Page 73 of Double Edged Hearts
“You and Matvey?”
“No, not Matvey. He doesn’t care for people like Giles when he has other things to tend to. I always knew I couldn’t be the one to kill Giles when he got close to figuring out what we were up to.”
He keeps sayingwe.
“So, you’re saying you didn’t kill Giles and you weren’t the mole working with Matvey?”
“Oh, I worked with Matvey, yes, but I wasn’t the mole, and I didn’t kill Giles.”
“I did,” comes a voice that makes my soul shriek.
My gaze drifts up to Richard as he walks down the stairs.
Richard…
My Richard is here, and he just said he killed Giles.
My mouth falls open, and my eyes are so wide I think they may pop out of my head. My throat instantly goes dry. Dry like I’ve been stuffing cotton inside it.
Shock suffuses my being and lances through my mind.
What am I hearing?
What is he saying?
Richard… I called him. Alex wanted to keep us safe, and I called the devil and led him to our refuge.
“What’s going on?” I ask, and Zack starts laughing.
Richard answers my question by pulling out his gun and shooting Zack in the head even as he laughs. I scream as blood splatters everywhere and on me.
Zack drops to the ground, limp, with blood pouring from the wound and his body thrashing and quivering as the life leaves it. I scream and cry, feeling faint.
“Insolent fool. That was for messing things up. He failed to take you the first time,” Richard says and looks at me, eyes sharp like a hawk.
I’m looking at him and am hearing the words coming out of his mouth, but I can’t believe it. I can’t conceive what I’m seeing and hearing. It’s like something has infiltrated my mind and it all feels like they don’t belong there.
“Guards, come and get this bastard out of my sight,” he calls out. Even his voice sounds different.
Two men come down the stairs, and bile rises in my throat as they clear Zack away like he’s little more than dirt on the floor.
“Good,” Richard scuffs when they leave us.
He focuses back on me, and I shake my head in disbelief.
“It was you…” I wail.
“Sadly, my dear girl, this was a side of me I never wanted you to see, but I guess there’s a time and place for everything,” he replies.
“How? How could it be you? I trusted you. I trusted you with everything. You betrayed me.”
“I never meant for it to be that way. It’s funny. I knew something would happen in Chicago. I wanted you to stay in LA, stay away from this, but you were so keen to go, and Giles pushed and pushed.”
“You killed him…”
“Giles got way too close, sweet girl. Like you, he saw things he shouldn’t have and found out my secret. I had to kill him.” Richard nods.
“Are you going to kill me too?” I choke.
