When I look into each of their eyes, there’s nothing but bewilderment residing there. I waspositivethey’d known of the phone’s existence. I found it in Kingston’s room, for fuck’s sake. But from their stunned reaction, they obviously didnotknow about it. I can’t tell if these guys are more confused by the fact that it’s Will’s phone that’s on my bed or if their discomposure is more based onwhereI found it.
And… no one has questioned how I knew it was Will’s or more to the point, how I’d have known it was his if I didn’t have some sort of connection with him. I steal a look at their dumbfounded expressions again and know my link with Will is a key detail—and a big fucking deal.
These guys had no clue the phone was in Kingston’s room, so how in the ever-loving fuck did it get there for me to find in the first place? I cover my tear-streaked face with my hands, trying to think while I draw my knees up and rock myself back and forth. I go on like that for what feels like a very long time before Cannon’s hand lands on my shoulder.
“Elle.” Kingston’s deep voice pulls me from my wild ruminations. “I feel like we’re coming at this half-blind. I have a lot of fuckin’ questions and think it’s critical you be honest with us about what you know.”
I peek out from behind my hands to look at him, noting the tightness around his eyes and the deep furrow in his forehead. And fuck, his chiseled jaw is working a mile a minute as he studies me.
When I don’t immediately speak, I sense the irritation rising in Kingston, but Archer puts a hand on his forearm and directs a question to me. “I know you said you removed the phone from the bag, left prints on it… but did you turn it on?”
“No. When I realized it was Will’s, I put it right back into the bag. I didn’t know what to think or why you’d have it, so I stuck it under Kingston’s mattress until I could come back for it.” I worry the skin of my lower lip between my teeth. “I was distraught. And I couldn’t risk it going missing again.”
“The night Dane caught you in Kingston’s room—that’s when you took it.” Archer raises a brow. “Right?”
I nod, my face turning red. I didn’t realize they knew about that and wonder if they know I was in all three rooms that night. I swallow hard. “Yes. I lied to Dane, told him my panties were on the floor and I was too embarrassed to leave them there.” My eyes flick to Kingston’s. “He bought it. Or at least I thought he did. I don’t even fucking know anymore.” I pause for a breath. “And then I had to wait for almost a week before doing research on the bag itself because of the concussion.” I point to my head. “I’m guessing that phone has been in that bag since the day Will went missing.” My breath hitches.Fuck. Should I have said that?
As I wait for them to respond, sweat forms on my back and steadily begins to roll down my spine. With clenched teeth, I look around the group, waiting for everything to explode in my face because I know the elephant in the room is about to start trumpeting away.
“How the fuck did you know the phone was Will’s?” Kingston’s rough, commanding tone has the tight, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach worsening by the second. He glances at Cannon at my side, whose body has gone rigid, before he turns to Archer. They exchange a look I’m unsure how to interpret, only it feels kinda likeDeal with this because I’m about to blow my top.
Archer slides a hand over his tired face, then throws it out toward me. “You’ve got to trust us. I could have sworn you already did.”
My brain’s synapses are firing, but it’s like the information isn’t connecting properly so that I can explain myself. I look at each of them in turn, their penetrating gazes about to do me in, then finally put my hand over my heart. “In here. I trust you.” I nervously catch each of their eyes again before I tap my head with my finger. “But up here, it’s been hard.” At Cannon’s audible grunt of frustration, I turn my head to look at him, and he’s upset. I put my hand on his leg before I continue, but he flinches, his jaw locked tight, so I pull it away again. “I found the phone the day after I got the concussion. It rocked me and everything I thought I knew about the three of you.” Quietly, I whisper, “I was starting to feel things for you, and then there was this. And my world caved in. It devastated me. I felt betrayed.”
“Peaches. I’m slowly piecing together what I think has happened.” He points. “I don’t know why that would have been in Kingston’s room. But how did you know it was Will’s if the battery was dead?”
I cover my mouth with a few fingers, looking wildly around the circle. Blood rushes through my head until I can’t hear, can’t think. I have no choice now. Taking a deep breath, I expel the truth. “Will is my best friend, my cousin. I recognized the sticker on the back of the phone, under the case, because I gave it to him.”
Kingston closes his eyes, his lips pursing. I know he’s got it. “That’s why you’re here.” His pale-green eyes open and focus solely on me. “It was never about proving yourself to your dad or even proving to yourself that you could make it through the initiation.”
I bite down hard on my lip, and simply stare at him, pain surging within me at the distrust in his eyes. I can’t say a damn thing because he’s right. Mostly. Sticking it to my dad would simply be a welcome benefit of joining the brotherhood here at Hawthorne Hall.
“You’ve been here fuckin’ spying on us? Is that what this is about?” Hurt washes over his features. “And what? You found that in my room while I was putting a lock on your door that day. While I was taking care of you. And you thought I had Will’s phone and therefore know where he is? Or what happened to him?” His face turns a mottled color of red. “Fuck! Do you think I did something to him?”
There’s a lump steadily growing in my throat, and I swear, my mouth is full of cotton. Tears fill my eyes again, and I shake my head. Because no, I don’t believe that at all. Not anymore.I try to breathe, but my chest constricts. There’s no way their reaction to my deception is an act. No one’s that good. Guilt over how I’d been suspicious of them swamps me, coating every inch of my skin with an awful, sticky residue that I fear I won’t ever be able to wash away.
Kingston scrubs his hands through his hair as he gets up off the bed and whirls back around to face me. “What the fuck, Elle? I fuckin’ trusted you with things no one else knows. And the entire time, you thought I had something to do with what happened last year?Fuckthis.” With his chest heaving and his eyes full of hurt, he leaves the room, taking a piece of my heart with him.
My lip trembles, and it takes me forever to lift my gaze from my lap. With my heart so heavy it hurts, I quietly murmur, “I kept trying to figure it out because I couldn’t make sense of it. I’m drawn to all three of you. I like different things about each of you. But then there was this awful thing staring me in the face.” I suck in a breath. “As of the auction, the way you all came after me, I’d finally convinced myself that maybe you simply knew where Will was. Like maybe he left his phone with you for safekeeping. I knew down deep none of you would have done anything to run him off or harm him. There’s just no way.” My hands shake as I feel the weight of their disappointed stare. It’s so heavy, it threatens to pull me under.
Finally, I flick my eyes up and let them land on Archer, but he’s off in his own little world, sitting there with his head bowed and his fingers woven into his hair. With a slight tilt of my head toward Cannon, I take in the stoniness of his expression as he picks up his phone and rapidly taps out a message, which has my phone vibrating in rapid succession only a moment later.
Literally at a loss for words.
Funny, right?
I need some time to think.
Going to try to sleep.
Cannon slipping back into texting with me is a blow I wasn’t expecting. He was just comforting me. With actual words. And now…
With an audible sigh, Cannon leans in and brushes his lips over my cheek before he leaves my side. Skirting around the end of the bed, he briefly puts his hand on Archer’s shoulder on his way past.
Once he’s gone, Archer grits his teeth. “I can’t believe you kept this from us, Elliot.Fuck.”
My heart is heavier right now than any of them could possibly realize. I’ve made a huge misstep. And I don’t know how to repair the damage I’ve inflicted on us.
