DANIELLE'S POV

I sighed and pulled the covers over my head as I heard footsteps on the stairs. Jonathan was back. I checked my phone for the time and shook my head. Why exactly had I stayed up until almost three am?

Our room door opened, and I hurriedly closed my eyes. I had been scared since he hadn't come home for hours, but since I'd not gotten any call either from Lucas, the police, or the hospital, I'd had to assume Lucas was safe.

I closed my eyes tighter as Jonathan started moving around the room, assumedly removing his clothes. After several minutes of trying to force myself to sleep, the bed dipped as Jonathan lay on it.

Without any warning, the covers were pulled from my body, and I gasped, opening my eyes.

"You're still awake, right? We need to talk." He said, staring down at my lying form. Realizing I was probably at a disadvantage with him looking down at me, literally. I sat up rather than pretend to still be sleeping.

"It's after three in the morning." I said, like an idiot.

He smirked. "So what? How about we go back to what happened earlier? Can you explain so I can understand?"

I sighed. So he hadn't believed a word of what I'd said. "Like I said, I don't know what he was talking about."

"Yet your name was mentioned as being the source." He sat down on the bed, facing me and giving me no room to hide, not that I wanted to.

"I don't know why." The text Lucas had sent me flashed in my mind, and I decided to test him. "But what's with the overreaction if he isn't telling the truth?" The text Lucas had sent me was a picture of Jonathan and the brother in college, so I knew Lucas wasn't lying about getting the information from Jonathan's college acquaintances.

Jonathan's eyes flashed with anger. "What exactly do you know? He asked me, and I shrugged.

"Nothing." I lied.

He laughed. "You can't deceive me. I've been watching you from the beginning, especially with this relationship with seemingly your best friend, but I've been keeping quiet, intentionally."

What was he talking about now? "What do you mean?" I asked, the anger rising in me now. Was he still on the matter of Lucas and me?

"Just answer the damn question. I know you weren't totally in the dark about Ethan. I saw you looking at his picture during my parents' party. What's your real motive here?"

I shrugged. When I'd seen my picture in his room, I'd suspected that he was on to me or investigating me, but admitting it himself filled me with panic. What if he found out what I was really here for? Even if he wasn't involved in the murder, I didn't think he would appreciate my approaching him that way, so I decided to cooperate with him. If I was also being honest, Lucas had soiled my reputation to him, and I would rather he knew I didn't do it. "Fine. I first saw his picture in your parents' house, and I got curious because your mother said the trophies in the other room belonged to her son when I asked if they were from you. I tried checking the internet if I could find anything else, but you also know there's nothing about him on the internet."

Jonathan stared at me, trying to decipher if I was telling the truth. "I swear that's all I know."

He nodded. "Did you tell his girlfriend what you knew, or did you mention it to him anytime?"

I shook my head, being honest. "No. I haven't seen him much of late, and the last time we spoke was before the party, so there was no way I would have told him anything."

"How well will you say you know him?"

I smiled. "I've known him for a long while, and I can assure you he's harmless." I could back up my statement with my life. "He does some things that are difficult to explain sometimes, but he means no harm."

JONATHAN'S POV

I stared at Danielle's earnest face, trying to wonder if she was intentionally playing dumb or if she really believed what she was telling me. While I would say I'd lived a pretty serious life, I had also experienced romance in my life, and the way he looked at her was nothing platonic. Maybe it was the man in me, but I recognized that look very well. I also recognized the look he had given in the restaurant, especially when he had been mentioning Danielle's name. That was a look that promised retribution.

I nodded. "Alright. If you say so." I didn't mention the fact that I'd caught her in a lie. She said the first time she had seen his picture was at his parents' house, but the first time she had seen his picture had been in my room. Whether I believed the rest of what she had said was still under probability.

She glanced at me for a few seconds before she lay back down. I should have done the same, but I was still wired from the activities of the day. I grabbed my laptop, thankful I'd put in it a software that kept files and documents regardless of whether it was damaged or not, and headed out of the room.

"Are you going out again?" Danielle asked, her voice strong even though she was turning her back to me.

"No." I responded without turning back and left the room for my office. What was the point in letting her know where exactly I was going? It wasn't like she asked for that info.

I opened my office door and set my system up. Being a wary bastard always helped. Even though I wasn't given the flash, since it had been connected to the system, the system already had what was inside. Decoding and trying to encrypt the file wasn't going to be easy since the flash drive had been damaged, but my years of experience were going to come in handy.

Two hours later, I placed my hand on my head and sighed in frustration. After all my various attempts, it had come up empty, which meant the fact that my laptop could be secured had been taken into consideration before I'd been given the drive. Was the point to get whatever evidence I'd been able to collect? If it was, whoever was behind this had made a terrible mistake. Not only was there nothing on this laptop, but they had also made it obvious that Ethan's death hadn't been a suicide like they wanted me to believe. Somebody was definitely behind this, and that somebody wasn't going to like it when I finally found them out. It would be a life for a life. There was no point waiting for any other judgment legally. I wasn't going to be the first person nor the last person the legal system was going to fail.

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