Page 5 of Lady Killer

A minute of raw silence felt excruciating, and I bit down on my lip to distract myself from the compulsion to speak. The opening gambit would be his. I refused to spill my secrets to this man in a futile effort to avoid his wrath.

Another painful minute passed before Lucian spoke. “Tell me whom you killed, little girl.”

“Aaron Croft,” I said without missing a beat.

He looked up and over my shoulder at the twins.

“Student, Hollow Oak, no one of importance,” Nixon said.

Lucian’s gaze shifted to me. “And why is he dead?”

“He deserved it.”

Lucian’s jaw shifted, his dark eyes bearing down on me with icy viciousness as he clasped his hands in front of him. “I asked for an explanation, not a justification. Do not make me repeat myself.”

“Aaron Croft was a violent rapist. He stalked me, sold date rape drugs on campus, and likely would have killed me last night if I hadn’t killed him first.”

Everest growled next to me, and I could feel someone grab furiously at the back of my chair.

“You killed him in self-defense?” Lucian said, ignoring the growing tension.

“More or less.”

“Either you did or you didn’t.”

I chewed on my lip, considering my response. Too few or too many details would inevitably lead to questions about my past. If the best lies were built on the truth, then the easiest truths to swallow were lies of omission.

“Aaron terrorized and chased me into the woods on Halloween night. He wore a mask, so it took me a while to realize it was him, but once I did, I began slowly poisoning him.”

I didn’t mention the other sheep. I didn’t want them to make an immediate connection between Aaron and the serial killer.

Lucian looked unimpressed. “So, this man died because he scared you?”

I wanted to ask him how many had harassed his family and lived to talk about it but choked my retort down.

“He died because I have no doubt that, had he caught me that night, it would have been me lying dead in the woods.”

Behind me came the sound of cursing and crashing as someone kicked a chair.

Nixon had warned me to stay in that night. I hadn’t listened.

Lucian scoffed but let me keep going.

“Originally, my plan had been to simply let the poison kill him slowly over time—‍”

“And just how did you poison him?” he asked.

I gritted my teeth. “Elderberry and nightshade.”

“Elderberry?”

“While the berries are edible, the rest of the plant, including the seeds, contains cyanide-inducing glycosides, making it toxic. It grows in abundance locally and was easily disguised in the blueberry smoothies Aaron liked.”

Lucian raised an eyebrow—in interest or disbelief, I couldn’t tell—before gesturing with his hand to continue.

“Over the course of poisoning him, I came across evidence that Aaron was in possession of GHB, which sealed his fate. I have a zero tolerance policy for rapists.”

“Do you know if he used the drug to rape girls himself or if he just sold it?”

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