Free Fatal Beauty by Nazarea Andrews

know.
    Blackmon: Um. Blaincot .
Tell me about Paxton Blaincot .
    Brooks: You want to know about Pax ? (Laughing). Can I get a coffee? Pax —you
know he had nothing to do with any of this, right?
    Blackmon: I know that Blaincot was the first time you surfaced after going
missing from your father’s home. I know that he was a college boyfriend.
    Brooks: No. He was a friend. A
study buddy. I fucked him once, when I was fighting with Tre, and he had a
stupid crush. But he was nothing.
    Blackmon: (quietly) The guy was in love with you and you treated him like trash.
And you say he was nothing.
    Brooks: Do you want to judge me,
call me a bitch and a horrible person? Or do you want to know what fucking
happened?
    Blackmon: Why did you go to Paxton,
if you didn’t care about him?
    Brooks: We had nowhere else to go.
    Blackmon: We?
    Brooks: We. EJ and me. ( sighs ) Bitch. You want the truth, Detective? I was scared.
But EJ? She was pissed. And it was her idea.

 
 

 
 
    Chapter 14

 
    EJ is sitting on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the
courtyard. She’s got her feet in it, and her skirt is pulled up and around her thighs.
A guard, one of the usually invisible security Jacobs stations around the
mansion—is standing under the trees, clearly watching her.
    Charlie gives him a disgusted, furious stare as she approaches and
he fades back into the trees. She perches on the edge of the fountain, her feet
braced against the pebble driveway, and bumps into EJ with one shoulder.
    “What do we do?” she asks.
    “We listen to him. Jacobs is holding the strings on this one. We
don’t get to make demands. Anthony might have helped us get rid of Tre. He
might even play mind games and indulge my need to break away from the stupid
shit my mother wants. But at the end of the day, he’ll look after himself. And
that means when he says we go home, we go and that’s the end of it. We’re done.”
    She can feel the tension in her friend, can feel the arguments
gathering in her, and she shakes her head. “Don’t. Just. We pack. We go home.
You forget me and find a good boy who will make you want to shoot yourself a
little less than the others. I get high every weekend and put off the ring and
pre- numps for a few more months before Mom locks me
down. And we forget this ever happened.”
    “I don’t want to,” Charlie says, petulant.
    EJ laughs, loud and bitter, the noise ringing off the trees.
Stands in the fountain and let’s her skirt all, hanging around her knees in
schoolgirl pleats. “What the actual fuck does that have to do with anything?”
    She steps out of the fountain, and starts toward the house.
    “I’m leaving,” she hears. And freezes. Fear sliding down her spine
like a cold touch.
    She twists to look at the other girl. Charlie is still sitting,
her long legs bare in tiny ripped jean shorts and a white tank top the billows
in the lazy eddies of hot air.
    She’s squinting at EJ, her signature sunglasses forgotten on that
kitchen table. But her expression is deadly serious and EJ can’t help the
incredulous laugh that spills up and over.
    “Are you insane? What makes you think you can?”
    Fear flicks across her face, and then her lips tighten. “He isn’t
holding us here. And I’m not going to do something I hate for the rest of my
life.” Her gaze turns mocking. “I didn’t think you were so much of a timid
bitch that you would.”
    She stands and stalks past EJ, into the house. EJ stands there for
a long moment, staring after her friend in shock.
    Charlie just called her a timid bitch. What the hell was happening. Jacobs coming out of the house snaps her from her
daze and she jerks into motion, taking a few stumbling feet to the wide steps
leading up the porch.
    “I have to go.” He says, shoving his hands into his pockets and
eyeing her with dark eyes. A tiny smile turns his lips. “I’m sorry. I was
hoping to spend a little time inside you before you left, but it can’t