Gilded Cage

Chapter 12

Zac scrutinized me for a long minute without saying a word.

"Well?" I prompted, "if you don't take this chance to come clean, then I'll make it my life's purpose to expose your guilty ass to the entire fucking school!"

At last, he spoke up, "What do you want me to say then? Sounds like you've got it all figured out."

"No, I don't! That's why I'm asking you. I have my suspicions, sure, but even murderers and rapists are innocent until proven guilty in this country. If you don't want me to draw my own conclusions, then you better start talking, Mazur."

Defiance gleamed in his golden eyes. "Who made you judge and jury?"

"You did. By being so fucking obvious about it this afternoon. I'm not stupid, you know."

He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Fine. You caught me. What do you want to know?"

No way he was giving in this easily.

I scoffed in disbelief. Nevertheless, I demanded, "Everything!"

He raised an eyebrow. "You can ask me three questions. I won't answer anything beyond a 'yes' or a 'no.' Afterwards, keep your mouth shut and stay outta my way. Understand?"

I blinked rapidly in shock.

Was he actually ready to confess right now?

Curtly, I nodded. "I understand."

"Okay, go ahead. Ask me whatever you want. Before I change my mind."

I furrowed my brow.

Only three questions?

Oh, fuckity-fuck-fuck.

As quickly as I could gather my wits about me, I tried to frame my questions in a way that would glean the most amount of information from a measly yes-no answer.

I pulled from my speech and debate training, "Did you, Zachary Mazur, pretend to hack into your own phone this afternoon and bypass the security controls on Ashton Wellesley's Smart Alphaboard for Student Support under an anonymous alias to post pictures and videos of yourself with the intent to remove suspicion from your person and falsely mislead me, the other students at Ashton Wellesley, and our administration into believing that you're the victim, instead of the mastermind, behind this afternoon's cyber attack?"

His mouth quirked. "Yes, and, holy shit, I didn't know I needed to set a word limit on these questions. You sound like a fucking lawyer."

I ignored his sarcasm and kept going, "Aside from Patrick Hayes and Brittany Lopez, are you, Zachary Mazur, planning to target more than four different individuals at Ashton Wellesley in another cyber attack or some other form of vigilante justice?"

Zac replied, "No."

Now, I had a ballpark idea of who might be next on his list. The four individuals in question were likely to be two of Trick's best friends, Everett Prince and Justin Desmarais, Hunter Pratt, and Tessa Lehmann, Brittany's cousin. Off the top of my head, I remembered these kids as the ones who had been the most brutal towards Zac back in seventh grade.

One question left.

My brain had been working itself into a frenzy as I debated what to ask for my last question. There were still so many loose ends that needed to be tied up, like, whether Zac had approached Brit at Aleah's party with the intention of baiting Trick, how he managed to pull off the first two cyber attacks, exactly what he was planning to do with his next few targets, whether he had other motives other than revenge...