Page 220 of Depraved Boys

A bolt of shock shot through my heart, and I sucked in a breath through my teeth.

The scrape of Sebastian and Leopold’s seats cut through the silence.

Sebastian stalked toward Barrett, his back and shoulders expanding with every step. “What. Did. You. Say?”

I clapped a hand over my mouth. I’d never heard Sebastian sound so cold-blooded.

Leopold placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. The strength of his touch was the only thing keeping me from falling face-first onto the table.

Barrett stared at his feet. “Not Pigsty, exactly.”

“Willow! Her name is Willow. Or Evergreen,” Sebastian snarled.

Barrett jumped. “I-it was Ashley.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “She came up to us a few days before the end of term in a maid’s uniform and said she knew Bruce was dealing drugs.”

“What?” Mrs. Benazir screeched.

“Shhh!” someone hissed.

Painful spasms clutched at my empty stomach, and I breathed hard to stop myself from throwing up acid. Barrett’s story sounded so similar to Ashley’s attempt to blackmail Prakash with information about Corrine’s death.

The auburn-haired boy’s arms and shoulders shook. “Ashley said her friend could supply us with stronger gear than the crap we smoked in the hookah. All the stuff that could guarantee a good income stream like heroin and crack, but she wanted a cut.”

A few gasps sounded from around the dining hall, accompanied by whispers, but those people were soon shushed, and silence resumed.

“Keep talking,” said Sebastian.

Barrett licked his lips. “Bruce told her to go screw off. Then Ashley threatened to tell the police everything about what happened.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Jarrett and I weren’t involved in any of this.”

I leaned forward and gulped. Was he talking about the pigging or something else?

Sebastian folded his arms across her chest. “What did she want to tell the police?”

“What Bruce tricked her into doing before she got pigged.” His voice went so quiet, I had to strain to hear his words. “He said she had to shag s-s-some other b-b-boys. You know, to prove her love.”

“Did she say yes?” Sebastian asked.

“Of course.” He raised a shoulder. “You know Ashley.”

I clenched my teeth, wondering if Barrett was just saying that to protect himself.

Leopold leaned into my side and whispered into my ear, “Wills, if you need to leave—”

“I have to hear all of it,” I whispered back.

Sebastian also shot me a worried glance, but I sat straighter in my seat and smoothed out my expression. It wasn’t as if I thought of Ashley as a sister. The pain gnawing at me was the same kind of anguish I would feel about any woman in a situation where she was coerced to have sex.

Everyone in the dining room, the staff, the students, and myself, stared at Barrett, waiting for him to elaborate. The boy lowered his head, letting strands of auburn hair cover his flushed face.

My hand dropped to the base of my neck. Half of me wanted him left alone and sent home to grieve with his family, but the other half burned with the desire to know what Barrett, his twin, and Bruce Wilmington had done to Ashley to make her enact such murderous revenge.

Also, how did she know the boys who hurt her would smoke the altered cannabis? Or did she poison the batch, knowing that someone would overdose, and the boys would get into trouble? I scrubbed my hand over my eyes. This situation was getting more sinister by the second.

“Mr. Riley,” said Mrs. Benazir in an unusually authoritative voice. “Are you saying that the other Miss Evergreen consented to sexual relations with multiple boys?”

Barrett shook his head. “Well, I think she thought there would be two boys, but Bruce brought six. I never touched her, not even once!”

Liar. That evening, he and his brother had held Ashley’s chin so she could look Bruce straight into his gloating face.