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“What’re we about to do?”
“You’ll see.”
“You might regret what you’ve done tonight.”
“Am I supposed to be worried, Lyra?” I sneer, walking us through my huge penthouse.
“You’ve left too many loose ends. You already know the police are investigating you.”
I crank the steel door leading into the dungeon open. “Is that your way of telling me you tattled, little lamb? You told the mean detectives on me? Now I’m truly worried.”
She shakes her head. “You’ll see.”
The same glint that had flickered in her gaze when we fucked in her bedroom returns. Even the barest hint of a smirk that blinks in and out on her lips.
My stomach clenches in answer. Only because it feels like, yet again, it’s a precursor to something I’ve overlooked—Lyra has outplayed me once. Has she possibly managed to do so a second time?
Did she really manage to sic the detectives on me? Is that why she’s bragging?
In the coming minutes, I have my answer.
I haul her down into the dungeon with me. It’s danker and grimier than usual given the recent uptick in bodies I’ve had come through. The door to what was Grady’s cell hangs open. Another thing to scrub clean. I hardly had any time earlier when I collected him; I was in a rush, and I needed to get him to the opera house for Lyra’s performance.
I deposit her by my worktable and head over to the freezer. A cold blast smacks into me prying the heavy, industrial-sized door open. I move to go inside and grab Celeste’s dead body so we can begin work.
To find the words for the level of shock that encapsulates me would take a lifetime.
It’s enough that the air vanishes from my lungs, and for several seconds, I experience vertigo. The cement walls spin around me, the floor itself becoming some kind of carnival ride. Some fucked up Tilt-A-Whirl where I’m trapped and unable to get off.
I stagger a couple steps back and blink several times, daring my eyes to confirm I’m seeing what I’m seeing.
There are supposed to be three bodies lined up inside the freezer.
Maximillion. Fyodor. Celeste.
Instead… there’sfour.
The fourth body with skin pale and blue is none other than Detective Maloney.
I whip around to find Lyra’s crept closer. She’s watching me, observing my reaction. My mind grinds to a halt and processes no further thought.
The shock’s too great.
“You?” I whisper.
The smirk I thought I’d seen moments ago finally brightens to life on her beautiful face. “I did it for you.”
34Kaden
I Was Never There - The Weeknd
“You’re messing with my head,” I snap, suddenly irate. “This is some kind of mind game of yours!”
“Not a mind game,” she answers simply. “Just eliminating the threats. Isn’t that what you were doing?”
And then it smacks into me, striking me like a mighty bolt of electricity—Celeste didn’t kill herself.
A fresh dose of anger wells up inside me. I have no idea what’s going on, and I do not like being kept in the dark. I pride myself on always being several steps ahead.
