Page 19 of Body Tox

There was little to no information other than they clearly fucked like bunnies and knew each other from the dawn of fucking time.

I had dug up information on California Grace. Her father was a doctor for the shady company and security firm Echo’s father owned.

She was an only child—aged twenty-two, like Echo.

I could hear her speaking now.

“God damn, baby girl,” she said, that slight accent more audible when she was tired.

They said their goodbyes, and I watched her fall on the bed on the camera feed. She had an unreadable expression on her face as she stared at her reflection in the mirror across the way.

She went out of view when she walked forward, and there was no reason to keep watching her at that point.

I switched the camera feed, ready to close out my phone, when I flipped to the footage outside the hall.

Echo’s best friend picked something up from the ground that I couldn’t see from this camera angle.

“Oh, so thoughtful. Unlike you, my spicy bitch, but thank you, I need it after that.”

I frowned, unsure what was going on.

Flipping to another feed of the cams across the hall, I waited as the image cleared just as Cali Grace flipped off the lid and drank the trap I had set for Echo, dooming herself to her lover’s fate.

I smiled wide, swiped the cameras to give back to my Little Wraith, reapplied lipstick, and typed away on her computer.

Well…sleep tight, Cali. I guess you shouldn’t have touched what is mine.

Numb. Walking outside my room to find my girlfriend’s dead body was like having my skin ripped off. I hadn’t felt this way since my mother was tortured.

I screamed. I know I did, but it was like I was underwater. Her skin was cold, too cold. Her beautiful, ebony skin, usually flushed with my intense efforts, and the warmth of her body on mine was gone.

My father waved his arms in my face. I saw him shouting at someone in a black jacket. I saw it all, but I felt nothing. It was almost like when I killed. When the heat in someone’s body left them, the coloring drained away from the skin, and the soul’s light was just…gone.

Was this payment for being a killer?

My hand itched for my blade. There had to be a reason she was dead. Pulling in a deep breath, I settled into the numb. Yes, there was chaos around me. The maid was shrieking, my father was barking orders, and the staff was shuffling around, but all of that disappeared as I zeroed in on the environment.

There was no blood, bruising, or marks on her body. There were only water splashes on the floor. I followed the trail of droplets, finding a halfway-empty water bottle. It didn’t have any labels on it, and it wasn’t the brand my father stocked in the kitchens.

I frowned, spinning the bottle in my hand.

“I’ll clean that up for you, Miss. Svenson.”

The bottle was swiped from my hand.

I glowered, looking up, ready to shank the staff with my heel, but the hazel eyes that met mine were not my staff.

“You,” I seethed, jumping up and lunging at the asshole.

In my gut, I knew it was him.

He’d done this.

“Echo, what on earth…why would you attack your personal protector? Unhand him, young lady.”

I ignored my father, trying to claw the fucking gorgeous eyes from the traitor’s head.

“Fuck you,” I screamed.

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