Page 123 of Good Boys Don’t Bite

“Yes.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Say it.”

Elliot closed the book.

“You're a good friend.” There was enough venom in the sentence to kill vegetation. Ronan laughed.

“You're unbelievable.”

“He's right.”

“What?”

“You are.”

Elliot smiled sweetly.

“Always willing to save him.”

“Don't start.”

“I didn't.”

“You're starting.”

Elliot opened the book again. Ronan sat beside him.

“Jealousy looks terrible on you.”

“Two chapters ago you said it looked good.”

Ronan paused. Then laughed so hard Elliot finally smiled too. Neither noticed the car parked half a block away. Dark sedan. Engine off. Someone sat inside. Watching the carriage-house windows. And at 8:02 P.M., Detective Mara Vance wrote Ronan Vale's name on a fresh page in her notebook.

Chapter Eleven — The Dangerous Brother

ELLIOT

SUNDAY · 9:12 A.M.

By Sunday morning, somebody had posted Ronan's arrest record online. Not an arrest record exactly. There had never been an arrest. That distinction disappeared entirely once Bellweather decided it preferred a better story. Elliot sat at the kitchen island with coffee cooling between his hands and watched strangers reconstruct Ronan from fragments. Three campus security reports from Merrick State. Two bar fights. One disciplinary warning. A photograph from three years ago showing Ronan outside a police station after a confrontation that had never resulted in charges. Someone had found Aaron Whitlock's name. That irritated Elliot more than everything else combined. The post appeared on an anonymous Bellweather account at 8:43 A.M. By 8:51, it had been shared to three student forums.

By nine, somebody had added a photograph of Ronan standing beside his motorcycle outside Whitmore Hall. The photograph was old. Elliot remembered the day. Last winter. Ronan wore a black coat and looked irritated because Elliot had made him wait twenty minutes while Claire finished talking. The image had been cropped tightly enough that Elliot was no longer visible. Now Ronan stood alone beneath the caption: WHO IS RONAN VALE? Elliot stared at it. His thumb moved across the screen. The comments were worse. Isn't this the guy connected to Dylan? He beat someone half to death at Merrick. Wrong. Apparently he has anger issues. True. He was questioned yesterday. Also true. My roommate says he threatened Mason before he died.

Completely false. Elliot's jaw tightened. Another comment appeared. Didn't one of the victims hook up with his stepbrother? Elliot stopped. He read it again. Then again. His coffee suddenly tasted bitter. That wasn't true either. Not Mason. Not Lucas. But the fact that somebody had begun dragging Elliot into it meant the relationship rumors were spreading. He opened the replies. Nobody seemed to know what they were talking about. One person claimed Mason had dated Elliot. Another said Lucas had. A third insisted Dylan had. That one made Elliot laugh once. Coldly. Bellweather had apparently decided every man within ten feet of Elliot had fucked him. He scrolled further. A new screenshot appeared. Ronan's Merrick disciplinary report. Elliot stared.

PHYSICAL ALTERCATION INVOLVING STUDENT AARON WHITLOCK.

His grip tightened around the phone. He remembered Aaron. The memory remained unusually sharp despite three years passing. A crowded house. Music. Too much vodka. Aaron cornering Elliot near the kitchen. His hand closing around Elliot's wrist. Elliot saying no once. Then again. Aaron laughing. Ronan appearing behind him. Everything after that happened quickly. Aaron on the floor. Blood beneath his nose. Ronan's knuckles split open. People shouting. Elliot standing against the kitchen cabinets with bruises already forming beneath Aaron's fingerprints. Ronan had never asked whether Elliot wanted him to hit Aaron. He simply had. Elliot had loved him a little differently after that. Maybe that should have worried him. It hadn't. The carriage-house stairs creaked. Elliot locked the phone.

Ronan appeared wearing sweatpants and nothing else. His hair stuck up on one side. A faint bite mark remained near his shoulder. Elliot's eyes went there automatically. Ronan followed his gaze.

“Don't.”

Elliot looked back at his coffee.