Page 70 of No Small Sin

I remembered my other friend, then. The one I wouldn’t be able to explain any of this to. The one who would just go on thinking I was actuallydead. “Fuck, what about Andi? I’ll miss her too and I never had the chance to figure out what was going on with her. What if there was some way I could have helped? I can’t just leave her like this.”

He hugged me tightly, nudging my head down onto his shoulder. I breathed in the sweet scent of him, my nose grazing his neck as his throat bobbed. “I, uh… made sure she was taken care of,” he said.

I relaxed into him. Of course, he did.

He’d taken care of everything, just like I knew he would.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE

Beck

TK was out cold from our verythoroughreunion. She needed to rest. I knew she hadn’t over the last few days, and we had a long trip ahead of us.

I left her in bed and padded down the stairs in the dark, carrying with me what was left of her belongings. I’d packed them up again and just needed to toss them in the back of the car.

I would leave with her first thing in the morning — we’d settle on our destination as we drove. I couldn’t wait to start our new life together.

I was settling the bag down alongside my own things when I felt the cold press of metal against the exposed base of my skull.

A gun.

“You really know how to make a fucking mess of a person’s plans,” Mattia growled.

What the fuck?

I felt a sharp stab of pain in the side of my neck and I dropped to the ground without another coherent thought.

* * *

I woke… bound.

I was locked up tight in some kind of contraption that, upon further inspection, was some sort of modern-day fuckingguillotine.

I’d always known Mattia to be excessively bloodthirsty. Hell, it was myjobto help quench that thirst. But this was another level.

One that I hadn’t expected.

And I was clueless as to why I was on the receiving end of it.

A hard kick landed across the left side of my face, nearly knocking me unconscious again. Blood from my mouth spattered across the floor. I was powerless to fight back, and even in my current state all I could think of was that TK was somewhere nearby and if he’d laid a single finger on her while I was out, I would drag him to Hell once I found my way free.

I jerked at the restraints around each of my wrists to no avail. The cold metal bit into my skin harder with each fitful movement, but the thick clasps remained securely in place.

“Fuckingstop,” Mattia spat, torquing my wrist nearest him into an unnatural position. Bone crunched. I refused to react to the pain that shot down my left ulna. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“That’s your problem,” he continued. “You’ve never known when to justfucking stop. Week by week, you add to your numbers. Disappearances without explanation, random bodies found. You never once stopped to fucking think that in a town as small as Fate Trace, eventually, eyes would naturally turn tome.” He stabbed himself in the chest with his thumb. “Any shit that goes down around here, I’m always the one to blame. And there’s only so much I can keep getting by with.”

I twisted my neck to the side, trying to ease the stiffness setting in. But I didn’t respond. What was there to say?

“You think you’re the only one who does his homework?” He asked. “I knew you were looking into that Benz kid for weeks before you made your move.”

It wouldn’t have been hard for him to look into my extracurricular activities. I did use LC’s WiFi for my research, after all.

“You didn’t find anything about the ankle monitor beforehand because I set that shit up, Beck. I wanted you caught. Out of the way. Eyes off me for fucking once.”

I glared up at him. “Looks like your plan worked spectacularly.”

He kicked me hard under the chin this time. My head was knocked up and back, slamming into the cold metal that held me in place. Pain seared along my jawline, causing my eyes to water and my vision to blur.

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