She frowns. “And you think it's Devlin? That's ridiculous. This is the man that wakes up early to clear the sidewalks I take to get to work. That hooked up a nature projector to keep me from feeling claustrophobic and set up his house so not only me, but Stryker and Zayd would be comfortable. He’s not a serial killer.”
“Oh no, he's right,” Carnage-Devlin-corrects easily.
The three of them turn to look at the man in surprise, but he simply shrugs without a shred of remorse. “In my defense, if I didn't kill them, he was going to.”
“It's myjob.”
Devlin snorts. “Not very good at it, though. It’s been what, nine years?”
My jaw aches as I grit out, “Ten.”
The asshole’s face lights up. “Ten years! I can’t believe I missed our anniversary.” Reaching over, he plucks a piece of candy out of Kiara’s gift and offers it my way. “Forgive me?”
I smack his hand away with a snarl.
He frowns, following the path of the chocolate rolling across the table until it falls to the floor. “Wellthatwas rude.”
I’m gonna kill him. Paint the walls in his blood and have to repay Kiara for the cleaning bill. But it’ll be worth every cent.
Replaying our conversation from the other day, I growl, “So that’s the reason you’ve had it out for me all these years? Revenge for killing your brother? Newsflash,everytarget is related to someone. Do you have any idea how many people you’ve done the same damn thing to? Adecadeof leaving devastation in your wake. Hundreds of casualties, and every single one was someone’s brother or sister, their parents or children. You didn’t give a damn about the trail of grieving families you left behind in your quest for revenge, so don’t act all high and mighty likeI’mthe only monster here.”
Kiara still hasn’t left, and it’s stressing me out to new levels, the ice spreading to creep up the walls. But I can’t risk closing my eyes and centering myself; not with the love of my life and mortal enemy in the same room.
“Dev? What’s he talking about?” she tentatively asks.
Head cocked, Devlin never takes his eyes off me. There’s something familiar in their dark blue depths that puts me on edge. A level of reckless craziness that alludes to how dangerous and unhinged the man truly is.
“I’ve never once set foot on a moral highground, Knight. You really think I’d have spent all that time fucking with you if I wanted to avenge my brother?” He scoffs. “I’d have killed you a decade ago if that was the case. Not like I don’t know where you sleep.”
I debate burying my knife in his eye, but he’s too close to Kiara for me to risk him deflecting the blade. “Then why the hell have you been stealing my targets all these years?”
“Because you stole my brother,” he says calmly. Matter of fact. “An eye for an eye, give or take a few. But in my defense, I didn’t realize the one had a glass eye until I tried to stab him in it. So I’m currently three behind on that front.”
Stryker interrupts, “Let me get this straight. Are we talking about targets, or victims?”
“They weren'tvictims. They were pieces of shit that deserved worse than an easy death. Human traffickers, men that hurt women and children, criminals that pissed off the wrong families.”
Zayd scratches his jaw, looking between the two of us curiously. “Then why are you mad that Devlin killed them?”
“Because he's only doing it to fuck with me!” I shout. “Tenyearshe's been stealing my bounties out from under me. There are thousands of monsters that deserve to die, and the families of their victims can't afford to put a bounty on their heads.There's no reason he couldn’t take out those bastards if he's doing this shit for free anyway. But no, it's alwaysmytargets. And he'ssloppy.That's the biggest insult. He doesn't give a damn if innocent people get hurt in the crossfire. He's not doing this for some twisted, noble reason. Dozens of bystanders have been killed by his recklessness simply because he's more focused on taunting me than making the world a safer place for people like Kiara.”
Dead silence holds the room hostage until Devlin finally whispers, “It's not for no reason.”
“Then for the love of the gods,tell me already. What did I ever do that made you hate me so much?”
He meets my gaze, a riot of emotion swirling in his eyes. “You left me behind.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Youleft me!Took my brother and gave him everything I couldn’t.Henever had to worry about where his next meal would come from or if he’d make it to morning without freezing to death. That’s all I ever wanted for my little brother, and you gave it to him without a second thought. But you didn’t give a damn about leaving me behind to suffer.” He smacks his fist into the wall so hard it shakes, and something lightly smacks my head before fluttering to the ground.
“What the hell?” I murmur, picking it up.
Devlin merges with the wall and goes up there, returning a split second later with some weird, makeshift nest made of socks and snakeskin, and drops it on the table with an annoyed sigh. “I thought I found all of his stashes, the crafty bastard.”
My mouth parts in surprise as I see Kiara’s name scrawled across the envelope in my hand, still sealed, but with two small puncture marks, barely bigger than pinholes. “My letters…”
Kiara grabs another one from the nest and looks at Devlin. “You said nests. You found more of these?”
