Page 121 of Lady Killer

Expensive cologne drowned my senses, but there was something off-putting and manufactured about the scent.

“I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear from you.”

Clayton was, by all measures, an attractive man. But compared to my monsters, he seemed like a cheap facsimile. I couldn’t decide if he was a bad guy pretending to be a nice guy or a nice guy pretending to be a bad boy, but either way, he was phony.

The Blackwells may have been killers, but they didn’t pretend to be anyone they weren’t.

We made mindless chitchat until someone came over to take our orders. Sticking to the plan, I declined food and ordered a vodka soda, hoping Lucian had indeed managedto bribe the bartender for the evening. Clayton ordered an IPA and the server went off, leaving us alone again.

As his arm drew noticeably tighter around my shoulders, Clayton’s voice dropped. “How are you holding up with everything? First Aaron, then Melody, and now Autumn.”

My throat tightened. I had been prepared to come and lie about Melody’s disappearance and death, but the reference to my best friend caught me off guard.

“It’s . . .” I swallowed and pushed on, “been tough.”

Clayton’s free hand came to rest on my own.

If Everest finds out, that hand is gone, innocent or not.

“I can’t imagine. Everyone you’re close to disappearing, you must be terrified.”

For Autumn, yes.

“It’s pretty scary,” I said. Something occurred to me. “I didn’t realize that you knew Autumn as well . . . or knew that we’re friends?”

He gave me a bashful look, ducking his head down briefly before squeezing my hand. “I don’t know her, not well at least. I guess I should confess, I mostly know of her because of you.”

My mouth went dry. “Me?”

The server returned with our drinks, interrupting Clayton’s confession. “Let me know if I can get you anythingelse,” she said with a chipper, professional smile before heading to check on another table.

Clayton removed his hand from mine to take a drink of his beer, and I took a tentative sip of my “vodka soda.”

Lucian had come through. It was all soda.

“God, I’m going about this all wrong. You probably think I am some sort of a creep now,” he said, pointedly keeping his arm around me.

I tried to play it cool and gave him a light smile and a shrug.

He must have taken it as a good sign because he smiled, flashing his dimples, continuing, “I am friends with Melody. We work at the Erstveld Lab together.”

This was old news, but I pretended to care with a blank-faced nod.

“I saw a picture of you two together on her Instagram and . . .” He paused. “I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and I knew I had to get to know you.”

Dios mío. This is one of the many reasons I don’t have any social media.

His hand returned to mine, and I put all my focus into keeping a wide-eyed, confused-looking expression on my face.

“I was going to ask her to set us up, but, well, then she disappeared, and I never got the opportunity,” he said.

“Then I saw you at the lecture, and I knew I had to take my chance.” He squeezed my hand. “I hope you can forgive me. I meant what I said. I’m here for you to talk about Melody, and Autumn, and Aaron anytime you want. I just had to shoot my shot, you know?”

I was pretty sure this man just confessed to using the disappearance and death of some of the people he believed to be closest to me to score a date. Either he was a literal predator, involved in the kidnapping and ritualistic murder of innocent women, or he was an emotional predator, and either way, I was starting to wish we had let Everest kidnap him from the start.

Unfortunately, I had a part to play.

“That’s . . .”

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