Page 27 of The Psychopaths

I stare at the screen.

Do it. Push the fucking button. Call them.

Anger rips through me, followed by disgust.

I can’t do it.

Fucking Christ. I put the phone down. This isn’t like me. I’ve never had trouble eliminating obstacles. That orderly who caught me stealing pharmaceuticals at the institution? Died byaccidentfrom faulty electrical wiring. The doctor who recognized symptoms of my medication tampering? Anonymous tip about his cocaine habit to the medical board.

Clean. Calculated. Necessary.

If it’s always been so easy, then why does the thought of silencing Lilian feel wrong?

Because she saw you. Not Aries. You. Even if she hasn’t realized it yet.

I pace the length of my quarters, wrestling with options. There’s a third path, neither elimination nor seduction.Control.Keep her close enough to monitor but distant enough to manage. Use her insight rather than silence it.

My brother’s reaction when I mentioned her was revealing. Protective. Concerned. He cares about her more than my surveillance suggested. That makes her valuable leverage.

Decision made, I move to the planning wall. Methodically, I rearrange the photos, creating a new section. Lilian Hayes is no longer peripheral. She’s central now—not just to hurting Aries but to understanding him, to perfecting my portrayal of him. I pin her photo in the center of the new arrangement. Unlike theclinical surveillance shots of others, this one captures something different.

It’s from tonight, taken from the security feeds, as she stood on the terrace, challenging me. Her eyes are alive with intelligence, her posture straight and uncompromising. Nothing like the fragile invalid her family presents to the world.

Around her photo, I arrange string connections to both Aries and me. A triangle of complications. I won’t kill her. Not yet, anyway. She’s too useful right now. Instead, I’ll draw her in. Let her think she’s uncovering my secrets while I uncover hers. I’ll use her knowledge of Aries against him, and her apparent fascination with me against her.

If she becomes too dangerous, I can always revert to the original plan. Cleanup is just a phone call away.

My fingers trace the outline of her face in the photograph. The only person who’s seen the real me in ten years, even if she doesn’t know what she’s seeing.

“Lilian Hayes,” I murmur to the empty room. “How bad do you want Aries? Bad enough that you would sell your soul to the devil?”

I pick up a red marker and circle her image, adding a question mark beside it. Not a target. Not an asset. Something else entirely. A wild card I never expected to find in this game of revenge.

Lilian

I’ve been staring at the same page of my textbook for an hour now. I can’t focus to save my life, and I’m already at my limit of caffeine for the day so another coffee is out of the equation. I’d love to say my lack of concentration has to do with the fact that I’d rather pluck my own eyes out than do advanced calculus, but that would be a lie.

Math isn’t the problem.It’s Aries.

I can’t stop thinking about the dinner party and his strange behavior. None of it makes sense. How does a person go MIA for months and then return like nothing ever happened?

My cell phone chimes, alerting me to a text message. I peer down at the screen and smile.

Emery:Hello, bestie. I miss you.

Me:I miss you, too.

Emery Lamont.My one and only friend. I wish she was here with me. But of course her stupid overprotective hockey-star brother refused to let her attend Oakmount, instead insisting she go toRavencrest.Guess it pays to be the captain of the team when you want to keep your sister hostage.

Emery:I think I’m going to die of boredom without you.

Me:Please don’t. Something tells me the Grim Reaper will not let you keep your phone in the afterlife.

Emery:Don’t be dramatic.

All I can do is snicker as I type out my response.

Me:Me? Dramatic? Did you not just see what you said?

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