Page 132 of My Turn

My laugh hurt, but it also felt nice. “Alicia,” I rasped.

“She’s fine. It was all a misunderstanding, okay?”

With a sigh, I nodded. I had no idea what would happen moving forward, but everybody was alive. Well, not everybody, but that was over. The only thing we could do was keep going and start a new chapter. All of this darkness could be behind us. No more bad things.

*****

My fingers pressed against my temples firmly. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t. Nope. I was gonna go into delusional denial mode. Nope, nope, nope.

“Alana.”

“What the fuck?” I screamed, gesturing toward the stupid fucking fake wall.

“Calm down,” Jayce said with a roll of his eyes.

“Calm down? Really?” I threw my hands in the air. “Okay, I’ll calm down. I’m super fucking calm, Jayce.”

He pursed his lips on a smile, which just pissed me off more. There was a body in our goddamn basement.Again. It had been six months since I got shot just twenty feet away and I thought it was all good. Things were chill. No murders. Well, there was about to be a fucking murder and the bastard was in our basement.

“He’s the guy who shot you,” he said with a shrug.

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better. It’s not as if we could be implicated in this. You have motive!”

He snorted. “They wouldn’t put that together. You know how many people this guy has arrested? He’s killed a few too. There are plenty of people who would be suspects for his disappearance. Us? No. You survived and we both rode off into the sunset together. We have no reason to kill him.”

“Then why are we?”

That menacing smile took over his face. “Because it’s fun?”

“No. Try again.”

“Fine. I want every single one of them to die.”

My fingers went to my temples again. “Explain.”

“He shot you; the others pointed their guns at you. They all contributed to what happened and I think they should pay for it.”

“That’s ridiculous. You hear how ridiculous that is, right?”

Stepping forward, he pushed his fingers through my hair, then tipped my head back. My lips parted because my body was a traitor.

“Who do you think I am, Alana? Do you think what I did to you was out of character? Was it just an outlier? No. I said I’d protect you. I’ll also avenge you. Anyone who has ever made you cry will be put under my knife. They’ll feed our garden and, consequently, us.”

My nose wrinkled. “Does that count as cannibalism?”

His head cocked. “I never thought about it. Let’s say no because that’s gross.”

“Jayce,” I sighed. “I don’t want this in our life.”

“How about one every six months? That’ll give us a steady flow of compost.”

I considered it while I ground my teeth together. “And when you’re done with the officers, it stops, right?” He bit his lip. “Jayce, it stops, right?”

“Guess we’ll see what happens. Alicia wants me to teach her how the vessels work.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Don’t worry. I’m gonna make her wait until she’s sixteen. That’s when I first beat the shit out of someone for you.”

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