Page 933 of Lessons in Cruelty

A Lesson in Cruelty

Extended Epilogue

Fox

Christmas Day

The white-noise hiss of the snow cuts off as the cabin door slams shut behind me.

When I look over my shoulder, Kai Jordan flicks his sandy mess of hair out of his eyes with a snap of his neck.

“Oops,” he murmurs apologetically, looking anything but.

You wouldn’t think he’d just confessed to multiple murders and begged me to arrest him.

“Is that any way to treat our guest?” Rooke asks Kai. The deep red dressing gown slung over his shoulders flares open as he slides a thumb behind the waistband of his low-slung pajama pants, adjusting them against his hip bones. When he catches me staring, the smile that slashes across his mouth makes it obvious he did it on purpose.

He strides past a couch scattered with cushions and takes a chair from the breakfast nook, setting it near the flickering fireplace. There’s a belt lying on the floor by the couch. A blanket tossed hastily across an armrest.

Is that where Professor Rooke and his two lovers were cozied up when I knocked?

Resentment surges up inside me—they’d been nestled under blankets in this warm cabin in Montana while I was driving through a near-blizzard to reach them.

Before leaving the truck, I’d sent the cabin’s coordinates to a scheduled message on my phone. If I didn’t cancel it by six tonight, the location would go to three people who knew enough to take it seriously.

Not the sheriff. Not yet.

But I hadn’t driven into the middle of nowhere without leaving myself a way back out.

I think back to Rooke’s text. I hadn’t expected him to contact me again. Maybe that’s why I handled the exchange like a fucking idiot.

#rooke.bastian

Has Fox been a good boy?

#thatcher

Everything sent to this number is evidence. Keep texting. I’ll add it to my file.

#rooke

Evidence you haven’t shown a single soul isn’t a “file”. It’s a diary.

#thatcher

Fuck you

#rooke

So you’ll be joining us for Christmas dinner, after all?

#thatcher

Sure. Text me the address.

It was a joke, of course. Rooke would never⁠—

#rooke