Page 190 of Depraved Boys

I swayed on my feet. If anything had happened to Sebastian… My mind went blank. It was unthinkable.

He stepped aside, leaving the tiniest gap for us to squeeze through. Sebastian went first but froze the moment he stepped through the threshold.

“Bloody hell,” he whispered.

Panic lanced through my gut, making me double over. Something terrible had happened to Sebastian. I clutched at my stomach. We’d only just reconciled. “P-please… I have to see.”

“Don’t come in,” said Leopold.

Tears filled my eyes. “What is it?”

“What, ho, Pigsty!” One of the auburn-haired Riley twins approached from the end of the hallway, flanked by Bruce and his brother. “You’re sniffing around the wrong room. Cormac’s over there!”

Prakash opened the door, yanked me through, and slammed it shut.

I glanced up at Leopold, who stared open-mouthed at a point further in the room. All the color had left his face, and his breathing became hard and labored.

I followed his gaze and froze.

A woman’s body lay naked and battered on his bed. Bruises covered every inch of her flesh, and her face was so swollen it was barely recognizable.

Barely.

I’d know that face anywhere.

It was the face of my twin.

Cold seeped through my veins and penetrated my heart. This didn’t make any sense. I turned to Prakash for an explanation, but he was already looking at me.

“Is she alive?” I asked.

“I didn’t do it,” he whispered.

“Of course, you didn’t,” said Leopold.

I nodded, because what else could I say hours after Ashley had stormed in here threatening to expose Prakash for the murder of Corrine Gibbons? The entire situation was too obvious to be his doing.

“When did you find her?” Leopold asked.

Prakash swallowed. “The moment you called.”

My legs collapsed, and I slid down the wall.

“Willow?” Prakash knelt at my side.

“I-I’m fine. Just…” My heart accelerated, my lungs tightened and wouldn’t let me inhale more than a few inch into their depths. Who could have done this? Who hated Ashley enough to hurt her to this extent?

Leopold stepped toward the bed. “She’s breathing.”

“Don’t get close!” Prakash turned to me.

“Why didn’t you call the police?” I whispered.

“I couldn’t act until I heard back about the evidence she had against me.”

I swallowed hard, and I tried to think of ways out of this predicament. None of them resulted in Ashley getting the medical attention she needed, and all of them resulted in Prakash getting arrested for nearly killing Ashley.

“We have to call the police,” I whispered. “Whoever did this will have left their DNA all over her. They’ll know it wasn’t you.”