Page 71 of Poison Touch


Font Size:

“So, you like him?” Bryce asks.

Definitely no. But he’s a distraction from my deliciously hot, egotistical nemesis.

I shrug. “Not really, but he seems all right.” Since they’re not giving anything up, I try a different tactic and tell them what I know. “Look, Venom and Josh are in my gym class. Levi overheard Josh asking me about the party, and then he warned me about Josh. And then, just today, Edge said he wasn’t a nice guy. And before you guys start in on me about how Venom probably isn’t the best judge, I just think it’s weird, that’s all. SoI’m not taking what they say at face value. That’s why I’m asking you guys.” I throw out my arms toward them.

They look at each other again, both of them opting to use that exact moment to take a sip of their coffee. Their delay tactic won’t work for much longer.

“Come on, guys, spill it.” I lean back and take a sip of the sweet coffee, waiting. The caramel dances on my tongue while the whipped cream tickles my lip. I lick off the sweet goodness, still waiting.

Finally, after a full minute of staring at each other, Bryce sets his cup on the table. “At the end of junior year, Josh was accused of raping a freshman.”

My mouth falls open. This wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. Josh… rape. I would have never guessed those two words fit into the same sentence. “And what happened?”

“There was an investigation, but nothing ever came of it,” Bryce says. “A couple of weeks after the charges were filed, they were all suddenly dropped. It’s like nothing ever happened.” He pauses to take a sip of coffee.

“I heard his parents have deep pockets and friends who are well-connected,” Eden adds.

I sit up, leaning my elbows on the table. I have so many questions. “Nothing? He just got away with it?”

Bryce spins the coffee sleeve around his cup. “There wasn’t proof.”

“What about the girl? What happened to her?” I ask.

Eden draws a circle in the spilled sugar on the table. She answers without looking up. “The girl left Monarch Prep and started attending some all-girls Catholic school.”

“Do you guys think he did it, or was the girl just trying to get attention?” I ask, hoping for the latter.

Eden finally looks up at me. The look in her eyes is too somber for the story to have a happy ending. “We’ll never know.She committed suicide shortly after she left Monarch.” She pauses to swallow before continuing. “They found her body in the girls’ bathroom at school in one of the stalls. Her head was resting on the toilet seat with an empty bottle of pills next to her.”

My eyes widen with disbelief. I cover my mouth with my hand. “Oh my God.”

Bryce takes a sip of coffee, then sets it on the table and studies the uninteresting sleeve on his cup.

“That’s not all, is it?” I ask.

He slowly shakes his head, and when he speaks, his voice drops. “No.”

I glance at Eden, and she’s looking at Bryce, clearly hopeful he’ll be the one who tells me the main punchline of the story.

Getting the hint, Bryce looks up at me. “The girl was Ashton Kade’s little sister.”

My mouth drops open, but I have no response to that bomb drop. Badass, silent Kade. No wonder the guys warned me. They believe it to be completely true. And why wouldn’t they? Who would commit suicide over a lie?

A more critical question is, why wouldn’t they kill him for what he did?

It’s impossible to fall asleep. One thousand and one thoughts slamming against the side of my skull are enough to make me want to drive a stake through it. The one that keeps playing over and over is the rape Josh was accused of and by whom—Kade’s little sister. I want to ask Gunner or Edge, but it’s not my place.Should I find a way to get out of going with Josh, tell him I can’t go, give him some bullshit excuse? I could ask him straight up about it. But what’s going to keep him from lying to me? Nothing.

I shouldn’t worry about it. I have enough on my plate. But what if he did do it and tries to rape another girl? Being the vigilante I’m becoming, I almost want him to try it with me, then I could teach his sorry ass a lesson. My muscles tense at the thought of doing just that.

I glance at my phone and remember Adam's texts. “Shit!” Finding out when the next fight is should be at the forefront of my mind.

I send him a quick text back:

Do you know the venue yet?

His reply comes fast with a thumbs-up emoji.

Maybe the pieces are starting to line up. Now, I just need to make sure I’m playing the right game.