Page 121 of The Road to Ruined

I miss waking up to him inside me.

"What time is it?" I ask.

"It's just after noon," he says.

"I'm supposed to be in Blakely's suite to get ready soon."

"I know."

"What are you going to do?" I ask.

"I'm going to get ready, too. The blonde one is a big baby, by the way. Won't even help chop up a body."

"His name is Luca," I say. "He's your brother, and you know his name. And I like him the way he is."

"A crippled drug addict who abuses women?"

"You abuse women. You're a serial killer."

"So are you."

"Youmade meone."

"No, I didn't," he scoffs. "You killed before you ever met me. You would have hacked up your Tinder date if it wasn't for me. I saved you."

"Yeah…I guess. What happened to him anyway?"

"I hacked him up."

Hmm. I should have known.

He rifles through his bag until he pulls out something familiar—a needle attached to a tube and a blood bag.

"He's misunderstood—Luca. He's just…" I trail off, unsure how to finish the sentence. "He's a good person."

"Whatever you say. Make a fist," he says, tying a small rubber tourniquet around my arm.

"What's it for?" I ask.

"Decorating the room," he says. Unlike Riv, he doesn't warn me before he stabs me with the needle. "They'll find enough ofyour blood and this other guy's blood in here, and they'll think you're dead."

"Oh."

"That's what you wanted, right? You don't want them to think you're out there somewhere or to wonder why?"

"No, I don't…"

But I was thinking more along the lines of a car accident. A murder will hurt more. Still, it's better than wondering.

"So, they'll think that guy killed me?"

"Maybe. But they'll probably think I killed you and some other guy."

"Well, won't that be a problem for you?"

"Nah," he says. "I don't exist anywhere on paper, remember? I'll disappear, too."

"Won't The Order punish you?"

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