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I moved my hand off her back, sweeping it along her jaw, up to her ear, where I then tucked some of her wet hair. “I’ll have to make sure there’s no evidence that points to you or us, and once I’m certain the scene is free of anything like that, I’m going to burn it all down.”
It was the only thing I could think of. With Erin and her family gone, burning the house with Neo’s corpse and theirs would point fingers at Neo. If, on the off chance, Erin and her family weren’t there, on the other hand… I couldn’t risk making Neo disappear. Brianna and her other friends had already tried to make Rick investigate one disappearance. Eastcreek couldn’t have another high school student go missing.
No, his body had to be found, one way or another—and it would be: charred to cinders and ash, completely unrecognizable.
“What if they’re not there?” Brianna asked, biting her bottom lip in uncertainty. “You don’t think… you don’t think they could still be alive somewhere?” Even after everything, a kernel of hope rested within her tone, and I hated to be the one to kill it.
If Neo had gone through all this trouble to try to frame Gareth and me, to rid Eastcreek of our influence because of some misguided hatred for us, there was no possible way Erin and her parents were still alive. He wouldn’t take that chance. He’d take a chance with Brianna, though.
Neo had apparently hated us. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know him. I’d never had straight dealings with the kid, but maybe I had with his parents. Maybe his parents had filled his mind with venom and hatred, gotten him to turn it all on me and blame me for everything. Some people would never be happy with their lot in life, and they looked to whoever they could to blame.
I was sure Neo wasn’t the only one who hated us, but most everyone in Eastcreek at least faked it when around us. They knew without Montgomery money, the town would’ve gone under years ago, unable to keep itself afloat.
I told her, “I’m sorry, Brianna, but I don’t think they’re still alive. Even if they aren’t there, I highly doubt they’re somewhere else. That would mean he took them as prisoners, and with how fast Neo wanted to kill you, I don’t think he would’ve waited to kill them.”
Her eyes closed. I could tell I hurt her by saying it, but she had to face facts. Neo wasn’t the kid she thought he was—although, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how well she’d known him, anyway.
I had to ask, “How did you know him?”
That got her to open her eyes. “He asked me out.” Brianna paused, an expression of guilt tugging at her features, the corners of her mouth pulling into a frown. “And I said yes, because I thought it was Gareth playing games again.” She moved her left arm between us, turning it so that she could look at the new scar tissue on her wrist. “I wanted to use Neo to get him to make a move again.”
“Brianna, I told you—”
“I know, but I… I didn’t really believe you, okay? Not then. Now I do.” She sighed, running a thumb along her wrist. “I thought I had it all figured out, that Gareth and you were the worst people in Eastcreek. I didn’t know about Rick and what he did, or that Neo was a psychopath too.”
Neo was dead, so there was no reason for me to feel any sort of jealousy over the kid. And yet… I couldn’t hide the disdain from my voice when I said, “You never know what people are hiding. You, of all people, should know that.”
That got her to make a face at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re not that much different than me or Gareth, or even Neo,” I told her. I could see her growing more and more upset with each word I spoke, but I didn’t stop. Sugarcoating things wasn’t right.
She tried to pull away from me then, but I didn’t let her. I took hold of her wrists and rolled on top of her, pinning her beneath me. She breathed hard, her lips puckering and her eyes narrowing. She was definitely more herself now than she was at that house, but she had to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t better than us.
No, this girl was just like us. Dark, depraved, twisted in every way. She had a monster inside of her, a dangerous part of her she never let out. Her whole life, she’d lived a lie, but now that she was here, now that I could teach her… I could help her see just how good it felt to give in to your natural instincts.
A hunter hunted. There was no other way. Nature demanded it.
Chapter Two – Brianna
My heart beat wildly in my chest, though it shouldn’t. Alistair had rolled himself on top of me to stop me from moving away from him, and he’d taken both wrists in his hands and held them next to my head. His sleeves were still rolled up to his elbows, all his clothes still on, while I was utterly naked, my towel beneath my back.
I was aware of where I was, aware of the conversation we’d had and everything he’d told me. I also knew what I’d told him. I… I knew what I’d done, too.
It was the strangest thing, being there, inside yourself, but feeling so very far away from it all. Like you were watching yourself move and act in a daze, unable to control anything and stop yourself from doing things you shouldn’t.
Like cutting into a corpse to get to his bones and wanting to make his face like my paintings.
“I’m nothing like you,” I hissed out, trying to pull my wrists from Alistair’s grasp, struggling to get him off me—but nothing I did mattered. He was bigger and stronger than me by quite a lot, and he seemed totally unbothered by my resisting.
Alistair was a handsome man. Anyone with eyes could see it. A square jaw line with dark stubble, a perfectly kept mop of black hair on his head, and eyes so blue they were like the waters of the Caribbean… only much, much colder. Like Caribbean waters that had been suddenly frozen and turned to ice.
A handsome man, but an intimidating one all the same. And that said nothing about how emotionless he usually looked and sounded.
He wasn’t emotionless now, though. He was firm and stern as he said, “Yes, you are. Stop lying to me, Brianna, and stop lying to yourself. The sooner you come to terms with it, the better off you’ll be. You can only hide from your true self for so long before you can’t run from it any longer.”
I didn’t know about that. “I’m nothing like you,” I repeated vehemently. Though I no longer physically struggled, I still glared into those icy eyes, willing myself to stay strong and not turn into a whimpering girl who could only beg for his dick.
Right now, I think I hated him.
