Page 91 of What Lies in the Woods

“Sure. But I got my ass kicked for it, so let’s call it even.” He shrugged. Like that was that, pain balanced by pain. Like it didn’t leave cracks on your skin, whichever part you played. “Look, it wasn’t like I really wanted to hurt you or anything. I was drunk, okay? It was a stupid mistake.”

“I was your little sister’s friend,” I said, not ready to let it go. “She worshipped you.”

He snorted. “Hardly.”

I stared at him. “Come on. The way she followed you around? You protected her, and she would have done anything for you in return.”

“Protected her? From what?” Oscar asked. He was still standing entirely too close, looming over me.

“Your dad,” I said. “I know he used to hit her.”

He screwed up his face. “Dad? Nah. He beat the shit out of me, sure, but he never touched his precious princess.”

“I saw the bruises,” I said, confusion overtaking my anger. He had to know. She’d said he stepped in to protect her, so he was obviously aware of what was happening.

To my surprise, Oscar laughed. “Oh,that. Cass and her fucking fight club. Yeah, she used to have bruises all the time, but she gave them to herself. She was always trying to get me to lose my temper. She’d fuckingwhaleon me, biting and scratching and everything, trying to get me to hit her. A couple of times I had to throw her off and pin her down just to get her to stop, but I never punched her or anything. She’d throw herself against the walls and the furniture and shit so she’d have bruises, though, and threaten to tell Dad I was hurting her unless I did shit for her.” He twirled a finger by his temple.

“Yeah, right,” I said. “Your seventy-pound sister was a real menace.”

“I’ve been in enough bar fights to know you don’t tangle with crazy,” he said simply. “Cass didn’t worship me. She was always looking for something she could hold over me. But the stuff she wanted was stupid kid stuff, so it was easier just to go along with it. I mean, no one would believe me, anyway. Everyone always loves Cass.”

I stared at him, trying to tell if he was messing with me. I didn’t want to believe him, but hadn’t she done the same thing to me? She’d used words, not fists. But she’d goaded me over and over again until I hit her.Thenshe’d turn vicious, but the fight would be my fault, because I’d started it.

I’d understood it, though—that urge to fight, not just because you wanted to hurt something but because you wanted to be hurt. It had never gone away. I’d just found less visible ways to wear my bruises.

But Oscar was violent, and he was scum. I had no reason to accept his word over Cass’s.

“Do you need something, Oscar?” I asked him, my wariness not fading by even a fraction.

“Do you?” he asked.

He touched one thick finger to the underside of my chin, tilting it up. I met his eyes and didn’t flinch. His hand slid forward, fingers around my throat. Just resting there. He leaned in close, until I could see every golden speck in the blue of his eyes. The familiar thrum offear and desire pierced me like a fishhook, and he smirked like he could sense it.

Why not?part of me wondered. Was he worse than Ethan? Was he worse than what I’d earned? At least I knew already the shape of the cracks he’d leave on my skin. At least I already knew I hated him.

“Get out,” I told him through closed teeth.

His fingers tightened ever so slightly. The pressure cut off my breath for half a second, my muscles tensing in sudden panic—and then he released me. I fought the urge to gasp, to grab for my throat. “No problem,” he said, falling back a step. “Cass just asked me to check on you, that’s all. Make sure you were here, keep an eye on you, that kind of thing.”

Cass had sent Oscar here? This time, when anger flared, it was for her. She might not know the details of what was between Oscar and me, but she knew how I felt about him.

Oscar left at last, leaving me shaky and sick to my stomach. I started to throw the photos and everything else back in the box. There was one more thing at the bottom: a plain manila envelope. I hesitated a moment and then reached for it, shaking it out on the bedspread.

From it spilled a random assortment of photographs and papers, along with a thumb drive labeled “Percy.”With what I’ve got on the guy, he can’t say no to me,I remembered Cass saying.

I spread out the papers and photos with a slow sweep of my hand, feeling uneasy. There didn’t seem to be any clear theme among the documents. A photo showed a man I didn’t know, laughing and holding a bong. A printed-out email from someone at a construction company seemed to be discussing wetland delineation and something about drain tile and “Section 404.” There were a handful of other photographs, some showing obviously sketchy behavior but most seemingly innocent without context. A duplicate check from Meredith Green to someone named Alicia Barlow for $15,000, dated April 2000.

And at the bottom of the stack, there was one more photograph. This one was older, dented from poor storage. It was a photograph of Jim Green, his hands on the hips of a slim woman in tight jeans and a Chester Lumber Co. T-shirt, what looked like the old mill in the background. His head was bent toward hers, almost kissing her. Close enough that there was no ambiguity about his intent, or hers. The woman was in profile, her face turned away from the camera, but still I recognized her.

Jessi Walker.

Jessi’s mystery man was the mayor.

Something like sorrow slithered through me. It wasn’t like I’d ever cared much for Jim. He wasn’t a surrogate father or a protector. But he’d been a constant presence. One more thing turned foul.

When I’d gotten the summer job filing, it had been Meredith’s idea. I’d heard her and Big Jim arguing about it once—what had she said?This way you won’t have to stay late at the office.I’d assumed she’d meant that he wouldn’t have as much work to do. I’d been naïve in my own way, even after everything that had happened.

I gathered everything and stuffed it back into the envelope. The content of the photograph was less of a surprise than the fact that Cass had it at all. What the hell was this? A blackmail stash?

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