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I don’t have a clue what’s going on, but just standing this close to her has my blood boiling. The hatred overtakes me suddenly, a highlight reel of the suffering I’ve endured at her hand playing in my mind.
Cassidy did everything she could to crush me.
I slap her across the facehardbefore I’ve finished thinking things through. I hit right where she hit me a few weeks ago, and a satisfying smear of blood gathers on her lip. She lets out a hissing sigh, and spits—but I move out of the way in time.
Alexander looks between us, trying—and failing—to suppress a smile. Fortunately, he doesn’t ask me why I slapped her. I don’t think I want to explain how I feel right now.
“What is all this?” My voice is stilted as I train my eyes on Alexander.
His gaze softens and I wonder if he can tell there’s a storm inside me. “I want you to find out the truth abouteverything. That’s why I brought you here.”
“What truth?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.
Did he tie her up here so I could get my revenge on her for all that she’s done? I wouldn’t mind the idea of it—slapping her felt pretty good—but if he thinks that will get him back into my good graces then he’s mistaken.
I can feel Cassidy’s gaze on us. Selfishly, I hope it’s eating her alive to see Alexander and I are still like this, after everything. Even though my feelings about him are all over the place, I know that she wants nothing more than for us to break up.
She doesn’t have to know that we did.
He doesn’t reply to me immediately, instead he walks over to the nearby table—there’s a laptop sitting on it—and picks up a watch. Alexander holds it up in front of us.
“Until a couple days ago, I thought this watch was the one I got as a gift from my mum when I was a kid,” he says. Closer inspection reveals that the watch is smashed. “It’s a replica.”
There’s pain in his voice and in his eyes.
“There was a tracker inside it.” He produces a small shiny box with an LED light, about the size of a pea. I take it from him and look at it. “Do you know anything about that, Cassidy?”
Cassidy’s eyes are glued to the tracker between Alexander’s fingertips. Her lips are pressed together, blood trickling down the corner. I can’t figure out what she’s thinking from her expression—it’s way more guarded than before.
But she’s suspiciously quiet.
She’sneverquiet.
“When I found it, it all started to make sense though.” Alexander holds my chin, turning me to face him. “How she always seemed to pop up on me, even when I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. How she always knew when I was off campus. How she knew about the cabin.”
My breath catches.
A mocking laugh fills the room. “This is fucking pathetic,” Cassidy hisses with open derision. “You’re actually so fucking sad, Alexander. How long did it take you to come up with this bullshit story?”
Alexander’s smile grows sinister.
“Maybe if you had been a little smarter, I wouldn’t have found out,” he says, leveling Cassidy with a glare that’s full of pure, unbridled malice. I’ve never seen him look so angry. “But did youreallythink you could get Keller to fake Alize’s suicide and expect no consequences?”
Fake my suicide?
My heartbeat fills my ears. He was trying to throw me from the window to make people think I had killed myself? I spin to face Cassidy, horror and anger flooding my blood. How fucking sick and twisted can she and Liam really be? My stomach grows cold.
She must have seen my scars when she had me naked in front of her during the first Trial of Admittance and decided to use it against me now.
Bile rises in my throat.
The aura around Alexander darkens, and he leans in, grabbing her by her hair so forcefully that she cries out in pain. Cassidy’s bravado finally cracks. I stand there watching him, half wishing I was the one hurting her instead.
“When I found the tracker, I realized just how much information you had. It made me wonder what else you had done. How far you would actually go.” He turns to the laptop. “You’ll imagine my surprise when I found out that you’re not just good at planting bugs, you’re something of an amateur videographer too.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, but there’s fear cresting in Cassidy’s eyes now. It’s the first time that she actually looks scared of what’s to come. I can’t remember ever seeing her like this.
It’s…intoxicating.
