Page 162 of Wicked Little Darling

I had a lying piece of shit to track down.

If Jared was on the fencing team, then he was probably on the Ashbrook website. I could find his name and his picture. I’d probably be able to find his picture just by searching his name, actually, since most of the students here were the children of the rich and famous, but I’d check the school site first.

During lunch, I went to the library, opened the school website, then clicked on the athletic department dropdown.

It was weird that Ashbrook had so many different athletics when it was primarily a music and arts school, but I supposed the elites considered their very expensive, very privileged sports to be an art of some kind.

There was fencing, dressage, water polo, and lacrosse.

The fencing team did indeed have a group photograph, and right under the picture were the names of all the members.

Everett was front and center, disgustingly enough. I read through all the names, found Jared’s, then tried to match it with their positions in the photo.

And fuck me, I wanted to laugh when I saw who he was.

But actually talking to him—getting him to admit that Everett had been the one to break his arm was going to be impossible, probably.

Why?

Because he was one of the friends of the guy who’d tripped Dakota that day. Not the one I punched in the face, thankfully.

Ugh, fuck. Why did it have to behim? Of all fucking people? Then again, it wasn’t surprising.

“Damn it,” I muttered, making sure that I’d correctly matched him with his name.

I had, unfortunately.

The two other guys who’d been there that day were also on the fencing team. Their names were Chad Delroy and Garrett Johansson.

This was going to be more difficult than I’d originally thought, but I wasn’t about to be deterred.

Fuck, would I have to apologize? Or could I find some way to blackmail them…

And where oh where had all of my morals gone if blackmail was the first solution to pop into my head? It was like they’d evaporated over the years, vanishing so slowly that I hadn’t even noticed until it felt like I’d always been this way.

Fine, blackmail was probably off the table since I wouldn’t even know where to begin with them, but how would I get Jared to admit it was Everett?

Some kind of lie?

That was what I did best, after all.

And how better to control him than with a lie the would scare him more than Everett did?

Or maybe I could go through his friends first. If I could get all three of them to confess, that held more weight than just one confession.

Was I being too optimistic? Probably. But I’d do anything for Dakota, and I would get this done no matter what.

Someone had to right all these wrongs that had been done to him. Someone needed to expose Everett for the vile human he was.

I was more than happy to do the job.

I would get vengeance for my man, and then I could maybe convince myself that I’d done more good than harm, in the end.

That when I left him, the guilt wouldn’t eat me alive. Not entirely, at least. Or maybe I’d just let it, because the idea of a life without Dakota…

I didn’t want to think about that.

I headed toward the athletics center to find Jared and his lackeys.