Page 83 of Lovely Deceit

Eden

Itend to Leo’s cuts and scrapes as we bring him up to date on what we’ve discovered about my sister. Alaric, who’s joined us, has even told Leo about his sister.

Leo switches a makeshift ice pack from one eye to the other. “I wasn’t at the Devil’s Night party, and my grandfather doesn’t share anything with me. The only thing I know is that he is one hundred percent capable of killing your sister. Or hushing it up if someone else did.” He peers at me with sad eyes. “He did it to his own son, so…”

I place the last bandage on him, then squeeze his fingers. Maybe the reason why he and I butt heads so much is because we’re too much alike. We’ve been dismantled part by part by the same society until we weren’t sure who we were anymore.

“I want to take them down,” I tell him, my voice edging on a razor thin line of grief and determination. “I don’t want to just find out what happened to my sister, I want the guy held accountable, and I want the Knights to disintegrate into nothing so they can never hurt anyone again.”

Leo squeezes my hand back. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him look a little unsure. That could be the fact that bandages are now dotted throughout his torso and face. How any grandfather could do this to his grandson is beyond me. It’s disgusting. Just another reason to take them down.

Looking around, we all have something to fight for. Leo for his mom and dad. Alaric for his sister. Oliver? He would do anything for me, and in that, there’s a great loyalty and protectiveness.

Leo runs his fingers through his hair. “I knew you were here for something, but this…you must know how this sounds.”

“Insane?” Oliver helpfully offers. “I’ve tried to get her to run away with me, but she won’t.”

“Not just insane but incredibly dangerous. If my grandfather finds out—”

“He won’t,” I tell him. “Not until we want him to. You’re on our side now.”

My words seem to bolster him. He takes in a deep breath and squares his shoulders. “So, you need to see who was at your sister’s final assessment, and I can dig into Leon Forbes’ background. Right?”

“Right.”

“This is fucking crazy.” He shakes his head. “But I get it.” He zeroes in on me. “I speculated for so long that Grandfather had killed my dad. I didn’t realize how badly I wanted to know. When he told me, I was furious, but I was relieved, too. I’m going to make sure you don’t have to wait so long for an answer.”

I throw my arms around him, and he hugs me, barricading me in with his solid arms. “Thank you,” I whisper into his ear.

“Well, isn’t this fun?” Oliver remarks. “One big happy family. Anyone else hungry?” He brings his phone out and stills as he glances at the screen.

Alaric and Leo don’t notice his reaction, but I do. “What is it?”

He clicks on the screen, and his face morphs from surprise to awe. “Holy shit. Guys.” He thrusts his phone into our faces. “That girl Holly just texted me. She said her sorority sister who was also invited to the island snuck another phone onto the boat. The Knights eventually took it from her and destroyed it, but she still has the stuff saved on the cloud.”

I stare at a somewhat blurry picture. Two beautiful, smiling girls take up most of the frame, but Oliver points to the upper left.

“Holy fuck.” I snatch the device from his hands.

“Holly says that’s the guy Delilah fought with on the docks.”

The picture is a little grainy like it’s been blown up. My stomach squeezes. Even though I’ve only seen this face a couple of times, I recognize him.

Leo takes the phone from me, squinting at the screen. He shrugs because of course he wouldn’t remember kicking this guy’s ass and almost peeing on him.

Alaric takes it, lips pursing.

“It’s the guy from the cafe,” I murmur, in awe that we’ve put one more puzzle piece into place.

Leo snatches it back. “The barista?”

“Yeah, that guy, aka the one you almost pissed on like a caveman.”

“Sounds like I should’ve gone through with it.”

I can’t disagree with him there.

This is big. Huge. This guy’s a suspect, for sure.

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