Page 112 of Snitches and Serpents

“The next time I see you, I will finish what I started that day when I made you drive out into the woods.”

She jerks back as if I had slapped her.

But before she can reply, the cop holding me hauls me out the door and into the warm evening outside. Three police cars are waiting there. No flashing lights this time. I walk numbly towards them. Every step sends a jolt of pain through my cracked chest.

Inside the annex, Elle is still calling after me.

But I can barely hear anything over the loud shattering of my heart.

39

ELLE

Shock still rings inside my skull as I sit there in the interrogation room at the police station. It’s the same room as last time. The one with the walls that were probably supposed to be white but are now mostly beige. The same three pieces of furniture are still here. A metal table, and two chairs facing each other. Even the coffee stains on the wall by the door are there too.

Staring numbly at the pale wall ahead, I try desperately to figure out what on earth just happened.

We were at the charity ball, everything was going perfectly, and then he showed up. John Smith, whose real name I now know to be Derrik Payne. And he’s a police officer.

God above, what have I gotten myself into? What have I gotten us into?

My mind drifts back to those final couple of minutes in the annex.

Derrik Payne waited until his colleague had taken Tristan away before he arrested me as well, so that it truly looked like I had sold him out. It’s almost as if he wanted to punish me for ending our arrangement by making sure that Tristan truly hates me.

And by God, he truly does hate me.

Pain stabs through my chest at the memory of what he looked like back there. Of how he looked at me. The hurt and betrayal that flashed across his features almost tore my heart out. Then it transformed into cold and lethal fury. It dripped like acid from his final words to me.

Once a rat, always a rat.

The next time I see you, I will finish what I started that day when I made you drive out into the woods.

Which means that he is going to kill me.

I wring my hands in my lap as fear and panic twist like thorny vines between my ribs. God, I think he really might kill me this time.

The door to the interrogation room is opened. I whip my head towards it right as Derrik Payne aka John Smith strolls into the room. His gray eyes glint and his entire posture practically pulses with confidence and victory.

I stare at him as he pulls out the chair opposite mine and sits down. The door clicks shut to my right.

“You’re a police officer,” I say before he has even had time to put his little notepad down. My words are half statement, half question.

Derrik finishes setting down the notepad and then places his pen neatly next to it. Then he finally looks up and meets my gaze again.

“Yes,” he simply replies. Then a sly smile blows across his lips for a second as he shrugs. “I did tell you that I have friends in here.”

“But I thought that… The way you said it… You made it sound like…”

My thoughts are still a tangled mess of panic and confusion, so I stop speaking and instead draw in a breath to try to clear my head. Derrik just watches me, a faint smile on his mouth. After blowing out another breath, I try again.

“If you’re a police officer, why didn’t you just say that?” I ask, shaking my head at him in confusion. “Why lurk in the shadows outside and approach me like that? Like some kind of shady crook.”

“Simple. It was a safety precaution in case Tristan caught you spying and pressured you into telling him why. If he knew that the police were involved, it would complicate my plans.”

Silence descends on the pale room. For a while, all I can do is to stare at him. It feels as if I thought that I was standing on solid ground, only to realize that it was actually a flimsy carpet. A carpet which someone has now yanked out from underneath me. And now I’m just flailing around, trying to get my balance back.

“I don’t understand,” I blurt out at last.

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