Page 41 of Now You're Mine

I blink, one hundred percent certain that I’m seeing things. If Nathan had spoken to Bree the night she went missing, then he would have told me, right? He washelpingme look for her. He was the only real person, besides Wyn, who was checking in with me, and making sure I was okay.

Lunging at him, I try to pull his shirt sleeve up more, but he yanks his arm back before I can. “What are you doing?” he asks, a sharp edge to his voice.

I glance up at him, my eyes narrowed. “Do you have a fuckingsnake tattoo,Nathan?” I don’t even wait for him to answer. “Were you the one talking to Bree on the beach that night?”

He looks down at his sleeve, tugging it down as he shakes his head. “You’re such a fucking cunt,” he says calmly. It’s jolting to hear Nathan speak like that. He’s usually so nice, and almost awkward in his timidity. “God only knows why James loves you, but he does.”

“You were with Bree the night she died,” I say. He just confirmed that fact when he refused to answer my question directly. “Why did you lie about that?”

Still shaking his head, he pushes his hand into his pocket and pulls something out. I can’t see what it is, but a second later, he flips it open and holds it up. It’s a silver blade glinting under the overhead lights.

Oh, shit.

I lift my foot to run for the door, but Nathan quickly reaches out and catches my wrist, pulling me toward him, the tip of the blade pressing into my chest, just below my shoulder blade.

“All James wants to do is talk,” Nathan repeats through gritted teeth, beads of sweat glistening on his temples, and in his dark hair. “After everything you’ve done, you owe him that much, at least.”

EverythingI’vedone?

I glance down at the blade and see the initials W.H. etched into the metal. Holy shit. Holy-fucking-shit. This is the knife I’ve been looking for. The knife that was used to take Bree away from me…

A realization slams into me with the force of a tidal wave, and I suddenly find it hard to breathe. Nathan killed my best friend. But why? It doesn’t make sense. They didn’t even know each other.

All the fear that’s been flowing through my veins in the last few minutesinstantlyturns to rage. Like the flip of a switch. I look up from the blade and into Nathan’s cold, emotionless eyes.

“Why did you kill her, Nathan?” I can’t conceal the venom in my tone, it drips from every syllable, and I feel it in every cell of my body. “Why?”

I feel tears sting the backs of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. There’s no way I’m letting him see me cry.

He shakes his head, and he takes a step back, so his arm is extended, the blade never leaving my chest. “You want to make me the bad guy here, Lux, but I’m not. I was protecting the society, and I haven’t done anything the Sacred Sons haven't done a hundred times over in the name of the Burning Crown. It had to happen, and I doubt Roman would disagree.”

“Bree had nothing to do with the Burning Crown. Nothing. So how could she havepossiblythreatened your precious society?”

He looks agitated by the fact that I’m judging him so harshly. Whatever he did to Bree, he clearly feels justified in doing it.

He swallows, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Not true. Not true.” He shakes his head. “On the night of the Preference Ceremony, she was snooping, and I caught her eavesdropping on the Sacred Sons while they were discussingprivatesociety business.”

No. No way was she snooping. She was way too excited to be invited to the Preference Ceremony to risk getting kicked out. No doubt she was looking for me. I was probably gone by then, but she couldn’t have known that because our phones had been taken at the door.

“So, what, she overheard something. Who fucking cares? Whatever she overheard wasn’t worth herlife!” My voice catches on that last word, and I clench my jaw to keep the tears from coming. Because I know once they come, I’ll be powerless to stop them.

“I met her the next day on the beach to give her an out. If she agreed to keep quiet, then we’d be cool. But she wouldn’t fucking see reason.” Nathan is agitated, his eyes wild as he presses the tip of the blade a little deeper into my chest. It’s still just skin-deep, but we’re getting close to him doing some real damage. “She said she was going to tell you what she heard, and that…” He swallows. “...thatwould have fuckedeverythingup. But I gave her an out. I gave her afuckingout.”

It dawns on me that Bree must have overheard Roman’s plan to seduce and manipulate me. It’s why she was so upset the morning after the Preference Ceremony. She was trying to figure out how to tell me that my bright new beginning at ExU had turned into my worst nightmare.

My God.

“So, you stabbed her, then just threw her in the ocean like she wasnothing?” I ask, my voice trembling under the weight of the words. “You’re fucking delusional if you think Roman is going to congratulate you for killing an innocent girl.”

His eyes narrow at the mention of Roman, and I wonder how I could have ever seen him as a good guy. Bree’s killer was right in front of me the whole time. Thewholetime. How could I have been so fucking stupid?

He doesn’t respond to my question. Instead, he grabs my upper arm and hauls me across the room. As he drags me across the room, I scream at the top of my lungs, pulling against him, kicking—literallyanythingI can do to twist out of his grip.

He tugs me through the open French doors and shoves me against the metal railing. The hotel is built on a cliff, and the balcony looks out over the raging ocean below. It’sat leasta sixty-foot drop, and if he shoves me over this railing, there’s a fair chance I’ll hit one of several sharp rocks jutting out from the churning water.

The cold railing bites into my back as he applies pressure, trying to force me over. I grab for his face, but with every movement of my arm, the blade bites in deeper.

“You’re doing all of this for a society that doesn’t givea fuckabout you,” I hiss, shoving at him as hard as I can. “Your bestie James never even mentioned you. Not once when we were together. And the Sacred Sons just pity you. You hardly even exist to them.”

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