“Are you fucking kidding me?” Noah balks as we all stare at Alex in horror.
He doesn’t acknowledge us, though.
The instant the cameras are lowered, he fixes his cufflinks and nods to us. “See you all in a few.”
With that, he hops into a golf cart that takes him in the opposite direction of the house.
I feel completely numb. I stand in place for so long, I don’t even know how much time passes. My mind can’t fully comprehend what I just saw.
“What the fuck just happened?” Luna screams.
Chapter Thirty One
Landon
Idon’t know what they were expecting after shit like that. You can’t convince me that was an accident, no matter how hard they tried to play it off like one. Everyone lost their goddamn minds for at least two hours before they forced us back to the house, where we gather at the couch.
Connor hasn’t spoken a word, he’s just staring into the fire pit in front of us like he’s in a trance, silent tears falling down his face. Mason rests his hand on Connor’s back in support, but he pulls away sharply, curling in on himself before whispering, “It’s my fault.”
All of us look to him but don’t say a word as he continues.
“She’s gone because of me.”
“Connor, no. The rope broke. It was an accident, a horrible freak accident,” Luna says.
Uneasiness stirs inside me because I know what the others don’t. It wasn’t an accident. There’s no way. Finding Andrew the way I did and being immediately brought in for questioning had my alarm bells ringing, but this… it was too clear. Too blatant. I wouldn’t be surprised if this show was all made up. There’s no way in fuck they’re live-streaming deaths across the country.
“If I’d paid more attention, if I wasn’t staring at every piece of ass that walked past me… If I’d treated her the way she deserved… she would have made it to the platform and she would be here now,” he says, shooting an accusing look at Angel.
“Don’t blame your girl’s death on me,” Angel scoffs. “You came to me all on your own. Several times.”
“Several?” Mason interjects, looking at Angel like he’s never really seen her until right now.
She shrugs. “It was before the locked-in ceremony.”
Mason blows out a rough breath as he buries his head into his hands and shakes it. A heavy tension settles over us as we sit in silence when Alex shows up. He’s looking as put together as ever, though I will say his signature cheesy grin is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it’s been replaced by a polite but tight smile.
“Hello, lovers. How are you all doing?”
I blink at him slowly, and Shane’s mouth drops open, because what kind of fucking question is that?
I expect Connor to stay quiet, but he surprises us all when he leaps to his feet.
“How are we doing? How are we… my girl just DIED! Right in fucking front of us! You all didn’t try to save her, try to help. You didn’t even fucking blink!” he snarls, getting in Alex’s face.
Alex doesn’t move a muscle, looking down at Connor with a reserved expression.
“Careful playing the blame game, Connor,” he says with a sinister laugh. “At least I knew that she never attended college.”
Anger fills his features, and before anyone can stop him, Connor is reeling back and decking Alex right in the face. He goes down hard, and two large security guards come out of nowhere, tackling him to the ground.
Connor turns feral, kicking, shouting and snarling at the mento let him go as they begin dragging him away. I catch the look on Courtney’s face. She wants to help him, but I squeeze her hand hard and shake my head. We can’t let on that we know anything. We have to play the game… at least for now. I don’t know what else to do.
A few people help Alex stand, and he thanks them graciously, like he just took a little slip, before pulling his white pocket square out of his suit pocket and dabbing the corner of his bleeding mouth.
“Well, he certainly packed apunch,” he says, laughing.
We all stare at him, more than a little on edge as he claps his hands together and jumps back into the show without missing a beat.
