Page 45 of Beware of Dog

“No, wait, hey,” he said, softly pleading. “Please. I wanted to talk to you. Just for a minute, and then I’ll get out of your face. I swear.”

“What part of ‘I have nothing to say to you’ do you not understand? Are you hard of hearing? Or stupid?”

“Cassandra, please.” He sounded miserable. Tortured, even.

She sighed gustily and snapped, “What?” in her best Raven impression.

“I wanted to say I was sorry,” he said, shifting closer, angling his body toward her. When she shot him a glare, he leaned back and lifted both hands in surrender. That was whenshe remembered his name: Bryce. She remembered his face, too, smiling and bright with laughter on the other side of the kitchen island at the Blackmons’ townhouse. “I’m sorry about what happened to Jamie. And I’m sorry about what happened to you at Sig’s house. I knew he liked you, but I had no idea he would ever put something in your drink.”

Cass’s automatic retort shriveled up in the face of his astounding sincerity. He looked like he mightcry.

Dad had always taught her to be suspicious of sincerity.

“Sig’s terrible,” she told him.

“Yeah.” He offered a lopsided, sad smile. “I’m figuring that out.”

Cass sent him another cold look, started to turn away—and then was struck by a thought. She said, “Hold on. You’re the witness, aren’t you? Someone tipped the police off about where to find Sig the other day.”

His eyes widened. Guiltily. “Oh. Um…I don’t…”

“Itisyou.” Suddenly, Cass didn’t want him to leave her alone anymore. She twisted in her seat so she faced him fully, and he leaned back in response, brows lifting, apprehensive now. “Okay, I know things are going to get insane as the case progresses, but you’ve got to stick to your story.”

“Whoa.”

“Oh no. No.” She pointed to him. “None of that. Were you there the day Jamie was raped?”

Bryce darted a glance around the room and scrunched down into his chair. “I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about this,” he whispered.

“Not with Sig, obviously, or any of your other friends. By the way: you need some better friends.”

His throat jumped as he swallowed. “I don’t disagree. But.” He wet his lips, nervous as a cat, gaze taking another wild swing around the room. “I didn’t want to—I didn’tmeanto—I wantedto apologize, is all. You’re a nice person, and you deserve an apology.”

“You don’t know that I’m a nice person.”

He blinked.

Cass enjoyed his perplexed expression…but she did need him on her side, and couldn’t afford to toy with him too much. “Listen, Bryce. Does Sig know you helped the police?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“That’s good. This trial is going to be difficult. It’s Jamie’s word against his. Were you there that day?”

He bit his lip, his gaze skating away, and looked guilty. “Yeah. A few of us were. We couldn’t find Sig, so we went over to the house and let ourselves in with the spare key. We could—we could hear Jamie screaming.”

“Are you the only one who came forward?”

“As far as I know.” He glanced at her sideways, head still half-turned. “You sound really…like, official. Like a cop.”

She shrugged with feigned nonchalance. “I know some cops.”

“Oh, I thought…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

She could tell from the skittering of his attention that someone—read: Sig—had said she was associated with the Dogs.

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