Page 72 of Liar
Travis left, though he wasn’t gone for long. He came back in, a grim look on his face as he said, “He’s gone. He could’ve gone in any direction. I’ll find him, Ash. I won’t let him hurt you.” Those were words I could count on, I knew. If there was a person to take care of Will for good, it was Travis.
Hypocritical of me, considering what I told Will, what I did to Will for what he did to Sawyer, but at least I knew Travis wouldn’t kill Sawyer or Declan. At least Travis wanted me happy, and he knew that the others made me just that. Will wanted what I wanted, only in that he wanted me, him, and Declan together.
Travis glanced at the bloodstain on the floor. “I’ll also have this cleaned up. You should call Declan, tell him what happened. I’m sure Sawyer already told him enough. He’ll need to hear your voice right now, Ash.”
I nodded. He was right. So level-headed, especially considering what was going on. If Travis wasn’t here, I had no idea what I’d do.
My gaze fell to my hands. Blood stained my fingertips. First thing’s first: needed to wash that shit off. I’d seen enough blood for an entire lifetime. Once it was done, I got my phone and dialed Declan.
This conversation was probably the most difficult one I’d ever had in my life.
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Declan
Ash called while I was with Sawyer. I didn’t know what hospital to take him to, so I ended up driving to the one near Hillcrest, the same hospital Ash and my brother had ended up in. The same one that had treated me.
It didn’t matter, though. Ash’s call didn’t matter, because by the time her name showed up on my caller-ID, Sawyer had told me everything.
I didn’t want to believe him. He sounded out of it, sweat on his body and his pupils too large. I didn’t want to trust a single word that came from his mouth, and yet…what reason would he have to lie? These past few months, Sawyer had been trying. No more partying, no more girls. Only us and Ash.
He even told me about the pills that had been left outside his door before his first date with Ash.
So, yeah. When Ash called, when she told me what happened, I thought I was prepared to hear the story again from her voice, but then she told me what happened in the cabin after Sawyer and I left. Then my heart broke.
I told her I had to go, said I’d meet her later at the hospital. Once Sawyer was checked in, I texted her where he was, what room he was in, and then I left. All of this was taking time, time I didn’t necessarily have. He might not come back, I was well aware, but he might.
He was my brother, after all. I knew him.
Or, at least, until today, I thought I did.
So I went to the one place I probably shouldn’t. I took Will’s car, driving it from the hospital and to his apartment building. I sat in the dark parking lot, staring up at the walls of the building as if they held the answers.
The ugly truth was, there were no good answers. There would be no good explanation for tonight, for what happened. For everything my older brother did.
A part of me wanted to give up. Will was the only family I had left. Losing him…it was something I never imagined I’d have to do, and yet here I was. I got out of the car and strolled into the building, finding the spare key on my keyring in my pocket and going into his dark, empty apartment.
I sat myself on the couch, not turning on any lights. I had my keyring in one hand, Will’s keys in the other. My hands sweated, the heart in my chest pounding away wildly at everything I’d been told.
Will. Will was a murderer. Will had killed Sabrina, framed my father, murdered Corey Weinberger, and tried to hang Sawyer. For what? For me? For Ash? That was an excuse someone not in their right mind would use. I’d always thought Will was the saner one, the more logical one. The one who I could count on no matter what circumstances I was in.
Alas, he wasn’t. My older brother was a monster, and there was no coming back from this.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Damn it. I let him near Ash. If I would’ve held it together that night, Will and Ash wouldn’t have met. I put her in danger because of my stupid actions, and now a graduate student was dead, Sawyer was drugged and had a big red rash on his neck, and I was here, alone.
The last Briggs, really, because like I said, there would be no coming back from this.
Ash called me a few times as I sat there in the darkness. I put my phone on silent, not wanting to talk to her right now. There was only one person I needed to see, one person I waited for. Maybe he wouldn’t come back here. Maybe this was a waste of time.
Maybe he was dead.
When I didn’t answer my phone, she settled for texting me. She was at the hospital with Sawyer, and she wanted to know where I was, why I had to leave. I didn’t text back. I couldn’t. Right now, my mind raced too fast and too far to come up with any sort of normal reply.
How could I act so relaxed when my brother was the reason this was all happening?
The old me might’ve given up tonight. The old me might have decided it was too much, but you know what? Just as Sawyer had changed, so did I. I was not the sniveling, depressed person I was last year. It would be the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, but I’d make it through this. I would. For myself, for Ash, for the memory of those who’d been lost.
These were the moments I wished Mom was still around.
I had no idea how much time passed, but the night sky was dark, hardly any light coming in through the windows. Maybe an hour, maybe more. As it would turn out, I was right to be here. To wait in the darkness, because I heard a key insert into the lock, and soon after that, the apartment door opened.
