Page 33 of Blades of Obsession

He scoffs dismissively, but the slight downturn at the corners of his mouth gives him away. I can spot guilt from a mile away. “What secret?”

I let out a sharp, sarcastic laugh. “You’ve got so many secrets you don’t even know which one I’m talking about, Harvey?”

“No. Uh, I don’t have any. That’s why I’m asking.”

Right.

“Amelia’s mother. She didn’t die in some random car crash by a drunk driver, did she?”

His face immediately drains of color, his eyes practically bulging out of his head.

“She was cheating on you, planning to leave with her lover. So you set up her death and made it look like a tragic accident, but really, you hired someone to run her off the road. Didn’t you?”

“That’s a bald-faced lie,” he snarls, slamming his injured hand on the desk. In the perfect vulnerable position. “And I won’t sit here and accept slander about my dead ex-wife.”

“Okay, sure. It’s a lie.” I shrug. “But just know that if you keep following Amelia, if you doanythingto jeopardize our relationship, if you continue to speak to her how you do, everyone will find out that ‘lie’. With the proof from John to back it up. He keeps records of all conversations, you should know that. Oh and—” I press my finger hard into his stab wound, and he wails in agony. “—if you try to use the Serpents’ medical fund for this, it’ll be denied. Have fun with the medical bills.”

•••

The hallways are crowded, but most of the students step aside as I pass. I pull my phone from my pocket and fire off a quick text to Asher.

Me: Meet me in courtyard B and bring your laptop

Asher: You sure are needy these days

I chuckle at his reply, heading for a table in the courtyard shaded by a large umbrella.

Restless, I kick a small rock nearby, already feeling the boredom creeping in. I get bored pretty easily, and that’s when my mind drifts to random, sometimes reckless things I could do.

Just as I’m thinking about using my knife to vandalize the table, Asher shows up and drops down next to me. He’s a few inches shorter than me, curly brown hair. Not a bad looking dude, especially with the way girls fawn over him, but he never pays them any mind.

“What’s up? Why’d you call?” he asks.

“I need you to pull her internet browsing history from the phone details I gave you.”

He raises an eyebrow, laughing as he flips open his laptop. “Well, that’s new.”

I shrug. “I want to make sure I check all her boxes, fulfill all her fantasies. And it’s not just about sex. If she searched for a special type of fabric for a dress, I want to buy it for her.” Asher pauses, giving me a strange look, but I continue, “I want to know every thought that’s fluttered through her mind, every dream I can make come true for her. Anything. Everything. Well, sex included too.”

“Blade...” He hesitates. “Have you, uh, by any chance talked to your psychiatrist about her?”

“No, I stopped seeing my psychiatrist.”

“I’m just worried that—”

“Whatever you’re implying, drop it.”

“Okay, okay.” He throws his left hand up in surrender. “It’s just… this isn’t like you. I mean, with random little things, sure. But not women. You’re scaring me with how much you’re—”

“Didn’t I just say to drop it?”

“Fine. I was just saying.”

“That’s the problem. Less saying, more doing.”

Asher sighs, shaking his head. “You know, you could’ve learned how to do all this hacking stuff you contract me for yourself.”

Thatwasthe original plan, before John barged into my life and shattered any semblance of normalcy I had. Not that training to become a hacker for a multi-billion dollar crime syndicate would’ve been considered your everyday job either. But it would’ve been a hell of a lot more normal than gutting bodies for a living.

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