Page 74 of Edge of Control

The word hit like a gunshot.BANG.Murderer. I was a killer. Jace knew who I really was now. There was no more hiding it. No more running from my fate. The judge and jury stood right in front of me. He had his phone unlocked in his hands but wasn’t dialing the cops yet.

“Those people, they were all monsters, Jace. Not only were they involved with Pressure Point—the group behind my sister’s death—but they were the scum of the Earth. They were rapists, they were thieves. One of them had a hard drive full of videos that would make you crawl out of your skin with disgust. Julie, she’d purposefully sell drugs laced with fentanyl, drugs that killed one of her own best friends. Ricky, he roofied and raped his best friend. They were sick. Sicker than me. I made sure of it. I made sure none of those people were innocent, and if they were, then I wouldn’t go after them.”

“That wasn’t your job to decide. You killed them. You killed them and then displayed them like some kind of twisted art.”

Tears slipped into my mouth, salt exploding on my tongue. I held on to my chest. My heart felt like it was close to exploding.

But he still wasn’t calling the police.

I took a tentative step forward, crossing the threshold. I just wanted him to hold me. Wanted him to kiss me, even if it was one last time before I was dragged away in handcuffs. Wanted him to understand what I had done, why I haddone it.

“Marielle, Em, she was my best friend, my everything. Finding her body hanging from the ceiling, it broke something inside me. It made me want to make the entire world pay for their collective crimes. I funneled all of that energy into Nevermore. I made it my mission to make her death mean something. She’d been obsessed with Poe’s poems ever since we were children. I knew this would be a way to keep her around, to make it all make sense.”

A door down the hallway opened, its hinges loudly announcing the new audience member to this fucked-up play. I looked over my shoulder. Jace was speechless. I reached for the door handle, slowly started to close it. He could tell me to get out. He could tell me to stop.

He didn’t. He stared at me. Was he frozen in fear? Was he processing what I was telling him?

“I’m not a monster, Jace.”

“No, you’re a fucking sociopath.”

He might as well have reached out and slapped me. “I’m not a sociopath. A sociopath wouldn’t feel the kind of emotions I feel toward you. You’re the reason why I’m here, coming clean. You mean as much to me as Em did. More, even. I’d stop the world for you. I’d stop my own world. It’s what I’m doing, right now. I’m ending it all. Because I had to be the one to tell you. I had to be the one to put the pieces together. I’m sorry. I’m so, so fucking sorry. Please, Jace, please believe me.”

“You’re a killer.”

“I…” had nothing to say.

“From the beginning, from that first night atChained, you had already killed. You’ve been toying with me the entire time.”

“No! I swear, this hasn’t been a game to me. You’ve made me feel whole for the first time in years. I genuinely feel healed with you. I wasn’t toying with you—I was falling in love with you. Ihavefallen in love with you.”

Jace placed both hands over his mouth. Dragged them down his chin. There was a distant look in his gaze. He was examining me. He was sifting through his thoughts. I moved a step closer to him, but this time, he moved back, as though we were two of the same polarized magnets, unable to ever touch again.

My heart ached, my stomach twisted.

Finally, after what felt like hours but must have only been a couple of minutes, Jace said, “I’m taking you to the police station myself. Don’t make any sudden movements. Turn around and keep your hands out of your pockets.”

There it was. The ending to my story.

I knew there’d be no rewrites. Tragedy was always the plan.

Chapter 28

Jace Holloway

Theo was Nevermore.

Nevermore was Theo.

Theo Glass was a serial killer.

I had slept with a murderer.

I had fallen for a killer.

Theo. Nevermore. What the fuck?What the fuck?

Nothing about this made any sense, and yet the moment Theo confirmed it, the entire picture became clear. He’d been toying with me. Even though he said he wasn’t, he was. He’d been playing a game with me the entire time.

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