Liar: A Dark College Romance (Hillcrest University Book 6)

by Candace Wondrak

  I threw a look over my shoulder, spotting nothing but woods around me, and I hurried to pick him up.

  God…damn, was he heavy. I had to sling one of his arms over my shoulder blades and pull his giant frame up the steps. He weighed more than me, but I could handle it.

  Barely, but I’d manage.

  I lugged his ass up the steps, nearly dropped him as I tried to open the front door, and pulled him into the house. Once I set him on the floor, I got to work. In my suitcase, beneath my clothes, in a separate compartment to hide the items just in case someone snooped, I grabbed what I needed. Gloves, first. Second, that pen and pad of paper. I threw the rope around my shoulder and returned to the front of the cabin.

  A small table sat near the kitchen, and I had to move one of its chairs to place it directly under one of the wooden tresses up top. Being a cabin, everything was wonderfully open. A perfect place to hang.

  I wrote just a quick note on the pad—I’m sorry—in the messy handwriting I knew was Sawyer’s before bending down and curling his right hand around the pen, getting its length nicely coated in his fingerprints. I dropped the pen beside the pad before climbing up and tying the end of the rope to the wooden beam up top.

  A hassle to get everything exactly how I wanted, but it was something I had to do. Sawyer dying like this was fitting. He would go out just like his sister. Neither of them deserved to live. They’d both lied and hurt my brother, and Sawyer would do nothing but hurt Ash in the future. I was saving them both more heartache in the future; I hoped they’d realize that, if they ever found out the truth.

  I wanted to tell them, but now was not the time.

  Right now, it was Sawyer’s time to shine. I lugged his body onto the chair. Out of all of the mistakes he’d made, coming to this little retreat with us was the worst, because the last thing he’d see was this cabin, these walls. Ash would be nothing but a distant memory to him as he strangled to death.

  Chapter Twenty-Four – Sawyer

  Something wasn’t right. I knew that could say a lot, could mean a lot, but right now, my head pounded, my thoughts not all there. I struggled to open my eyes when I felt myself being lifted, as if I was weightless, floating in the air. And then a tightening of something around my neck.

  Wait. That wasn’t right.

  I fought to open my eyes, to see just what the hell was going on. It took me a while, but my eyes eventually opened, and I found myself back in the cabin, although nothing was normal. First off, I couldn’t remember getting back here. Second off, my whole body felt like shit, like I’d ingested a whole shitstorm of drugs without knowing.

  But, you know what was the strangest thing? The fact that my feet were on a chair, a rope tied around my neck.

  My senses were slow to come back to me, and as I realized more, my heart began to pound harder in my chest: I was about to hang. Just like Sabrina.

  A foot nearly slipped off the chair when I tried to look around. I didn’t hear anyone else in the cabin, but I sure as shit didn’t string myself up. A note sat on the table to my left, a pen near it. A quick, short message reading I’m sorry.

  “I had no idea how long you’d be out,” a familiar voice spoke, causing my eyes to move away from the table and dart to my right, where someone else stood, looking mighty confident and pleased with himself as he stared at me in my current predicament. Hazel eyes a shade too dark, a mouth thinned into a line, a face that looked like Declan’s, but more angular.

  Will. Fucking Will.

  “What the fuck is this?” I spoke. Or I tried to. My words came out a little jumbled, and in all honesty, it was hard to get anything out. I did my best though, and Will heard me well enough, for his stare hardened.

  “You know, I’m actually glad you woke up, because now I get to see you hang,” Will said, his lips curling into a smile that chilled me to my core. A vengeful, vindictive smile that made me cold. A cruel, evil smile. “I didn’t get to see Sabrina hang.”

  My heart nearly stopped when he brought up my sister. How could he…

  “What?” I could barely get the word out.

  “Well, you are kind of stupid, so I’ll tell it to you straight. At least you’ll know before you die—and I can get some practice in, before I tell Ash and Declan.” Will took a step closer to me, and I tried reaching out for him, grabbing him, but he was still too far. That, and I had to keep one hand around the noose. “My father didn’t kill Sabrina. I did.”

  If I wasn’t where I currently was, if I could get my hands on him, I’d fucking kill him.

  Will let out a chuckle. “You know, that wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it’d be, but maybe that’s just because it’s you.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “Don’t think my father was innocent, though. He deserved what he got. He did sleep with her. He said it was only once, but how could I really be sure he’d never do it again? He was never a good father, so it isn’t like Declan and I are missing much now.”

  “You fucking psycho—”

  “Yeah,” he agreed with another laugh. “Imagine that.”

  I knew right then, without asking, Will was the one who’d left those pills for me outside my door before my date. He’d been testing me, trying to get me to fuck up when it came to Ash, to show her, and maybe even Declan, that I hadn’t changed a bit. I’d known to be suspicious, but I’d let my guard down. I’d gotten so wrapped up in Ash that I forgot to take care of myself.

  Now I was going to die. At the hands of Sabrina’s true killer, no less. I was going to die, and Will…who fucking knew what Will would do. If he’d ever come clean, or if he’d continue to get rid of anyone he thought was in the way, or anyone he imagined to be hurting Ash or Declan. A sociopath like him, there was no telling when he would stop his madness.

  Fuck.

  I wasn’t ready to die. I might’ve wanted to die before, but that was…that was a long time ago. That was when I wanted to make myself miserable because I had nothing to live for. Now I did. I finally found purpose again, and fucking William Briggs was going to take it from me.

  William opened his mouth to say something else, but his phone rang. He reached into his pocket, pulled it out, saw the name on the caller-ID, and started to grin. “It’s Ash. Looks like I have to go. Damn. And here I thought I’d get to watch you die.” Saying nothing else, he stepped around me, to the back of the chair, and then he yanked it out from under me, answering his phone at the same time. “Hey.”

  My feet had nothing to step on, no ledge to hold onto to keep the noose snug but not overly restricting. When he yanked the chair, my feet slid off, and the rope pulled taut on my neck. The hand holding onto it was able to keep the circular noose around my neck a little loose, but I wouldn’t be able to hold onto it forever. Soon enough the pressure would get to me, my lungs unable to fill normally, and I’d lose my strength. I’d lose my hold on it.

  And then I’d lose my life.

  “Yeah, I’m heading back. Sawyer doesn’t want me here,” Will went on, moving to the cabin’s front door. He tossed me a look and a smile before he left, still talking to Ash.

  Fuck. She got rid of one psychopath only to sleep with another. Will…that motherfucker had passed the point of no return, and I had to get out of this somehow, had to survive where my sister couldn’t.

  My eyelids closed, and for the first time in my life, I prayed. I prayed for an answer, for a solution to come crashing through the window and miraculously save me. Even if I didn’t make it out of this place alive, I had to make sure Ash was okay—and if that fucker was around her, she wasn’t okay. Not really. She had to know the truth.

  Dean Briggs didn’t kill Sabrina. Will did.

  The noose tightened around my fingers and my throat, and I fought to breathe. Sabrina died like this, frightened, forced to hang. My feet dangled in the air, and I…

  I was not like Sabrina.

  I didn’t know why I didn’t realize it before. Sabrina was thin, weak, and I was the opposite. I could do
what she couldn’t…I could get myself out of this.

  New determination budding in my head, my other arm shot up, grabbing the rope above me and pulling. I had to go against my instincts at first, pull my fingers from the noose around my neck, and bring that hand to the rope above me, too. With both hands, I pulled myself up, my daily workouts actually good for something. The muscles in my arms tensed, my lungs finally able to breathe in a deep breath the higher I got.

  And the higher I got, the looser the noose became.

  My knuckles were white by the time I reached the beam in the ceiling, and I pulled myself over it, untying the rope from the rafter. I dropped to the floor once it was done, my body heaving and my fingers working furiously to undo the knot behind my head, to at least loosen it so I could get the noose off me.

  Never had breathing felt so laborious, so difficult. Never had I wanted to sleep away a whole month more. My entire body felt like shit. I didn’t know if Will slipped me something earlier when I wasn’t looking or what, but I was fairly sure I’d passed out before I made it back into the cabin.

  Will had planned this whole fucking thing out, like some kind of sicko. He’d brought this rope and whatever he’d used to knock me out to this trip, planning it all along. Me being with Ash was probably was tipped him over the edge, and I had one thing to say to that: fuck him. Fuck him so hard.

  My neck burned once I got the rope off, and I struggled to get to my feet, lurching toward the door outside. Will was already gone, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try to stop him. To intercept him. To tackle his sorry ass to the ground and make him regret laying a finger on me. On my sister. On Ash. He was the king of all liars, and I’d make sure he got what he deserved.

  Sweet, vicious retribution.

  Chapter Twenty-Five – Will

  Pride was a dangerous thing, but so was anything, if you had too much of it. I didn’t often let myself get haughty or prideful, but it was hard not to as I left the cabin, and downright impossible as I took the same way I’d come in. To the lake, to the same trail I’d left them at. Ash wasn’t going to check in on Sawyer, and I’d told her he didn’t want me there, so she suggested I come back. They could stop and wait for me.

  So that’s what we’d do. We would all go on this little hike, eventually return to the cabin and find Sawyer strung up, his body cold and his skin pale.

  Oh, yes. Pride was a dangerous thing, but today I had it in spades. It was like all of my planning had finally come together. My scheming, my daydreaming. Everything fit together like a puzzle, and Ash was my only missing piece. Ash and Declan.

  I picked up my pace, smiling to myself as I went.

  The look on Sawyer’s face as he woke up, as he realized what predicament he was in. It was priceless. If I could’ve taped it and saved it for future me to watch and revel in, I would have. That was a little over the top though, plus it would only be evidence, so I supposed it was a good thing I didn’t.

  God, I wished I could rewind time and watch it all happen again. I also wished I could’ve been there to see it, but just like before, the situation called for me to be spontaneous. It was so hard to kill people these days. Hah. Not a thought a normal person would have, but I think we all knew by now that I wasn’t normal.

  Sawyer had called me a fucking psycho. I didn’t think I was fucking anything, but now—now it was hard for me to argue against an accusation like that. It had grown remarkably easy for me to kill. So easy, in fact, that I was starting to wonder if, maybe, I’d crossed the line somewhere. If I’d gone from overprotective brother and boyfriend to someone you’d hear about on the news. Someone who, in the end, was always caught and given the electric chair. Or sent to prison his whole life.

  I didn’t think I’d last very long in prison. Didn’t think I’d like it at all, really.

  But that was okay, because my family had a good lawyer. Oliver Fitzpatrick would help me if I ever needed him.

  I walked pretty far on the path, not finding them. I hurried through the two miles the trail was, to its end point at a parking lot where the building to pay for the ziplining was, but they weren’t there. They weren’t anywhere, which I found odd.

  Damn it. Did something happen? What if I’d turned my back and handled Sawyer only to let Travis do something to them? Shit. One problem down, one more to go.

  I called Ash, but her phone only rang. It rang and rang until it reached her voicemail. I hung up, not leaving one. Instead, I dialed Declan. His was the same, and my stomach grew queasy with the worry something had happened. This couldn’t be good. I had to find them, had to make sure everything was alright.

  I’d go back to the cabin. Maybe they’d tried to take a shortcut back and missed me, somehow. Maybe they’d found Sawyer already, and were under suspicion that I had something to do with it. I mean, I did, I set the whole thing up, but I wasn’t ready to come clean yet. I’d only come clean once every other obstacle was out of the picture. And that included Travis.

  Not yet.

  I rushed back, almost out of breath by the time the lake came into view. The grey sky above me threatened to let loose more rain, but getting wet was the last thing on my mind. Ash and Declan were first. I had to find them, had to know where they were. I had to…

  When I made it back to the cabin, I stumbled to a halt, only seeing one vehicle parked. Sawyer’s car. My car was gone.

  What the hell? My brows came together, my heart flipping wildly in my chest as I sought to come up with a reason why the car would be gone. The keys were in my room. The only other person who’d driven my car in the past had been Declan, but I didn’t see him taking my car out for no reason whatsoever.

  No, something wasn’t right here. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

  My skin felt cold, and I turned to look at the steps leading up to the front door of the cabin. With the dark, wet trees around me, blocking out the darkening sky, it was an ominous sight. Eerie and threatening in a wordless way. Suddenly everything felt so off. A ragged breath left me as I placed my foot onto the first step.

  If Sawyer got out somehow, if he wasn’t hanging in that cabin dead, he wouldn’t have taken my car. He would’ve taken his—and I doubted he’d be well enough to drive himself anyways. He’d probably crash and kill himself.

  At least he’d be dead, but still. Not the death I wanted.

  No. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions before I found Ash and Declan. I wouldn’t leap to ridiculous conclusions even if the signs were weird. I would look at everything with a logical frame of mind and take things one step at a time.

  And that’s what I did. Up those steps, one by one. To the front door, one foot in front of the other. My hand reached for the doorknob, and I twisted it and opened it, stepping inside.

  The living room was empty. No lights on. Everything was very dark, due to the dying daylight outside and the lack of sun behind those dark grey rainclouds. As my eyes drifted to the right, towards the kitchen and the table—where I should’ve seen a hanging Sawyer—I saw someone else. Someone I wasn’t expecting to see.

  Someone who wore a grim expression, her face covered in shadows. A sharp knife from the kitchen sat near her on the table, and her legs were crossed. She actually sat in the same chair that Sawyer should’ve been hanging near.

  Ash.

  I couldn’t say anything at first, couldn’t speak, couldn’t catch my breath as I looked at her through the darkness. It didn’t matter much, though, for she had her tongue and was able to say, “Hello, Will.”

  Hello, Will.

  As if she’d been waiting for me all along.

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Ash

  There were some things you had to do in life that you didn’t enjoy. Some things you were forced to do, even if you hated them. Public speaking in speech class, the mile run in gym, and confronting one of your murderous boyfriends were all examples of things I really wished I didn’t have to do.

  You’d think, after Ray, I would’ve seen the signs
better. You’d think I’d have it all handled. I didn’t. I pretended at being strong, at being bold and brave, but in the end, I was just like every other girl out there. I wasn’t special. I wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

  So why the fuck did I keep luring psychopaths into my arms?

  As I sat at the table in the cabin, the knife near my hand on top of its flat surface, the note and pen sitting not far from me, I thought back.

  Will had just left to check on Sawyer. I thought everything was fine, content to hike with Travis and Declan, but we didn’t get far. Ten minutes into it, Travis stopped us both, turning around in front of us and holding out his hands as he glanced all around to make sure we were alone. “I think we should head to the cabin,” he said, sapphire eyes unmistakably heavy as they looked at me.

  “Why?” I asked, not understanding.

  Travis waited a moment, moving his gaze to Declan as he said, “I think something’s wrong.”

  Declan’s dark brows came together. “What do you mean?”

  “I think the more time we waste here is a bad thing,” Travis said, being so remarkably vague that I couldn’t help but wonder what he knew that he wasn’t telling me.

  We weren’t supposed to keep secrets from each other, but didn’t I just think to myself that sometimes secrets were better left locked away and forgotten than brought out into the light of day? Some secrets would only hurt the ones who’d hear them.

  What secrets had Travis been holding now?

  “Fine,” I said, causing both Travis and Declan to look at me. “Let’s go back. But when we get there, I want an explanation.”

  “First, I think you should call Will. Tell him to meet us here.”

  “Why?” It was Declan’s turn to ask, and I agreed with him, personally not seeing any reason why I’d call Will.