Page 32 of Liar
“I’m pretty sure we decide it as a group.” To Ash and Declan, I said, “When have you ever known Sawyer to try so hard? Think about it. He’ll be crushed if we cancel this dinner now.” Crushed was not a good word to use to describe Sawyer, but it was what came out.
“He’s right,” Declan was slow to agree with me, glancing at his brother and Ash. “If anyone gets to decide to cancel this dinner, it should be Sawyer. One of us should call him, tell him what happened, that Ash might be in danger again.”
“Ash is right here,” Ash spoke in a huff, referring to herself in third person. “And…Ash already went to Sawyer’s house after her trip to the police station, so he already knows about what happened.”
Will got to his feet, fury written across every feature on his face. “You what? Why would you go to him? That was—”
“Stupid,” I finished, causing Will to scowl at me. “But it’s not the first time you’ve run to Sawyer.”
Ash’s stare fell to her lap, and she looked, for the first time in a long while, put in her place. She crossed her legs, still holding onto Declan’s hand. “I had to. After finding out what happened to Corey last night, I had to make sure he was okay.” Her eyes clamped shut. “His throat was cut. One clean sweep. He was just…killed and left there, like whoever did it wanted his body found.”
That was something I could agree with. This killer wanted us to be aware of his presence.
The killer could play his game, but so could I. I came from a family of killers for hire, so I knew which gameboard we were on. I knew which moves to make, when to bide my time, and when to strike. I would wait. Now was not the time to make any moves; I had to wait and see what he would do next.
Ash was safe right now, and that’s all that mattered. Corey had meant nothing to her. He was just a graduate student, for fuck’s sake. Anyone with half a brain would’ve realized he posed no threat. Even the old me wouldn’t have gotten jealous over him.
Which meant one thing. This killer was a different breed, a type unlike me. Prone to deadly action in fits of emotion. Leaving a body in the open, taking the murder weapon—which I assumed he did, because that was a mistake newbie killers often made, and it usually got them arrested later when the police found the weapon in their custody—it was asinine. Just plain stupid.
This killer and I had to have a talk. We had to have a heart to heart about what was smart and what was just dumb.
Killing Corey? Fucking dumb as you could get. Now the police would be on high alert, snooping, watching. If they thought Ray Ruiz was the culprit, if they assumed he was the perpetrator here even though he had breathed his last breath a while ago, they would be ever watchful. Catching a serial killer would put the Hillcrest PD into the national spotlight, even in the history books. Catching the bad guys was why most people went into the police force anyway, and a serial killer? There was no better catch than that.
No. Whoever killed Corey wasn’t smart. He didn’t think things over. I couldn’t make a move right now, because I had to wait. Wait and see what he would do next, wait and watch.
“It’s okay,” Declan spoke, letting go of Ash’s hand only to pull her in for a hug, practically smothering her in his chest. “We don’t blame you for going to check on Sawyer—”
“I do,” Will spoke, frowning. “Sawyer is—” A look from Declan stopped whatever else was about to come out of his mouth. Will took his time in calming down, and I watched with interest.
Until lately, Will had always seemed more level-headed than this. A person unskilled in an area like this would probably just assume he was jealous. Not everyone was cut out for what we were, not everyone could share the girl they loved. Hell, I wasn’t sure I was cut out for it, either, but I was doing a better job at it than he was.
Will…seemed to be unraveling, and I wondered just how entertaining the show would get.
Did Ash notice it? Did Declan? Did they see the anger lingering in Will’s eyes, even after he calmed himself down? Did they believe him when he said he would be on his best behavior for the dinner with Sawyer tomorrow?
I knew better. Anyone in my family would know better.
William Briggs Jr. was a liar.
Chapter Twelve – Sawyer
Cooking was, as it turned out, not my strong suit. Another thing that wasn’t my strong suit was apparently grocery shopping. Had to swing by the store early Saturday and buy everything I needed, and I hated it all. Choosing what food looked best, paying attention to expiration dates, standing in lines—ugh, it was fucking miserable. I didn’t know how other people could do it on a semi-weekly basis. It was so much easier to just order the groceries and have them delivered, but I figured if I was trying to be better, I’d try to be better and maybe get a new view of things, like how Ash viewed things.
If this was how Ash grew up, standing in fucking grocery lines, no wonder she had such an attitude. What a waste of time. And the people—so rude, too.
I wasn’t cooking anything ridiculously complicated, because I knew trying to make something super fancy would only blow up in my face…or set my kitchen on fire. I wanted to show Ash that I was willing to try, not burn my house down. Granted, it wasn’t my house, I only rented it, but my parents would probably be a little upset if they found out I’d destroyed my rental home completely.
What was I going to cook? Chicken alfredo. The noodles seemed easy to make—pretty much just boil water and toss them in—and the alfredo sauce you could buy in a jar and just heat up. The difficult part for me was going to be the chicken. Was it wrong I’d never cooked chicken before? Not chicken breast, anyway. The kind you bought in the freezer section, yes, I had managed to toss those things in the oven occasionally.
After I got back from the store, it was time to clean. I very rarely cleaned too, but I wanted everything to be perfect. Call me gay, but I wanted everything to be just right. I needed Ash to see my effort, to acknowledge it at least, to tell me there was at least a small glimmer of hope that I could be with her.
Convincing the guys would be the hard part. Travis was already on my side, but Declan and Will…Declan didn’t trust me, for good reason, and Will hated me because of what I did to his brother. Well-deserved, of course, because I’d been the king of dicks, but I was trying to turn a new leaf here. Couldn’t they see that?
Really, the only thing that mattered to me was Ash. I didn’t know if I’d ever met another girl I was willing to do anything for, a girl I wanted to be better for. Ash had come into my life like a whirlwind, a natural disaster that was both beautiful and terrifying. I’d been a fool before, a drunk, high idiot, but no more.
I blocked all my old contacts, scrubbed their numbers from my phone. During my cold-turkey abstinence, Travis had done a good job of wiping the house free of my pills. There would be no temptation. That wasn’t to say I wouldn’t think about it, because I did, but when I did, I forced myself to picture Ash and what she’d say, what’d she do and how she’d look at me if she ever saw me lose it again.
Her disappointment was something I wanted to avoid above all else. I wanted her approval.
