“I wanted to talk to my dad before I did anything. “I want to hurt him for you, but we’re trying to do this right and get Dane’s story straightened out, see if there’s enough for a search warrant.” Chance and Dane and I…we all went.” He tenses. That’s why I went to the party last night, plus I thought maybe he might get sloppy and do something or say something. We’ve been trying to act like nothing is up so he doesn’t destroy them. “We got inside Liam’s bedroom and found his trophies.” This is about me!” I thump my chest, holding myself together with fragile strings. I know my brother…” He trails off, his hands knotted. “-but he only said that because he’s suspicious that Dane’s remembering. “Liam told Dane that Dane roofied your drink-”
“What does that mean?” Wyatt snaps, clearly on my side while Knox paces up and down the sidewalk. Knox is next to me and Wyatt has moved as well, his arms around my waist as I cling to him. I lean against the wall of the police station, and I’m not even aware of how I got there. He tries to hold me, but I push him away. Knox’s eyes flare, and I bend over and clutch myself, bile rising. “He was angry, and I didn’t…connect the dots, but he hit me.” “His voice…I recognized it in the stairwell when he talked to Jolena, and outside the gym that day-” My stomach jerks. “Liam?” I gasp out, shuddering as it clicks. I’m in those woods again and he’s on top of me, holding me down, and I can’t breathe, I can’t move, I can’t scream. My eyes shut as revulsion inches over me, bit by bit, images from the party flashing one by one, that horrible carnival ride.
“When I went home Thursday morning, Dane told me he remembered seeing Liam follow you into the woods.” I want to be strong, I want to prepare myself, I want to walk away from him with this anger hot in my chest, but…I have to know. I rub my hands over my arms, feeling chilled in the sun as I try to hold myself together. “I’m not leaving.” He wanders off to sit on a bench a few feet away. The silence stretches around us, thick with tension. “More telling me to slow down? I knew something was off with you!” We step outside and Knox follows us, stopping me with a hand on my arm. “We’re leaving,” Wyatt murmurs to the woman then steers me to the exit.
The lady from the desk appears next to us, her eyes darting from me to Knox. “Dane remembers something! That’s what all this is, am I right? You and him and the lawyers? I’m not stupid, Knox! He knows, and he told you, and you need time to breathe right after we have…a moment together that I thought meant something.
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