“About… What?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
“About my family having something to do with your brother,” he says. “I think I might know where he is.”
thirty-two
Crystal
I can’t breathe. My pulse flutters like a dying moth.Royal.He might be safe. He might be alive. Suddenly, I feel faint, and I have to grip the door handle to stay upright.
“I asked around, like I told you I would,” he says. “I didn’t know before. I swear it to you.”
I didn’t want to believe it. I mean, I always said Preston had done something, knocked him out and kidnapped him or left him somewhere in a ditch. But I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe it could be true, that his family could be capable of something so heinous, so unimaginably cruel.
Not when I’m falling for one of them.
No. No.I cannot think those things about Devlin. Not when I was scheming on him, and definitely not now, when I know his family is responsible for Royal’s disappearance.
“Where is he?” I ask, my teeth clenching with fury. At him, at myself for not trying harder, sooner. For not looking in the right place. “He’s at your grandfather’s old house, isn’t he? The one where we saw your sister acting all shady. That’s why she’s his favorite? Because she’ll help him take care of a body?”
I’m seething by the time I stop, venom lacing every word as I shoot them at him like poison darts.
“No,” Devlin says, his voice calm. “I already looked there.”
That surprises me back from my anger a bit. He’s been looking for my brother?
“When?” I demand.
Devlin pulls up at Willow Heights, the school dark and quiet now. An eerie feeling crawls along my spine, and a chill races along my arms at the sight of the school so empty and lifeless on a Friday night.
“Where is everyone?” I ask, adrenaline pumping through me as blind panic tries to claw its way back into my chest. I’ve been to a game. This place should be packed.
“In Ridgedale,” Devlin says. “At the game.”
I recognize the name I’ve heard a few times this week, and realize it’s an away game, which makes me feel only marginally better. Why are we here? Did he bring me here to tie me up again? Lock me in some closet where no one will find me? Dispose of my body in some convenient way that makes it look like I did it to myself?
“This is the only time when no one will be around,” Devlin says. “Everyone goes to the games. No one will drive by and see a car in the lot, and no one will be here tonight. But I’ve gotta do it now. The game will be over soon, and I don’t want to be here when the team gets back.”
I shudder and wrap my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite his hoodie. The memory of Preston’s hands on me, of the knife between my thighs, of the team’s animal frenzy watching Devlin fuck me, thinking they’d be next…
I drop my head forward and take a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
“Stay here,” Devlin says. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Wait, what?” I ask, my head snapping up.
His jaw is hard, and he sits up straight, leaning in to loom over me, dominating the space like he knows I’ll cave. “Stay. Here.” He delivers the words slowly, deliberately, so there’s no mistaking the command in his voice.
And like the dog he’s trained me to be, I instinctually want to obey.
But fuck if I’m going to sit here while he goes to find my brother, or whatever clue he needs. “He’s here?” I ask.
“Stay in the car,” Devlin says, turning to open his door and step out. He leans down and fixes me with that gaze that’s impossible to disobey, so full of masculine command and dominance. “Don’t move.”
He slams his door and starts off across the lot with long, purposeful strides, nothing like the slow strut I’ve seen before, the one that fits him so well.
It takes me a second to realize I’m just sitting here watching him go. I jump out of the car, my feet hitting the cold pavement with a shock. I run after him, catching up before falling into step beside him.
“Go back to the car,” he snaps, not bothering to look my way.