Page 31 of Depraved Desires

My gaze slid over to Collin, searching for any sign that this was all some big joke. Weirdly, all I saw on his face was sincerity. He truly believed that Aspen came to visit him.

Sighing, I threaded my hands through my dirty blonde hair, disheveling it. “I’ll be back,” I said.

I didn’t wait for a response before striding out of the room and closing the door behind me. Something had to be wrong with him. Maybe he had a brain bleed, or something.

Taking a few deep breaths, I leaned against the wall. My head was a goddamn mess. Now there was an even bigger divide between us than there was when the little bitch was still in the picture. Clearly, killing her was a bad choice in more ways than one.

After I managed to compose myself, I pushed off the wall and made my way toward the nurse’s station. Three women sat behind the desk, talking amongst each other. One of them, I recognized instantly from earlier when we first arrived at Collin’s room.

When I approached, their conversation came to a screeching halt, and they all turned to look at me. The youngest looking one of the three looked me up and down in a judgmental manner, probably trying to determine if I was worth her unwanted advances. Her medium-length brown hair fell smoothly against her shoulders and complimented her olive skin tone.

“Can we help you?” The brunette in question piped up.

Ignoring her, I turned to the older nurse—the one I’d recognized from before. “I think something is wrong with my friend. He’s in room 305,” I explained. “Some of the things he’s saying don’t make sense. I’m worried he might have a bad concussion or brain injury.”

The woman furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “He had an X-ray the day he came in, and he’s already been checked for a concussion. Most of his injuries are around his abdomen. I was his nurse when he arrived. Dr. Elliot is very thorough in his work.” Pursing her lips, her gaze traveled toward where his room was located. “What has he been saying that would make you think that?”

None of this made any sense. If nothing was wrong with his head, then he had to have truly believed that he’d seen her. That just wasn’t possible unless he dreamt about her and assumed it was real.

Drawing my lips into a straight line, I nodded dismissively. “It’s not important.” The last thing we needed was for the nurse and potentially the police to get involved.

Turning on my heels, I made my way back to the room and slipped inside. The door closed behind me, drawing the attention of both boys within it.

“Hey,” Hunter greeted. “Where’d you run off to?”

“I went to talk to Collin’s nurse,” I admitted, slinging my gaze toward the boy in question. “Thought his head was fucked up or some shit.”

Collin huffed in annoyance. “I’m telling the fucking truth you sack of shit.” If this wasn’t such a serious matter, I would have laughed at his immature choice of words.

“What did she say?” Hunter probed with interest.

“That nothing appeared to be wrong with him.” Which I still wasn’t buying. There was obviously something wrong if hegenuinely believed that the girl we saw die was alive and well. Nobody made it out of there unscathed and he knew that.

A groan erupted from Collin’s mouth, followed by shuffling. Glancing over, a pained expression overtook his features as he repositioned himself on the flimsy hospital bed. “That’s because,”pant.“I’m telling you,”pant.“The truth.”

“Maybe you thought you saw her,” Hunter offered sympathetically.

That was even a stretch. Aspen was one of a kind, even with her appearance. It would be extremely hard to mistake her for someone else. Then again, Collin has been in the hospital for a little while now. Maybe it was messing with his head.

“No,” he growled. “Iknowit was her.”

“Could it have been a dream?” I chimed in, arching an eyebrow.

“No. She came in here. At first, I didn’t recognize her, because like I said, she looks different now. When I did, I made a grab for my call light, but she beat me to it and hid it behind the bed, out of reach.” The words came out in a rush as they rolled off his tongue, his hands shaking in his lap.

A humorless laugh escaped me, and I shook my head. “And then what?” I spat. “She hopped on your dick and rode you like nothing ever happened?” Hunter shot me a pointed look, but I was past giving a fuck. This shit wasn’t funny. “IfAspen was alive, and that’s a huge if, she wouldn’t have come here.”

“But Collin wouldn’t just make something like this up,” Hunter defended. “He might not have seen Aspen herself, but maybe he thought he did. It could be worth looking into.”

I scoffed. “And how do you suppose we do that? Go scuba diving in the deadly lake and hope we find the bones that belong to her specifically?” There were probably several bodies down there by now, especially from Myles. There was no way in hell we would find her.

“Just fuck it,” Collin bit out. “Foster is too hard-headed; you both are.”

Annoyance rolled through me like a tidal wave. Nothing I said was going to deter him from the truth he conjured up in his own mind. He wanted to believe she was alive so badly that he wasn’t willing to hear anything different. Hell, evenIwanted her to be alive, though I’d never admit that out loud.

We killed her because wehadto. At least, that’s what I was going to keep telling myself. Aspen was frustrating as fuck when she was alive, and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed putting her in her place until she was gone.

‘Missing’ posters adorned the walls of the hallway as I traveled down it. Aspen and Raven peered back at me with matching sneers as I moved along. Forcing my gaze to the floor, I hurried to my room and shut the door behind me. Blowing out a breath of relief, I drifted over to my bed and sat on the edge.

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