Page 67 of Liars and Liaisons

His bones were boiled into a broth and then crushed into a fine powder and sprinkled into the lake.

The broth was added to the soup served to my family at dinner last night. Since they insisted on returning to the estate to check up on me.

Ian, true to form, hasn’t contacted me since. A part of me wonders what he’ll tell the dean, if anything at all. He was always one of the few professors at the school I could count on for discretion.

“That’s not the point though.” She frowns, her dark red lips curving downward. “People are paying attention now. You might not be able to just get away with everything anymore.”

“Only if my team fails.” Leaning back in my chair, I pin her with a look. “You know what happens if you fail?”

“You feed us to the goats.”

“I feed you to the goats.” Nodding, I smack the wooden surface of the desk. “Normally, they’re picky little things, but I’ve found that if you get flesh to be just the right consistency for their teeth, they’ll eat whatever you put in front of them. Particularly if they’re hungry enough.”

Horror shines in her eyes. “Were you always this sadistic?”

“Who knows? Maybe I’ve grown unwell in my old age.”

Exhaling, she reaches for her drink on the coffee table. “You’ve got that right.”

Ignoring her, I pivot the conversation. “Speaking ofsearches, how’s the hunt for Violet’s assailants going?”

Priya glances across the room at Janus, who shrugs and rubs at the back of his head.

“About as well as can be expected,” he says. “There are no witnesses, aside from Violet, and she didn’t get a good look at them before she attacked. So, we don’t have much to go on.”

“The security tapes don’t have anything either?”

He shakes his head, his long black hair falling over his collarbone. “They were disarmed at the time due to your nephew and his girlfriend sneaking off to get high.”

Goddamn it. Next time I fly to New York, Aiden James Santiago is a dead man.

Priya swings her leg out, groaning as if I’m wasting her time. “Have we considered the possibility that she made the whole thing up?”

“She had blood all over her.”

“Maybe she fell in something or… I don’t know… fended off a wild animal. What if, because of the adrenaline rush, her mind concocted this other story about an attack because she’s too embarrassed about what really happened?”

I drop my face into my hands. “I don’t think she’d lie about something like this.”

“I’m not saying she’s lying,” Priya replies. “But the girls have said shehearsthings here. Ghosts and shit. Maybe she has an overactive imagination. Our minds are powerful enough to make us believe whatever they want.”

Janus doesn’t look particularly convinced. “Fiction doesn’t match up with the evidence on her though. Plus, Aiden and Rileysawit happen. They just didn’t really… see anything.”

Priya scoffs. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“She isn’t making up the ghosts,” I say after a brief pause, jaw clenched. In the back of my mind, that melody lurks, always haunting. Always tormenting. “So, she isn’t lying about the attack. Someone’s been on my property, and someone wants to hurt her.”

Pointing a finger at Janus, I stand up. “Find out who and make sure they’re not ever able to touch her again.”

I leave them and head off in search of my brother, who can’t be trusted in public, let alone in my private residence, where so many of my secrets live. Predictably, he’s sitting at the grandiose dining table off the main kitchen, helping himself to the spread Willow and Micah laid out.

I’m equally unsurprised to see he’s taken position at the head of the table, across from the massive mirror hanging on the wall between two bay windows. Watching himself eat, the only company a man like him needs.

Taking a seat at the opposite end of the table, I stare at the sunflower and rose arrangement at the center while he shovels bits of pancakes and eggs into his mouth, like he hasn’t eaten in days. Or perhaps he’s trying to erase the taste of what he had for dinner last night.

Personally, I’m inclined not to eat anything at all, as there’s one taste I don’t want to rid myself of. A certain sweetness I’ve only ever encountered with my head between Violet’s thighs, and I’m dying for the chance to sample it again.

Though maybe next time, I won’t take only the sample. I’ll pillage, conquer the way I’ve been dying to since I first forced our worlds together. Since a single kiss knocked me out of my regular orbit and sucked me right into hers.

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