Page 24 of Pretty Lethal
“Eww,” I grumble, scrunching my nose. “He pissed himself.”
Wilder just laughs. “This is my good friend, Marie,” he tells Jacob, his voice soft and sweet as though he’s introducing him to a lover—which, in Wilder’s eyes, is probably exactly what’s happening. “She’s very stabby, and her favorite drink is blood. Huh, what was that Marie?” He lifts the knife to his ear as though listening to it whisper to him, and I have to hold back another eye roll at his dramatics. “His blood is calling to you?” A whimper escapes past Jacob’s gag, his eyes squeezed tightly shut against the horror unfolding before him.
Wilder soothes the knife, muttering to it in a voice too low for me to hear. “Not this time, Marie. But be patient. I have a feeling we’ll be back for his blood soon.”
Given how he's shaking from fear, I’d almost feel bad for Jacob, but all I have to do is glance down at that picture and message on his phone for that sympathy to quickly be replaced by anger.
If Wilder wasn’t doing a good enough job of scaring the living daylights out of him, I’d be doing more. As it stands, I’m content to sit back and let him take the reins. Especially after he missed out on killing Mel, he kinda deserves this one.
When he’s done showing off his knife, he tucks her away and climbs to his feet. I follow, grabbing the dickhead’s cell phone so I can ask West to remove all traces of Emilia’s name and picture from it and anywhere else online or on the cloud.
With the two of us standing over Jacob, I glower down at him. “Tell anyone about this, and we’ll be back to finish the job,” I threaten, delivering a punishing kick of my own and smiling when I hear his ribs crack and his yelp of pain. Wilder gets one more kick in before we stride off, leaving the dirtbag behind.
We’re nearly back at the car when Wilder turns to me with a crazy-eyed grin on his face. “We should do this more often. That was fun.”
Chapter7
EMILIA
Kai:West has info on Mel. Wilder will pick you up after class, and Hawk and I will meet you at the house.
Nerves flutterin my stomach as I read Kai’s text, endless possibilities of what West has found flashing across my mind. The need to know who she is and reassure myself that no one will come looking for her now that she’s gone has me wishing I could forgo my afternoon classes.
It’s obvious that I never knew Mel. She constantly changed the subject when I brought up her family, but she did tell me that she didn’t have any. However, how can I know that to be the truth? For all I know, she was in communication with someone—someone who might have noticed her silence and is currently searching for her. West said he didn’t find anything on her phone, and we didn’t find another phone at her apartment. Still, I won’t rest easy until I know for sure that nothing can come back to bite us in the ass.
My afternoon drags, and by the time Wilder’s gorgeous face fills my doorway, I’m more than ready to get the hell out of here.
“Ready to go?” he asks.
“Definitely.” I grab my bag from behind my desk and walk toward him. He wraps his arm around me and tucks me in against his side.
“How were classes today?”
“They were good.”
“No issues?” I know exactly what he’s referring to, and I glance up at him. “No. Jacob didn’t show up today.”
He nods, but I catch the small smirk at the corner of his lips before he looks away. “Ready to find out Mel’s true identity?” he asks, changing the subject.
My eyes narrow on him for a second before I blow out a breath and let it go. “Assuming that’s what West has found. Maybe it’s just another dead end.”
His only response is to squeeze me tighter.
West, Hawk, and Kai are waiting for us in the kitchen when we get home. All three are seated at the table, with West between Hawk and Kai. Pausing in the threshold, I search each of their faces, gleaning nothing before moving over to them. Kai pulls me into his lap, and Wilder stands behind West so we can see the laptop open in front of him.
“So, I found some stuff,” West begins vaguely. “I can dig up more, but I'm a bit reluctant to.”
“Why?” I ask.
West looks at me, his lips pressing into a tight line. “I’ll show you what I have first. Then you can decide what you want to do.”
He waits until I nod before turning back to his laptop. “Okay, so I looked into the girl you found online. At first, I couldn’t find anything of interest. Nothing that linked her to Mel, other than that one photo. Except then I stumbled across this.”
He pulls up a webpage, and we all lean in to look. “It’s an amateur reporter’s blog. It came up because it mentioned Rebecca Royce, but it appears the article was taken down shortly after it was posted.”
“It says Rebecca was stalked by a Melissa O’Shea,” Kai says, reading the article.
“Melissa?” My eyebrows hit my hairline in surprise. “That’s gotta be Mel, right? She just shortened her name and changed her surname.”
