Page 125 of Dead Pretty

“Pizza smells good,” he says from behind me. “Audrey? Why are you standing there, staring at the door?”

Slowly, I turn around.

The carefree, slightly confused look on his face morphs into something else. Concern. Worry.

“Audrey, what’s wrong?” It’s evident in his voice too.

I part my lips, but I can’t seem to get any words out. I feel like my tongue is glued to the roof of my mouth.

I look back down at the picture. It’s like I’m willing my brain to tell me that I have this wrong.

But I don’t.

He knows the man who tormented and tortured me.

“What’s that?” he asks.

I lift my eyes to his. He gestures to the paper in my hand.

There is nothing in his expression that gives anything away.

I swallow thickly. “It fell out of your wallet.”

He frowns. “It did?”

“How do you know Tobias Ripley, Jack?”

My words seem to slam into the room, taking all the color from Jack’s face with them.

“What are you talking about?” I hear the waver in his voice.

I try to control the sudden onslaught of rage that I feel inside of me.

My hand holding the photo trembles. “Tobias Ripley. How do you know him, Jack?”

“I don’t know—”

“Don’t fucking lie!” I yell. My quick anger breaks into the room, like Jack broke into my life.

I take a step forward and toss the paper with the picture of him and Tobias toward him.

Jack picks it up from the floor.

I step back, closer to the door. Needing a quick exit if this goes south.

Not that I think Jack would ever hurt me.

But then I never suspected that he knew Tobias.

So, there is that.

I watch him studying the picture. He takes a deep breath.

Every movement and sound seems incredibly pronounced in this moment.

His eyes lift back to mine. Still, there is nothing in them to tell me anything. Not a hint of emotion.

Just blank. Empty.