Page 21 of Moonstruck
“Yes.”
Zane snorted. “I’ll end up with a bullet in my head before I even make it back to my apartment.”
Asa crawled closer until he was once more in Zane’s space, this time kneeling between his splayed knees. “Look me in the eye and tell me I’m lying,” Asa demanded.
Zane’s gaze flicked to his without hesitation, face flushing as he realized how easily he’d submitted to Asa’s order. He saw it, too, but was apparently smart enough not to mention it.
Zane hated to admit it, but he believed Asa. He was one hundred percent cocky enough to gamble his entire family’s future on his ability to charm the fucking pants off of Zane. “You’re insane,” he said again.
“What about this surprises you?” Asa asked, sounding genuinely curious.
All of it. Zane had seen Asa chopping up that body—had listened to him talk about killing—but none of it seemed real. It was too much of a mind fuck. He’d fucked a mass murderer. Or a serial killer. How was this his life? “And what do you get out of this?”
Asa shook his head. “I told you. Help. A friend of my father’s reached out asking for his help with a problem. My father dumped it in my lap. I don’t solve crimes or do research. Lucas and Noah are the investigators. My father is judge and jury. My brothers and I, we’re just the executioners. But my father is trying to drive home a point. I’m being punished. But I’m also being studied. He wants to see how I do without my brother.”
“Without your brother?” Zane echoed, frowning. “What does that mean?”
“Avi and I haven’t been apart since we were little. We don’t do well apart,” Asa admitted.
Zane frowned. They don’t do well apart? They had jobs. Relationships. Lives. Zane had heard of twins being unusually close—especially identical twins—but never two so close they had to be forcibly separated. That was…weird.
No weirder than being chained to the fucking radiator.
Shut up.
Jesus. Zane was just as fucking crazy as Asa. At least Avi was alive. Zane spent his days talking to a brother who didn’t exist and, worse, his brother talked back. He might as well be talking to a six-foot rabbit like inDonnie Darko.
Zane shook his head. “You can’t mean you’re never apart. You guys travel the world, date celebrities, have fancy jobs. Surely, you’ve been apart before.”
Asa narrowed his eyes with a slight smile. “You know an awful lot about us, Lois.”
“Yeah, I’m a journalist.”Sort of.“Answer the question.”
Asa sighed, his hands dropping to his sides, his fingertips brushing Zane’s jean-clad thighs.“We’ve spent nights in our own places. But we always see each other the next day. Being apart is painful. Like, psychically painful. The longer we’re apart, the harder it is for us to keep it together, mentally.”
Jesus. If this was Asa keeping it together, what the fuck was he like when he unraveled? Zane’s brain helpfully provided a mental image of thousands of dead corpses piled sky-high. He hated being in his head sometimes.
Zane sighed. “What’s this big mystery?”
Asa’s blue eyes glittered with triumph. “There have been five suicides at the local college.”
Zane’s reaction was visceral. He lurched for the toilet, dry heaving the meager contents of his stomach, retching until his stomach muscles hurt as much as the rest of him. When he finally stopped, a wet hand towel appeared beside his face. He wiped his mouth and sagged back against the wall.
“You good, Lois?” Asa asked.
Zane didn’t look at him. “That’s not a mystery. It’s a tragedy. A common one.”
Asa studied him, like he wanted to probe his reaction further, but finally nodded. “That’s actually what I said. My father said his friend isn’t so sure. Apparently, five years ago, there were another five suicides.”
Zane’s whole body flushed ice cold and, for a split second, he thought he might pass out. “What school?”
“Henley.”
Zane tipped his head back, pressing the cold rag against his eyes. His brother hadn’t gone to Henley. He’d gone to the private college across town. But it seemed like a strange coincidence. His brother’s death had also been part of a suicide cluster. “What—why doesn’t this person think they were suicides?”
“There have been rumors. They were low risk. There have been whispers about a game,” Asa said cautiously.
A game. Zane wanted to be shocked, but there really was nothing shocking after tonight. “It wouldn’t be the first time some internet game turned fatal. What else do we know?”
