Heart of Thorns (Shadow Valley U Book 2)
Heart of Thorns: Chapter 38

It’s rather difficult to remember why I ever dated Ben to begin with.

I stand in front of him and I see his mouth moving, except I don’t hear a word he says. I recall the moments we had together as a couple and he seemed normal. Like your typical college guy.

Nothing like Thorne. But still normal.

Why would he try to kill me?

I rack my brain. There weren’t even any red flags when it came to him.

Besides, of course, fucking some girl behind my back.

But nothing malicious or even potentially dangerous ever stood out. He grew up fine, too. I’ve met his parents. They’re a lot like mine—middle-class, hardworking, and much kinder than Thorne’s.

Ben raises his brows, like he’s waiting for me to say something.

“Sorry, I checked out,” I say.

Rhys laughs from behind me. “I think that means you’re boring.”

Ben glares over my shoulder.

“I just want to know why…?” I leave my question open-ended on purpose. I watch him closely to see his reaction.

It isn’t what I hoped for. There is no defensiveness or tic of his eye. Only defeat.

“Because I was an ass.”

I watch his mannerisms. Instead of acting defensive or worried, he seems…sad.

“After the fire, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to handle you or how to make things better. I was a lousy boyfriend and I think cheating on you was my way of self-sabotaging.”

He went directly to the cheating. As if starting a fire didn’t even cross his mind.

I peer over my shoulder at Rhys, but he’s staring at his phone with a scowl.

“I’m sorry, Briar.” Ben steps forward, but I immediately back away. He nods, understanding.

Except, I’m not sure he does understand.

I’m not stepping away from him because he broke my heart but because he potentially tried to kill me.

“Let’s go.” Rhys’s tone is lethal. He steps forward and snarls at Ben.

Ben rolls his eyes

“Will you fucking calm down, Rhys?” Ben scoffs. “I’m still your teammate, remember?”

Rhys grumbles, and Ben’s face twists.

I turn to follow Rhys out of the party because I know the beginning of a fight when I see one. But I don’t make it far. Ben’s hand wraps around my wrist lightly. I snap my gaze to his and tug my arm back.

He lets go willingly but doesn’t step away from me.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after the warehouse?”

Confusion silences me.

Ben glances behind me and quickly spits the rest of his sentence out. “I saw you crowded on the floor after the chaos ensued with your hands covering your ears. It made me feel sick to see you scared⁠—”

“Briar?” Rhys calls.

“Coming.”

I rush away.

My heart races, and my head reels.

Rhys wraps his arm around my shoulders and walks me toward the back porch.

How dare Ben act like he cares about me?

A gust of wind cools my heated skin. The anger doesn’t leave, I don’t think it ever will, but after locking eyes with Thorne, I feel slightly less chaotic.

He greets me with a tug on my hand. I fall into his chest, and he wraps his arms around my waist.

“Hey, kitten,” he whispers. “Did you happen to scratch Ben’s eyes out while you were distracting him?”

I think over whether or not to mention that Ben feigned concern about the warehouse incident. I quickly decide it doesn’t matter.

He’s already on our radar.

I rather not give Thorne more ammunition to feed his anger.

“Should have,” Rhys mutters. “I almost did it for you.”

A puff of my breath lingers in the chilly air. “Doing any of that will do nothing. He needs to be locked up. Not assaulted by either of us.” I pause. “No matter how badly we want to do it.”

“She’s right.” Thorne spins me, and I lean against his chest. His arms wrap around me in safety. “We’re going to have to tail him.”

I tilt my chin. “You didn’t get any info from Stephen?” Dammit.

Thorne straightens. “Just the opposite, kitten.”

It’s a swift punch to my stomach.

“Stephen practically paved the way. He confirmed that Ben left early the night of your fire. I think he did it, Briar, and I’m going to fucking nail him.”

“Your parents sound nice.” Rhys crosses his legs, watching me paint from across the room. He stayed in that exact spot as I talked on the phone to my parents, too.

“They are,” I reply.

After Thorne and Rhys narrowed down their suspect list with Ben at the very top, I haven’t been left alone. It’s been several days of them taking turns with me. It’s kind of cute. But sort of unnecessary.

Right now, it makes sense.

I’m all by myself in a secluded part of the school, so yeah, I’m happy Rhys is with me.

During class? I don’t really need a babysitter.

Or bodyguard as Rhys likes to call himself.

“So, what? Are you going to paint every part of the school now?” Rhys throws a lonesome baseball up into the air and catches it. He looks up at me from resting along the net of the batting cages. “The other sports programs got wind of the pretty girl in all black who is an amazing artist? They want a cool painting, too?”

“Hey,” I point my paintbrush at him. “Leave my attire out of it.”

He grins and goes back to throwing the baseball up in the air.

I finish blending the green and plop the paintbrush back into the paint bucket. “Has he texted back?”

Rhys grabs his phone.

My stomach is uneasy while I wait for him to answer me.

When our gazes meet, my shoulders fall. No word.

“I don’t like that he’s out tailing Ben by himself.”

He shrugs. “And we don’t like that he tried to kill you when you were all by yourself.”

I frown. Touche.

The night replays in my head from time to time when I let it. But lately, I’ve been focusing on everything from before the fire. My relationship with Ben wasn’t on the rocks, which is why I was confused when he ended up cheating on me. I wasn’t in love with him but I was still a good girlfriend. It doesn’t make sense.

“Hey.” Rhys flips his hat backward and sits forward. “What was the date of the fire again?”

“April twelfth.” A date that will forever be burned into my memory.

“And the time? What time did it happen?”

My stomach falls. Rhys is on edge.

“Just after nine.”

Rhys jumps to his feet, and I drop the lid to the paint can.

“Why?” I wipe my hands on my black jeans, not caring if they get stained with paint, and get closer to him. “What’s wrong?”

Shadows dig into the curves of his furrowed brow from the screen of his phone.

I pull on his arm. “What’s wrong, Rhys?”

“He lied,” he whispers.

“What?”

“Stephen. He lied!”

“What do you⁠—”

Rhys shoves his phone in my face. I blink and try to make sense of what he’s showing me. It’s an old social media post with a picture from what I’m assuming is the night of the fire. He pinches the screen and zooms in, right past Ben’s face. I recognize the old grandfather clock from the Kappa Sigma house. It was gifted to one of the frat boys the year prior because he got clocked by Cross Lopez in the cage.

It still rests in their house to this day.

“I don’t understand.”

Rhys dials Thorne’s number and puts it on speaker. Through the shrill ring, echoing throughout the empty batting cages, he makes sense of it all.

“Stephen told Thorne that Ben left this party that night to go find you, but if the fire was shortly after nine, and this clock says⁠—”

Thorne’s voicemail cuts through, and we both make a noise of frustration.

He calls again and pulls the photo up so we can inspect it further.

“Okay.” My voice shakes. “But… the clock could be broken.”

Rhys swipes through the rest of the photos and zooms in on the clock. Ben is there, with a cup in his hand, and the little hand on the clock shifts to the right each time.

Thorne’s voicemail cuts through again.

“Fucking hell,” Rhys snaps. “You try to call him.”

I dig my phone out of my pocket and dial his number. My hands shake.

Rhys scrolls through the photos again before moving onto a different set.

It’s from the same party.

“No answer.” My chest tightens. I wrap my arms around my stomach. “So if it isn’t Ben, then we’re back to square one.”

Rhys pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fuck. Let’s think back to the fire at the warehouse. We practically crossed out half the team because most of them were there. Well, because we saw them when the fire was discovered, and they seemed just as panicked to get out. Like Aaron and Willow. There were a few unknowns, though. Stephen, Ben, and a handful of others⁠—”

I gasp.

Rhys drops his hand and pins me with a look.

“Ben was at the warehouse.” I slap my forehead with the heel of my hand.

His brows crowd together. “Wait, he was?”

I nod frantically. “I didn’t think anything about it, but when you said warehouse, I remember what he said to me the other night. I was too pissed to mention it to you and Thorne. I didn’t want Thorne to get jealous⁠—”

Rhys grabs my shoulders. “Briar, spit it out.”

I shake myself mentally. “He said he saw me fall to the floor when the fire started and how he felt awful for how scared I seemed.” I take a breath. “If he wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have known that I fell to the floor. That’s too specific.”

“Stephen.” His gaze shifts to horror. “It’s fucking Stephen. He wouldn’t have had a reason to lie about Ben otherwise.”

Rhys hands me his phone and he pulls me towards his car. “Go through those photos and tell me if Stephen is in any of them.”

I swipe while we head towards the parking lot.

With each flick of my wrist, it becomes clear.

“He isn’t.” I hand his phone back and climb into his passenger seat. I call Thorne and almost cry when he doesn’t answer.

“Don’t worry,” Rhys says. “I have his location.”

I nibble on my lip when he brings up Thorne’s whereabouts.

“Where is that?” I ask.

Rhys presses on the accelerator, and I fly into the back of the seat, my heart in my throat. What if something happened to Thorne? If we’re right and Stephen is my arsonist, then he knows we’re close to figuring it out. Thorne put a target on his back by questioning Stephen about Ben.

“It’s the old boxing gym near the stadium. It’s used for storage now.”

“Why the hell is he there?” I ask.

Rhys speeds even faster. “I have no idea.”