“It’s not a kill,” I said.“It’s a clue.”
Vin’s eyes narrowed.“Almost like he wants us to find out who he is.”
I tapped the note against my palm, and the words stared back at me like a threat carved into bone.
You’ll all pay for the sins of the club just like he did.
“This really is a fucking game to him,” Vin muttered.“Part of me wishes he’d just try to kill us already so we could put a bullet in his head.”
“He’s not trying to kill us,” I said.
Both of them looked at me.
“Not yet, at least.The only one of us he’s hurt was Bob,” I continued.“And that wasn’t even aimed at Bob.Bernice was the target.”
Skull nodded slowly.“So he’s not after us.”
“No,” I said.“He’s after the people we care about.”
Pearl.Shay.Bernice.
The thought made something sharp twist in my gut.
“He’s hurting us,” Skull growled.“Just… not directly.”
“But what about the four dead bodies?”I wondered out loud.“We don’t even know those people.”
“Torturing us,” Vin added.“Dragging shit up.Playing with us.Maybe those bodies he was just using to see what we would do.If we go to the cops or not.”And we hadn’t, so maybe this guy was feeling comfortable enough with us to start showing us exactly what he was doing.
Except even now we had no fucking clue what his game was.
I stared at the skeleton again.
Placed perfectly.Undisturbed and waiting like a message in a bottle.
“What the hell are the ‘sins of the club’ supposed to be?”Vin asked.“We’ve done plenty of questionable shit, but nothing like this.”
Skull tilted his head.“Maybe it’s not our generation.”
The words hit me like a punch.
Old sins.Old secrets.Old enemies.
This island had been around longer than any of us, and the club had switched hands about sixteen years ago.
Razor and the original Kings had history buried deep in the dirt out here.They had feuds, friendships, deals, and grudges that none of us knew about.
Any one of them could’ve done something that invited a ghost back into our world.
So who dug up a skeleton?
Who stuffed a note in its mouth?
Who knew exactly where Piney had swept last night, waited until we were all asleep, and placed a body where we’d find it?
And why leave a message forus?
Why were we supposed to pay for the sins of men who weren’t us?
