Page 50 of Wicked Games

“She’s bought 750,000 followers.”

Kiara finally looked up again. “You guys just don’t get it!” she said hotly. “When you’re in my line of work, you need constant growth and engagement, or else everything falls off and you become totally irrelevant!”

“Wow.” Rhys smirked as he typed the answer. “Irrelevant, you say. Sounds truly terrible.”

“Shut up,” Kiara hissed. “At least I’m not secretly poor like you.”

“Wait, what?” Tate cut in, cocking his head.

Kiara leaned back and smiled. “That’s right, Rhys—I already knowyoursecret. Your dad sold me my latest car two months ago. He looksexactlylike you. That’s how I found out.”

Rhys ignored her comments and looked over at Zach. “Your turn, man. Who did you cheat on your girlfriend with last year?”

Zach shifted in his seat, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. He wouldn’t meet April’s eyes, even though she was staring right at him.

“You cheated on Abby?” she said, eyes saucer wide.

“I… it was a mistake,” Zach mumbled. “It only happened once.”

I could practically see April’s heart breaking right in front of me. “But… why?” she asked, blinking rapidly as she tried to stop herself from crying. “How could you do that to Abby?How?”

“I’m sorry. I swear, it was only one time, and it was a mistake. It never happened again.”

“Oh my god.” April stood and shook a finger at Zach. “This is why we got so close after she died, isn’t it? And also why you helped me start the drug awareness campaign in her name. I always thought it was because you loved her so much that you saw me as a family member, and you wanted to stay close because of that. But it was all out of guilt, wasn’t it?”

“No!” Zach looked stricken. “You’re one of my best friends, April.”

“Oh, so youdon’tfeel guilty?”

“Of course I do! I just didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to make things even worse for you!”

Rhys lifted a hand. “Guys, we’ve been over this. Just answer the question, and we can have the big discussion later, okay?”

April whirled around, eyes flashing. “No! We still have thirteen minutes left on the clock, and we’re almost done. You can give me at least one minute for this!”

She spun back around to glare at Zach. “So you didn’t tell me for my sake? You seriously expect me to believe that?”

“I knew how you’d react, and I didn’t want to lose our friendship.” He slowly shook his head, one hand dabbing at hiseyes. “I regretted it so much, and being friends with you helped so much with the pain after Abby died. I couldn’t lose you too.”

“Fuck you,” April seethed. “How dare you?”

“April, please,” Brooke said, rising to her feet. She lay a hand on April’s shoulder. “I understand that you’re hurt by this, but we really need to keep going. That clock is ticking down fast.”

April slowly turned to face her. “Why aren’t you more surprised by this?” she asked in a low voice.

Brooke bit her bottom lip and looked down at the floor.

“Oh my god.” April’s eyes narrowed. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“No. I… I suspected. That’s all.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t want to cause drama. Then, after Abby passed, I saw no reason to make things worse by dredging up stuff from the past. So, yeah… I never told you. I’m sorry.”

Maverick stood and slammed his hand down on the table. “Enough! Answer the question, Zach. Who was the girl you cheated with?”

Zach sighed and raked a hand through his hair, mumbling something unintelligible.

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