“Is she me?” I asked, trying to focus my eyes. My left one still throbbed, scratched up and raw.
“No, little killer, she isn’t.” Adrian came close to me, his nose brushing mine. For a second, I thought he might kiss me. His eyes dropped down, like he might be looking at my lips. But they were chapped, bloodied, my body dehydrated. I was a little delirious. He swung in and out of focus as he moved back away.
“Who is she?” I whispered.
“Lacey.”
My sister.
Rage whitened my vision. I think I screamed, shouted something at him, fought against my bindings with the little strength I had remaining in my beat-up body.
But all I was left with was his laughter as he backed away even further, leaving me with that swinging marionette, his glee at my despair. No. He couldn’t—
“Don’t you dare touch her!” I cried. “Adrian,don’t.”
He continued laughing, pacing the dark room. “I realized, when I met her at the prison, that she is my way to you. A sibling for a sibling, I suppose.” He spared me a glance. “Ah, I have your full attention now.”
“No.”
“I debated taking your mother instead, so frail as she is. But then Lacey showed up, wide-eyed, so young and pretty. She cares so deeply for you, Penny. She just wants you safe. Back in the prison where you can’t harm yourself or others.”
“Adrian!” I screamed, my throat raw with the pain his words were causing, the visions that flashed across my mind. I knew what he could do, how far he could take things.
Adrian walked to the door, opened it, stepped through. “I’m taking Lacey Karner out tonight so I can learn more about you, try to track you down. The police want me on the case, you see, and she’s our best bet.” He paused. “She’s a pretty little thing, right? Maybe I’ll fall into bed with her, maybe I’ll tell her what you did to my brother with my hands rather than my words.”
“No!” I shrieked again, rabid, feral, broken. He got to lay eyes on her in the light, in the outside, away from prison bars and stifling guards. It wasn’t fucking fair. Real despair rippled through me, anger and pain and jealousy.
I just wanted to see her, warn her. She needed to run from him.
As the door swung shut behind him with a bang, my eyes landed on the crude puppet he’d made.
For the first time, I noticed the hole in its stomach, the red paint dripping from a gaping wound.
No. I was stuck, trapped, desperate. No no no.
Twenty-Seven
Adrian
Lacey Karner was waiting for me at the two-top when I walked into the bar, looking like everything her sister wasn’t. Sweet, innocent, pure, with a wide, bright smile on her face as she chattered to a waiter. He looked reluctant to leave, his eyes warm on hers as she charmed him without even knowing.
Everyone wanted to get as far away from Penelope as fast as possible. But Lacey, who had been through something terrible according to the case notes and pulled through it with the grace her sister hadn’t, was enigmatic.
Even from across the room, I wanted to move closer.
I’d learned of Lacey’s story through Penelope’s file, that her attack caused her sister’s first kill. Lacey’s trauma triggered her sister’s rage, and that was a gloriousthing. A twisted, fucked up beautiful thing that rippled out and broke so many families.
So now it was Lacey’s turn to take on some of her sibling’s burden.
“Adrian, hi!” Lacey said, standing to give me a hug when I reached her, squeezing just the right amount to be friendly. She was a few years younger than Penny, so around twelve younger than me. And it showed in the freshness of her features, someone kept away from the darkness. But with a sister like Penelope…
“Hello, Lacey,” I said, formal, giving her a nod. “Thank you again for meeting with me.”
“Oh, no problem.” She waved her hand as if to pish posh. “Anything to help get her back. She’s sick, you know? I don’t want her getting into any more trouble.”
Trouble, like she wasn’t the one causing it. Like Penny wasn’t the orchestrator of her own destruction. But I nodded and slipped onto the stool opposite, picking up the drinks menu and letting my attention focus on what beer to choose.
“I didn’t order you anything, sorry,” Lacey said, her voice a little fraught. “I didn’t know what you’d like.”
