Page 10 of Beautiful Liar

“I didn’t kill Cillian—your son did that!”

I swallowed hard, my heart beating fast. Maddox would protect Tomás from Tristan. That was clear to me as it was to Tristan. No one would protect me from Tristan’s wrath.

“He’s my brother, Tristan.” Maddox’s voice softened. He sounded defeated. Maddox didn’t seem the type to show vulnerability often.

Tristan sighed, his body showing fatigue for a fraction of a second before he clamped that shit down. “No fucking lies. The both of you. Understood?”

Maddox and I both nodded.

“So is there anything else I should know about this kid?” Tristan dragged his eyes from Maddox to me. The look he gave me made me feel as if a stone had dropped inside my stomach. He knew. Something in his expression said he knew about Tomás and me. I couldn’t breathe. Tristan could read the worstof enemies. He could sure as hell read me. But I still kept my mouth shut.

“I have Liam and Graham researching the source of the fucking picture. Someone out there knows what you did to save this boy. That puts us at risk. Until we figure shit out, we lie low.” He turned to Maddox. “Get the fuck out of here. I don’t want to see you anytime soon.”

“Tristan, I—”

“And you,” Tristan’s words cut over Maddox. “Jacob will take you back home. I’ll deal with you later.”

I felt like a fucking teenager getting busted joyriding his father’s car.

Just then, Tristan’s phone pinged, and Alessandro burst into the room, Luca behind him. Music blasted inside the loft, then silenced when the door snipped shut. Luca’s smirk sent a chill through me.

“There’s been a death,” Alessandro said. “At the school.”

Chapter Five

Tomás

I broke my promise.

My knee bounced up and down. Up and down. The tap tap tap sound of the heel of my Jordans against the floor set a rhythm for the last twenty-four hours of my life.

Tap. I broke up with Kieran.

Tap. I took pills. I never took pills.

Tap. Amir was dead.

It’d been cold last night. I hated the cold. And in the mountains, there were only two seasons. Winter and spring. Summer and autumn bumped over each other to get out of the way.

Kieran had left in December. The first week he’d been gone the guys picked up on my prickly mood. Wren had commented on my change of behavior, fishing for answers I couldn’t give him. Luckily, River distracted him. They were morons. But they were happy morons who weretogether.Henry didn’t even bother to look at me. Since he’d been keeping to his room, I didn’t take offense. And Fox just glared at me at every opportunity. I knew he only tolerated me because of Kieran. They were best friends. With Kieran gone I had a standing bet with myself on how long it’d take Fox to bury me in the backyard. Being dead first not necessary.

During the first weeks of Kieran’s absence, our scheduled calls had turned to random texting. Then silence. I couldn’t stay at Arcas without him and Dasher had suggested I move into Harper House. Amir and Morgan had an available room. Jack’s room. Dasher didn’t know that Jack tried to kill me. Kieran killed him in front of me. Nobody knew. One day Jack left school and never came back. I wondered what happened when the cops found him and his mother dead in that house. I wondered aboutthe obol Wren had left in his mouth. Jack and I were separated by distance, but we had lived a similar life. My mother was a druggie. His mother had died of an overdose. He had wanted to hurt the man that killed his father, my half-brother Maddox, by using me. As if Maddox would give a fuck that Jack had killed me. I had wanted to kill Maddox for killing my father and brother. Like Jack, I had wanted vengeance so bad it hurt. Except I’d been a coward. I hadn’t had bullets in the gun when I finally faced Maddox. Jack had been unlucky. He had bullets but the gun jammed in my face.

If Kieran hadn’t showed up when he had, I would’ve been dead.

Jack’s room wasn’t as big as the one I had at Arcas. It had a full-size bed, its own bathroom, a dresser and desk. The walls were pale. The paint lifted where I imagined Jack had put posters. There were scratches along the floorboards. The light above was missing the light fixture. Amir had stood at the doorway watching me. “They took his stuff without explanation.”

“Who?” I had asked.

“The reapers.” Amir’s dark eyes scanned the room before he shook his head and walked away.

The reapers. I had a nightmare that night that the reapers had come for me, but I hadn’t been dead yet.

Seventy-seven days after Kieran left, Amir had introduced me to echo. A new drug that promised a virtual experience. A high like no other. My brain chemistry was already troubleshooting ways to be normal. I wasn’t going to fuck that shit up with pills.

Amir gave me a look that said one day I’d change my mind.

I didn’t know then that Amir had been right.

---