find the body doesn’t mean she’s still alive,the devil on my shoulder reminded me.

And I had to do a play with him? How could Miss Crawley do this to me?

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