Page 15 of Two for Joy

“Neither. My interest lies in murder.”

“I bet you’ve had a lot of interest over the years.”

Romeo lifted his eyebrow. “I get a lot of looks. I bet you do, too.”

He could feel Paul’s gaze on the back of his head.

Holly blushed, then a plotting smile lit up her face.

“I get my fair share of interest, always used it to my advantage. Always get what I want in the end.”

Romeo tilted his head, studying her. “You use your good looks to get what you want.”

“As my ex says, I have an easy face to fall in love with, and a hard one to forget.”

“Poor bloke.”

Holly shrugged. “I didn’t love him the same way he loved me. It happens.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Anyway, let’s get back on topic … about you and the reasons you snapped.”

Romeo sighed.

In some ways she was right. There was a moment he’dsnappedcompletely, and that had been when he killed the magpie without meaning to. Whatever he’d been holding onto to keep him good, human, had completely fallen away. If the monster was chained up in his mind, that moment did the equivalent of letting it loose in the cage.

“What about you? Have you almost snapped?”

Holly snorted. “When I got given this article to write I almost did. I was happy, it felt like a triumph—

“A triumph?”

Holly twisted a strand of her hair. “I wanted to write it, and I made sure I was the only option, but I’m under a lot of pressure. I didn’t know for sure if I could handle it.”

“So you killed some people?”

“No.” Holly laughed, then grimaced. “I leaned on the people around me. I have that luxury, you didn’t. And when I started writing the article, and met you … well, you put me at ease, and I knew it was going to be okay. We work well together.”

“We do, we’re a good partnership.”

Holly beamed, seemed to remember herself, then looked down at her notes.

“Maybe you saw your parents and your bullies in the people you killed. The ultimate revenge for being treated so poorly.”

“Some advice,” Romeo said. “Don’t open the article with that, it’s awful.”

Holly laughed. “I’m still finding my feet, my style.”

“Terror sells.”

“An interesting story sells, too. I want to make my ownmarkon the Canster Times, no pun intended.”

Romeo frowned, then lifted his shoulders.

He didn’t get her joke.

“Never mind. There’s something we haven’t touched on yet.”

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