Page 261 of Depraved Boys

Cormac hopped from foot to foot, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

Sebastian placed an arm around my shoulders. “She’s busy.”

Cormac’s eyes hardened. “Is it too much to ask for a moment with my best friend?”

“If you’re going to—”

“It’s alright.” I stepped away from Sebastian and gave Cormac an apologetic smile. “What’s up?

“I’ve finished it,” said Cormac.

“What?”

“Corrine’s diary.”

My eyes bulged. “How did you manage to decipher the end?”

“You did most of the leg-work by identifying foreign words. Do you know any Japanese?”

I shook my head. “Did she?”

“We used to watch anime together and read manga on the internet. Corrine was a genius with languages. Some of the words we couldn’t understand were Romanji.”

“That’s Japanese?” My brows drew together.

“A transliteration of the Japanese language into roman characters,” he replied.

“What does the diary say?” I asked. “Are there any clues to the identity of her killer?”

Further back down the hallway, Leopold and Sebastian stiffened.

Cormac’s face twisted with anguish, and he took several deep breaths. “I couldn’t bring myself to read her last entries, so I saved them for you.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

My breath caught in the back of my throat. My knees, which ached from riding Leopold in the back seat of the jeep, buckled. I braced my arm against an oak wall panel and gaped at Cormac. With the translation complete, we would finally get to know if Corrine committed suicide. And if someone had murdered her, the diary would give us clues as to the identity of the killer.

Sebastian and Leopold strode toward us from the wall where they’d been quietly eavesdropping. Cormac’s face hardened. With the kings around, he was unlikely to want to speak further on any subject.

“What’s this about Corrine’s diary?” asked Leopold.

“If you have information that could free Kash, you have to share it,” said Sebastian.

They crowded around Cormac’s slighter frame, reminding me of the first time I’d seen him in conflict with the kings. This time, it was Sebastian and Leopold and not Leopold and Prakash. Pushing aside the pang of loss, I straightened and readied myself to intervene if things became messy.

Cormac pulled back his shoulders and raised his chin. “The police wouldn’t have kept Kashaayah for so long without overwhelming evidence.”

Sebastian snarled. “They tried to blame him for what happened to Ashley, and look how that turned out.”

I stepped between them and placed a palm on both Leopold and Sebastian’s chests. “Give us a bit of time to go through the diary, and I’ll update you as soon as I can, alright?”

Sebastian’s hard, green eyes snapped back to me and softened. “This information could make a huge difference for Kash.”

“That’s why I don’t want us to waste time arguing,” I murmured. “How about we meet up later?”

His gaze turned back to Cormac and hardened. “Text us when you’ve finished, and we’ll come and get you.”

I kissed him on the cheek then turned to Leopold, who also glared at Cormac with hate-filled eyes, and I kissed his cheek, too. Neither of them moved from their spot, so I turned back to Cormac and smiled. “Let’s go to your room.”