Page 125 of Sinful

“And end up like Sin? Like I was in the woods, nearly gutted?” He scoffed. “No thanks.”

I shook my head at him. “You’re not this person. Why are you pretending to be?”

He let out a bitter laugh. “I am who I need to be in order to survive. I think we all are here. You’re more than Mirage and don’t claim your identity, do you. . . rabbit?”

I stared him down for a moment. He didn’t back away. He showed no fear, further confirming what I knew of him.

“She needs to learn to protect herself,” he continued in a low voice.

“You’re supposed to be helping me find the guy who did this. So far, you have jack shit for me.”

He stepped up to me, meeting me nose to nose.

“I don’t take commands from you, Mirage. I’m doing this because I give a damn about her. This has nothing to do with you or any other dick on this campus. Get that through your head.It’s her.Believe me when I tell you I’m logging the fucking man-hours on it.” He licked his lips. “I have a lead.”

“Names,” I snarled, ignoring the other shit he’d said.

He shook his head and backed away from me. “Nah. I need to confirm it before I give names. Don’t need you choking him with your carrot like you did to Linley, or beating him like you did to Eric Phelps.” He eyed me. “That’s right. I know you beat the shit out of him on the lowdown and are the reason he’s been put into the med ward.”

“Of course you do,” I said to him. He was really starting to anger me. “I’m sure you know about Jason Winkle and Austin Daly too.”

“Broken arm. Broken nose. Of course, I know.”

I gave him a dark smile.

“You’re good at what you do, Bryce. It’s why you’re here, but I expect better. I want a name. I want to kill this guy. Put that incredible mind of yours to work.” I was done. I turned to walk away, but he called out to me.

“Hey, Seth.”

I paused and looked over my shoulder at him. “Yeah?”

“Asylum said you can’t read minds. That you can’t get into them. If that’s true, how did you know about me?”

I cast him a sinister smile.

“Sometimes we lie. You already knew that, though.”

And with those cheerful words, I left him to mull it over.

CHURCH

Something was going on back at Chapel Crest, and I needed to get home and squash that shit. Ashes and Stitches were right. The longer I was in the Underground, the more deranged I became. I didn’t need them to point it out. I could feel the darkness seeping through my veins with every breath I took in this fucking hell I was stuck in.

I had a little bit of a plan, but it wasn’t much. And the last thing I wanted to do was give in and havea lookat what was happening back home. All I knew was that shit didn’t feel right. My assumption was Sin, but it also swung to that fucking Bryce Andrews.

“Lost in thought or just lost?” A familiar voice called out as I walked the halls through the mansion that sat over the Underground palace.

“Asylum,” I greeted him, not surprised he was there. I knew he worked for my father. Or at least my father believed he worked for him. I was under the impression he was on our side at the moment, given what I knew and witnessed from him.

We all had a part to play. Asylum played his well.

“Maybe a little bit of both,” I muttered, stopping to speak to him.

He smiled at me, and I took note of the blood dots on his face.

“Working hard, I see.”

“Always.” He looked past me, a muscle thrumming along his jaw.

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