Page 150 of Lust & Lies
Type in your code to access your files, Mist.
I guess I really was Mist. What was my code? Could it be the home security code I’d used earlier? I typed that in.
FAIL.
You have two more attempts before the intruder sequence is activated.
What the absolute fuck! What was on this computer that required such security and secrecy? I was scared to know, but desperate to find out. Who was Mist, and what was she really hiding down here?
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
NOELANI
I DIDN’T KNOW MY CODE. Where did I get a code from? Come on, brain, what could my code be? I sat there staring at the screen, my mind completely blank. I had nothing. I should just leave and get on the damn four-wheelers before Aiden woke up and caught me.
Aiden!I stared up at the security panel to ensure he was still sleeping. He was. Movement from a different screen caught my attention. I caught sight of activity on the Hatfield monitor.
Wait!
Gertrude.
She’d given me a code the day Aiden reintroduced me to the staff. Looking away from the monitor, I typed in the numbers she told me to remember. 0310.Holding my breath, I waited to see if it would work.
Welcome back, Mist. It’s been forty-two days since you last logged in. You have twenty new text messages, three encrypted files to review and submit, and two video messages to review. Click to continue.
Forty-two days? So, forty-two days ago, I logged into this very computer.Wow!I clicked continue. It took me to another screen. I stared at all the messages waiting to be opened. Words typed across the screen on their own.
Mist, you’re late reviewing your encrypted files. Please review and submit now.
Um... okay. I clicked review. I nearly threw up at the image that appeared on the screen. The first one was a photograph of a man, slumped over in a chair. Blood soaked his shirt. His eyes were open, but vacant.
At the bottom of the screen, a flashing icon read:Target Neutralized. Click to Submit to the Watchdog database.
My stomach twisted. Was this... one of my kills? I backed out of the photo quickly, clicking the little X in the corner. But the next image popped up automatically. Another body. This one was sprawled across a marble floor.
Blood was smeared down the wall behind him. His mouth was open like he’d tried to scream for help. Wait.... Hehadscreamed for help. Memories of his blood-curdling screams echoed in my head, making it ache as the memory assaulted me.
Why now, mind? Why force me to remember this?
Why force me to remember how he’d screamed for help, but no one came because I’d already killed the guards who were supposed to be protecting his mansion? Images of blood splattering and bodies dropping flashed through my mind.
I slapped my hand over my mouth and clicked out of the picture, heart racing. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. These weren’t stills from a horror movie. These were real. These were people. People I’d... I’d...killed.Oh, no.
The next picture popped up on the screen. It was an older man. He was on the toilet, pants down, with a hole in his head, blood running down his face. I had no idea what was going on between his legs.
His privates looked mangled, like someone had attacked them with a meat grinder. I heaved, almost throwing up. That was exactly what I’d used on him. A meat grinder. He’d beenalive as I’d twisted the handle, grinding his junk, then tossing his ground junk into his lap.
And then I put a bullet in his head and wrote the wordpedophileon his chest in red lipstick.His wife’s lipstick. I remembered this night, this kill.Oh. My. God.I’d tortured this man while his wife and son had been away at her mother’s place.
I squeezed my eyes shut, head aching again as the memory assaulted me. What kind of person had I been? Mist? More like Menace! No wonder Aiden had chosen the good twin, the safe twin, the sane twin.
Though Ellie was cruel, at least she’d never brutally murdered anyone. I slowly opened my eyes and exited out of that file. I couldn’t look at those photos any longer. I didn’t want to remember this part of my life.
There had to be more to me than just this. At the very bottom of the screen, there were two video messages.Damn it.Please don’t tell me I also recorded my kills.
One thumbnail read:Urgent. Mist, Please Watch.
The other read:This Is Gertrude, Sweetie. Watch This As Soon As You Remember Me.
