Pretty When She Cries - Black Mountain Academy

I reach out and touch her arm. “None of this was your fault.”

She sniffles. “I should have told you right after it happened.”

“It isn’t your fault,” I insist. “You were traumatized. I just wish I could have helped you then. I wish I had done something differently.”

“No, you don’t get it.” Her whole body jerks as she drags her fingers over her face. “I’m a terrible person. I could have helped you. All I had to do was prove what really happened.”

“But how?” I ask, unsettled by the certainty in her voice.

“I recorded it,” she cries out. “I have the whole thing on audio.”

My pulse slows to a crawl. Audio. She has an audio recording of everything that happened that night.

“I gave it to my parents,” she says. “And they turned it over to the police. I wanted to talk to you first, but they insisted. When they found out what happened, there was nothing else I could do.”

“The police?” My voice is so faint I’m not sure she even hears me.

“They have to pay for what they’ve done.” Her eyes flash. “This was the only way. It’s too late for me, so it’s up to you now.”

“What do you mean it’s too late for you?” I demand.

She leans back into the pillow, and the first sign of life flickers in her features. “I’m going away. I’m finally getting the help I need.”34Landon“I’m only going to ask you one more time, Audrey,” I growl. “Who broke her ankle?”

“You can’t do this to me!” she yelps.

Her bony ass is duct-taped to a chair in her bedroom, and she’s squealing like a stuck pig every time I ask her a simple fucking question.

Wyatt’s on the floor beneath her feet, groaning after I beat in his ugly tomato face. Carson’s standing above him, his shoe hovering dangerously close to Wyatt’s balls, which will look like pancakes pretty soon if he doesn’t give up the tough-guy routine.

“I asked you a question,” Carson warns. “Who drugged us?”

“C’mon, bro.” Wyatt flops around like a fish, trying to loosen the tape around his wrists. “Anything but my nuts.”

“Then tell me what I want to know.”

Audrey glares at Wyatt, sensing he’s about to break. She’s trying to make eye contact. Trying to control him like she always does. But his loyalty to her isn’t as strong as his love for his favorite appendage.

I step between them, so she’s forced to look at me. “Answer me, Audrey.”

“I don’t know anything,” she hisses. “My parents are going to be home any minute, and they will string you up if they catch you here!”

“Funny,” I muse. “Because according to your mother’s Instagram, they are still in the Bahamas.”

Her face pales, and she shakes her head. “No, they aren’t.”

“Quit fucking around. The gig is up.”

Wyatt howls in pain as Carson nudges his groin with his shoe. “Choose wisely. Your dick or the truth. Nothing is stopping us from tying a string around your little smoky and leaving it to shrivel up and fall off.”

“Fuckkkkk,” Wyatt bellows. “Okay. Alright, man. Alright, I’ll tell you. Just stop.”

Carson releases some of the pressure on Wyatt’s junk just as Audrey opens her mouth to scream at him. I slap a hand over her mouth and then grab one of her dirty socks from the floor. She squeals when I pry open her jaw and stuff it inside, but it seems to do the trick when I rip off a piece of tape to secure it.

She’s raging, thrashing against the chair as Wyatt spews his confessions.

“It was all Audrey’s idea,” he says. “She stole the pills from her mom, dissolved them in water, and kept syringes in her purse. She was planning on Kail showing up that night. She kept ranting about seeing you two in town together the day before. She was hella pissed. She made us stay up all night, putting together a plan. She injected the solution into a few juice boxes and dumped some into the pitchers of beer on my tray. She knew you and Carson would drink those. I was just supposed to carry them. That’s all, bro. I swear.”

Audrey tries to mumble her protests around the sock, and I shoot her a look that tells her to shut the hell up.

“Why?” I kneel and grab Wyatt by the shirt, dragging his face up to mine. “Why did she do it?”

“For pictures,” he blurts. “She didn’t like Kailani, and she wanted to humiliate her. And she wanted to get on your dick, but she couldn’t get it up.”

“What the fuck?” Carson glares at her.

I shudder at the visual, and I can’t hide my revulsion.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I ask her.

“She’s obsessed with you, bro,” Wyatt answers. He can’t seem to shut up now that he’s started. “That’s why she was always texting photos of you to Carson. She knew he had a thing for you too. She wanted everyone to know who you belonged to, and she was willing to take out anyone who got in her way.”