Page 1 of Her Wicked Plan

Veronica

PROLOGUE

I pled insanity.

There was no way I could have gotten away with pretending to be innocent, seeing as there was a witness to my crime. This means I couldn’t lie to the judge, but with my past, there was only one way to keep myself out of prison.

That was the route I took.

Since I did that, they shipped me away to Black Lake Asylum. A sanatorium in the middle of fucking nowhere, Seattle, but hey, I can’t complain.

I could be sharing a prison cell with another person, and I don’t like people. Thankfully, I get a whole room to myself here. It isn’t anything special or cozy, but it’s my space.

I’ve only been here for two weeks. I want to say I hate it, but then again, I could be rotting away in prison. I’ll just shut my mouth and deal with it. The head guy here, Dr. Bennett, assigned me a doctor to discuss my problems.

The idea wasn’t even presented to me when Dr. Bennett came up with it.

It was a decision made on my behalf. I don’t want a doctor. They are going to get inside my head. They’ll pick around my brain like a crow until they believe they have found the root of my problems.

The only one allowed inside my twisted mind is me.

No. A doctor won’t do.

I’ve had the same stuffy old woman meet with me twice a week. She thinks she can talk down to me because she has multiple years on me in age plus a degree. I can sense she doesn’t even want to deal with me at all.

If that’s the case, why the hell did you get into this profession? It doesn’t matter to me anyway, given that I don’t want her here either. I’ll just have to give her a reason to actually leave.

A little push, if you will.

Which is why I did what I did. She was running her mouth during one of our sessions, telling me all the things she thought was wrong with me. All the ways my mind is fucked up and how no one can fix me.

The words she spoke are nothing new to me, or anyone else, for that matter. I heard it my whole life, but I’m a great actor, so when she started spewing shit past her cracked, dry lips, I sat there in my chair, pretending it was getting to me.

Then I punched her.

Square in the nose.

Not only once, no. I had to convey that I was not to be messed with.

The woman cries out in utter pain as she runs from her office, her fragile hands cupping her now-broken nose. Blood dripping down her arm from how much is gushing out of her nostrils.

As she goes to tattle on me like a kid in grade school, I become comfortable with her office chair.

The premium leather under me is cool to the touch. I sigh, almost in relief from my body temperature cooling down. The cold of the leather calms the heat radiating from my body due to the anger she has provoked.

My arms drape along the armrest as my hands tightly grip the ends, my fingernails puncturing the thin material.

Waiting.

It wasn’t long until I heard footsteps from down the hall. The urgency is evident in how they rush towards the office, and when a furious Dr. Bennett enters the room, he finds me sitting in the woman’s chair—a wicked grin plastering my face and blood on my knuckles.

Hopefully, this will get the point across to him that I do not need a damn doctor.

CHAPTER 1

Leo

As I stare down at the papers splayed out on the kitchen table, my eyes slowly grow tired with every passing second. I’ve read Veronica’s file multiple times this past week to get a real sense of her.