Page 151 of Defiant Beta

“You’re lying.”

"Why’d you do it?” I ask to give myself time to escape this mess.

“Do what?” She takes another small step toward me.

“Kill Aly.”

“Which was one Aly?”

Oh God. I’m going to die.

Ms. Huffman is not a shallow, plastic surgery-obsessed wellness instructor. She’s a twisted serial killer.

She smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I’ve surprised you.”

I keep my eyes on her as she closes the gap between us. She won’t shoot me, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t getting ready to push me over the edge.

I angle my body slightly to the left, tracking her movements closely. “A little.”

“They were a fuck you to Lincoln.”

“Lincoln?” I know who she means before she can tell me. The rumors about her husband leaving her for a waitress might not have been rumors after all. “He left you for an omega.”

“He didn’tleaveme. Ikilledhim.”

She lunges.

She’s fast.

A lot faster than I was expecting.

I scramble away, lose my footing, and scream as I tumble over the edge. Heart in my throat, I grab the raised side of the clock tower to stop my fall.

She smiles at me, satisfied. “You should have been looking where you were going.”

I dig my nails into the cold gray stone, the wind whipping up my skirt and freezing my legs. I lose a shoe as I kick out and cling to the wall with every part of my body.

“You won’t get away with this,” I call out, wincing.

You’ve watched too many films, Della.

“I already have.” She crouches inches away from me, the gun clasped loosely in her right hand. “I pushed him down the stairs, then put him in his car, poured some booze over him, and made it look like he’d driven into a river and drowned. He was always flirting with omegas. Always fucking them, too. Didn’t care if I was right in front of him or not. The first one wasn’t planned. The ones after were.”

She lifts the gun, and my heart clenches in terror.

“What happened to the first one?” I burst out, desperate to stop her.

“I went to apologize for my sleazy husband hitting on her. The sweet little omega smiled and said it was fine. That I had nothing to apologize for.” Her expression hardens. “As if I didn’t see her pity. As if I didn’t know she thought she was better than me.”

“You killed her.”

“I asked for a glass of water. Then I followed her into the kitchen and I hit her on the back of the head with a vase. Dumped her body on the highway, and made it look like a guy did it.” She slams the gun down on the fingers of my left hand.

I cry out, briefly lose my grip, and scrabble to hold on. “Stop!”

“You’re going to fall, Delilah Farrow.”

I cry out again as she slams the butt of the gun on the back of my right hand.

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