Page 117 of A Smile Full of Lies
“What brought this on? You been missing me, Cooper?”
I laughed softly, all silk and suggestion.
“Maybe I’m just tired of pretending I don’t remember how good we were. What it felt like when you let me in.”
He set the bottle down and stepped closer, eyes gleaming with old hunger.
“And what exactly do you want to be let into this time?”
“Something bigger,” I said, voice low. “Something real. I keep thinking about the things people whisper around here — about that night, about what happened to Knox’s family.” I met his gaze, careful and deliberate. “You ever wonder what it’d feel like to finally say it? To get it off your chest? To admit you weren’t just some college fuck-up — you were part of something huge. Infamous.”
His breath caught just slightly. I leaned forward, dropped my voice to a whisper.
“Tell me a story, Thayer. Something no one else knows. I promise I’ll keep it just between us.”
Thayer’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
He stepped in closer, his voice casual — but too careful.
“So tell me, Cooper… what makes you think I had anything to do with it?”
He didn’t saywhat‘it’ was. He didn’t have to.
The air went still, charged and tense.
I didn’t flinch, just met his gaze like I wasn’t sitting a few feet from a man who might’ve helped kill the family of the man I loved.
I tilted my head slowly.
“Because you’re not nearly as stupid as you like to pretend to be.” His jaw ticked. “You’ve always played the long game,” I said, voice soft, low, and hypnotic. “You act like you’re impulsive. Like you make reckless decisions for the hell of it. But it’s all bullshit.”
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just stared at me, watching and waiting.
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the counter between us.
“You’ve always been smarter than people give you credit for. Calculating. Strategic. You let guys like Knox think they’re winning while you’re ten moves ahead, playing chess while they’re busy playing checkers.”
His lip twitched.
“I started thinking about everything you’ve ever wanted, and how far you’d go to get it. And I realized — if anyone in this town could be part of somethingthat big, that infamous, and walk away clean?” I smiled, slow and dangerous. “It’d be you.”
His fingers drummed against the bottle once. Twice. Then he smiled — and this time, it was real.
He leaned in, voice dark and low.
“You always were my favorite audience, baby.”
Thayer’s smile lingered like a bruise. He leaned against the kitchen counter, letting the silence stretch until it vibrated between us.
Then he said it — quiet, like he was slipping me a gift wrapped in poison.
“It wasn’t supposed to go down the way it did. The cops got it all wrong when they thought it was a professional hit, because nothing was taken.”
“That so?”
My pulse kicked hard in my throat. Maybe him being unmedicated was playing in my favor – nothing was restricting his willingness to talk about it.
He took a sip from his beer, eyes flicking up to meet mine.
