Page 123 of Fool Me Twice

“That’s…” Hart shook his head. He’d seen his fair share of horrible people—no one who cast curses was ever ‘nice,’—but he had always thought people could be redeemed. Sarah though…the systematic way she had tried to destroy Cane. It wasn’t just a mistake. It had been an abusive campaign spanning years and years. “She’s unhinged.”

“Oh, she was,” Cane said, putting an emphasis on the past tense.

“Right. Was,” Hart said, and he found the word didn’t bother him as much. The meaning behind it didn’t make his stomach turn. Instead, it made him feel satisfied. Cane was there with him because she wasn’t anymore. He couldn’t even force himself to try and find wrong in that. Just like the twins.

Maybe that was horrible. Maybe it was immoral or wrong.

But Hart could make his peace with it.

“I made connections inside too,” Cane continued, unaware of the shift in Hart’s head. “I made myself invaluable to a few hot shots. Saved their lives a little, threatened others a little bit more. Had my outside guy help with some stuff.”

“Outside guy?” Hart asked, and Cane actually cracked a smile.

“The homeless jackass who saved my life,” he said. “Ares.”

“Oh!” Hart said, eyes widening.

Cane barked out a laugh. “Proved himself to be an asset, that one. Had an eye on Sarah the entire time I was in. When she wasn’t cackling in my face, that was.”

“And then?”

“And then I got out,” Cane said, holding Hart’s gaze like it was a challenge. Like he was pushing him to balk at the words and tell Cane to get out. “And I handled it.”

“You killed her.”

“I actually had second thoughts about it, once I was out.” Cane huffed at himself, running a hand over his hair. “Had a moment you’d be proud of. Water under the bridge and all that crap.”

“That does sound like me,” Hart murmured.

“She had a hit man ready and waiting,” Cane said. “She didn’t want me spreading the word about her and what she’s capable of. She didn’t want her new partner to know she was bleeding him dry and setting him up the same way she had me.”

“How did you get out of it?”

“Ares knew where she was, like I said,” Cane said, hands straying to the blanket under them like he needed to hold on to something. Anchor himself. “I won’t go into detail, but he made sure I knew where she’d be every second of every day. Enough for me to intercept her and end her before she could end me. Ares took the body after that. Put her somewhere even I don’t know where. Plausible deniability and all that if the police ever came knocking. It’s better that way. She already haunts me enough.”

Quiet descended between them at those last words, and Hart peered at Cane’s face. He didn’t look ashamed exactly, or like he regretted what he’d done, but there were clearly some burdens he carried to go along with the scars. Sarah’s death hadn’t been easy on him, but he’d obviously seen it as a necessity.

Kill or be killed.

Hart swallowed, his hand trembling as he reached out. Cane tensed, but didn’t stop him as Hart slipped it underneath his shirt and rested it gently over Cane’s warm stomach with the scar directly under his palm.

“Was it the only one she left?” Hart asked softly.

Cane made a little choking sound, then managed to shake his head. “Just the one that cut the deepest.”

Hart was sure he didn’t just mean physically.

“So you said it was Sarah’s child who cursed you. That this was revenge for her murder,” Hart said, putting all the pieces of the messed-up puzzle together. “Was that…Arianna Layton? The name that came in.”

Cane nodded. “Ares couldn’t know everything. He was mainly there to make sure I had a location of where she’d moved to. But she had a child somewhere along the way. She must have kept her hidden from everyone. The child was never tested and she was never registered, but she apparently has a fuckload of power and can do shit nobody’s seen before.”

“You can say that again,” Hart said, his mind reeling with the information. “I’ve never seen a curse act the way yours did. I had the theory it moved, so I was somewhat on the right track, but I still don’t understand how.”

“It’s because of me,” Cane said quietly. “The curse was designed to destroy me. The twins, my fighter, Ares…all key members of my inner circle. All capable of causing damage to my business and my reputation. Which they did.”

It rang in Hart’s head. The names of the people, their connections to Cane and his business. He didn’t fit anywhere. He didn’t belong to Cane in the same way. He shouldn’t have been brought under the way he was.

“And me?”

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