Page 85 of Roses Are Dead
This time, she dug in, readying for the lie, but with bravado, her chin went back up as she looked me in the eye. “Love had nothing to do with it.”
In a way, she was right. Teenagers get those feelings all twisted up and call it love. But it’s just hormones and sex. At least she wasn’t lying to herself about it now. Some women never get over their first crush.
“Whatever you call it, Carl’s got a case of jealousy.”
She stared at me like I was an alien. Then burst out laughing. She laughed so long, she had to wipe her eyes.
“It ain’t funny, Rose.”
“No, it totally is. Carl doesn’t love me. He’s not jealous.”
“Bet you twenty K he is.” I would be.
Her eyes went a little wider.
That’s right, I have details of your crime, woman.
She waved a hand through the air. “The amount doesn’t matter. You’re wrong.”
I snorted. “Gimme one good reason why.”
“Carl only loves himself.”
She hadn’t even hesitated. Damn. And double-damn-it, that tracked with everything I knew about Carl. “Then it’s jealousy because he’s not number one.”
She shook her head. But it soon stilled. “There may be a small amount of truth in that, but not nearly enough to drive him to mess with you like this. He’s playing a game. One he wants you to get visibly upset with me about. Then, when I?—”
She cut herself off abruptly.
“When you, what?”
The plate of food got shoved out of the way. “When I return at the end of the month, and am found dead, that public display of anger will bury you.”
“That’s twisted.”
“That’s Carl. He finds more pleasure in killing people by proxy than sex ever brought him. But god forbid he ever gets his own hands dirty.”
“Then how is he going to kill you?”
“I’m sure I’m the exception.”
I leaned in. Rose was candidly introspective. I softened my tone. “Why would that be?”
She looked me directly in the eye. “Because I’ve played this game with him before, and I lived long enough to walk away.”
I stayed awake for hours after we cleaned up dinner and the mess on the table. It started innocently enough, scrubbing through the camera footage until I pinpointed the moment Carl walked into the yard.
Sure, by that point I’d gotten a little caught up watching Rose wipe my house down from ceiling to floor. Her ass looked good pointed at my cameras.
By the time I did watch Carl set the scene, then toss those damn spikes into my yard, I was fuming.
Rose entered, barely missing one of those damn things.
And her tears? Fuck me, those hurt.
I scrubbed through Jackson’s footage to make sure Carl hadn’t fucked with him, and came up empty. Which was a disappointment. If he had, I’d have full justification to take him out permanently.
Turning back to my feed, I noted when the sun set and the infrared system switched on. Rose knelt in the dark for so long I thought the feed froze. But the random flash from a bug flying past the lens proved it worked just fine.
