Page 89 of Pretty Vengeance

If Ash was the person who was hurt, Jamie isn’t the only member of her family who might seek revenge. The articles about her brother said he started out working for an Italian crime family before forming a crime syndicate of his own with his closest friends.A crime syndicate. God. And I’d had no idea.

“Ash?”

She taps her iPad and removes an earbud. “Yeah, babes?”

“Can I ask you a sensitive question?”

“Sure.” With a small smile, she cocks her head. “But I reserve the right to take the Fifth on behalf of myself and anyone else I care about.”

“You told Crosby you didn’t want to see him if Brad was with him. Did Brad do something to hurt or humiliate you?”

“No.” Her expression is more perplexed than troubled. “Around me, he was just a garden-variety asshole.”

“I’ve been thinking about the night Jamie broke up with me.”

Ash watches me closely.

“He was really angry. Partly because he thought I was covering for someone. Since it wasn’t my bio mom, it had to be Brad.”

Ash shrugs, shifting her chameleon features into an innocent expression.

Lowering my voice to a whisper, I say, “If Brad did something to hurt you, and someone decided to hurt him in return, I wouldn’t blame them.”

“Good to know.” Her smile is gentle, but there are no outward signs she’s harboring anger or sadness below the surface. If she was the victim of something, she’s world-class at compartmentalizing.

I pick at the edge of the blanket. “He was an elitist prick. And physically abusive at times.”

“Toward you?”

I nod.

“Well then…” Her brows furrow, but her voice remains light. “Karma caught up with him.” There’s satisfaction in her tone. The shift is subtle but unmistakable. She despises him more now, so it’s a pretty sure bet that she isn’t hiding any trauma of her own.

“Karma… maybe. But for what? Have you heard any rumors about him? Something that would’ve made someone want to kill him?”

“I haven’t.” Ash climbs out of bed, grabs both our mugs, and re-heats our lattes. “But I’m sure he made a lot of enemies.”

“Definitely.” It occurs to me that admitting Brad assaulted me shows I had a motive to want him gone. Which is something I’ve been trying to keep secret. “You probably won’t talk to the police, but if you do, would you mind forgetting I told you he was abusive?”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll never speak to the police about your brother.”

“Well… We’re roommates and you go to school here, so they might come to talk to you. Or bump into you if they come to talk to me. They also might find out we were at the party at the Ruins and had an issue with Brad.”

“Here’s something a lot of people don’t know, Seesaw. People aren’t obligated to talk to the police. So, let’s say the men in blue show up here and say, ‘Miss Patrick, we’d like to talk to you about Brad Allendale yada, yada.’ I would tell them, ‘I don’t have anything to say to you.’ And then I’d just repeat that one line over and over until they went away. The police can’t compel a person to speak, not even if you’re under arrest. In fact, now that you’ve told them all the information you have about the night Brad died, you don’t have to talk to them again, either.”

Tilting my head, I ask, “Is that true?”

“Yep. Absolutely true.”

“But since I was a witness, wouldn’t I have to be interviewed as many times as they want to interview me?”

“No. You just say, ‘I’ve told you all I know, and I don’t want to talk to you anymore.’ Unless they have grounds to arrest you, they can’t force you to go anywhere with them. All you have to do is say no and close the door.”

“Have you actually done that and had it work?”

She laughs softly. “No, but I’ve been coached by an expert.”

“Your brother?”