Letterman Jacket

27 / twenty-three days before

Will Sullivan liked his coffee black. Plain and simple.

"Isn't that too sweet for you?" he asked, a grimace passing his features as he eyed my own mug. "You put way too many sugar..."

"It's how I like it," I defended, tapping my fingernails against the glass. "But I don't think we're here to talk about our preferences in coffee, Will. Please, I'm getting anxious. What exactly happened? What were you talking about yesterday on the phone?"

He leaned back against the sofa and tilted his head. With the ceiling lamp directly above our booth, the scar on his face was very much visible. "I followed Anya weeks before the attack."

I inhaled sharply, losing my grip on my drink. "Why?"

"Funds for my mother," Will answered simply with a shrug, "for my schooling. I was stupid and desperate. He asked me to do it."

"And yet you don't know who he is."

"All I got were texts from a phone whose number is untraceable. The first half of the money promised was sent straight to my account."

I bit my lip. "Okay. So you followed Anya."

"At the night of the party," he said lowly, "when Theo left her inside the room, I convinced her to come with me and drove her to the place where she was assaulted—a place she was familiar with and Theo knew about, because it would've been easier to find her that way."

I blinked and stared at him. "You brought her directly to a monster to be attacked."

Will's eyes were pleading. "I know how it sounds, Thea—"

"Tell me why I shouldn't call the cops right now."

"Because you don't have evidence," he countered tightly, clenching his jaw. "All you have are words. We need to find out who he is before we think about involving the police."

I gritted my teeth and stared at the man who contributed to Anya's suffering. Though I didn't know her, no harm should've been brought upon an innocent girl. "What else did you do? Is that it?"

Will closed his eyes for a moment. "I also called the police in time for Beau to show up using a burner phone."

"You framed him," I hissed, eyebrows drawing together, "that's the word, Will. If you're brave enough to do something as monstrous as you did, use the correct term, you coward."

He visibly flinched. "I tried coming clean. I really did. But he caught me. Took me and blindfolded me, then this happened." To my horror, a finger traced the scar on his face. "He didn't say anything, but the message was clear. I needed someone else's help, or else he'd do something far worse than messing up my face."

I swallowed hard. "You're going to pay for what you did."

Will nodded. "I know."

"You and that...bastard."

"Yes."

"Why Anya? What could he have against an innocent girl?"

He paused. "He never told me why. He never answered my questions, but maybe she wasn't so innocent after all."

"That's not a fucking excuse to make her suffer. She's traumatized—this will scar her for the rest of her life."

Will's lips curved to a sad smile. "That is my burden to shoulder for the rest of my life as well."

I took a sip from my drink. "Why do you have a bad relationship with Nico and Faust? What do they know?"

"They don't know anything specific," he answered carefully, rolling his neck. "They're wary. They just assume I had something to do with the attack, which is why they're keen on protecting you from me."