Page 41 of Reckless Covenant

“What?!” He looks between us as he steps closer. “What the hell is thi…” He trails off as recognition hits him, and his wide eyes snap to me. “What the fuck, Morri?! Is this who I think it is?”

The Serpent turns to me and my eyes flash from one man to the other, both waiting for different explanations.

“Yes…” I sigh.

“We don’t have much time. You need to tell me what the fuck is going on.” The black-eyed devil tenses his shoulders as he regards me.

I pick up one of the photos and stare at it. I’m in the middle of the forest, a flashlight lighting me and the patch of ground before me as I dig the hole, the body of a man laid next to it. Even in this grainy image, you can tell there’s no life in that body. Only Ryan could have taken this and the more I look at it, I realize that I know exactly when. All this time, all these years, this son of a bitch had leverage on me. All these fucking years!

“That’s Lawson, isn’t it?” Maddox asks.

“Wait, is that the guy we caught almost…” The Serpent navigates around that particular piece of memory. “…The one whose jaw you broke?”

“Yes.”

“When was this taken? For fuck’s sake, just tell us, you know you will! Stop prolonging this.”

“There’s a goddamn reason for that! Fuck! It was taken not long after we… after you left.” Afterhe left meout of the blue. “When he noticed you weren’t around, and I didn’t have your protection anymore, he decided to get his revenge for that night I broke his jaw.”

Maddox quickly grabs one of the photos, bringing it closer to his eyes. “Wait… is thisyourblood? Ripped clothes… Morrigan, what the fuck happened?!” He slams his large hand on the bed, on top of the photo, his tone threatening.

Even if he is built like a beast, the scariest one of them all, who much prefers killing a man than showing feelings, I know he cares. In a ruthless, rough around the edges, kind of way.

“In a way, I was lucky, because he came after me alone. Maybe he didn’t have the courage to tell any of his friends that it was a girl that broke his face that night.” I lean over and gather all the photos back in the envelope. “I still remember the sick grin on his face when he told me that you’re not there to save me again…”

“Not that you needed much saving.” Maddox becomes a bit uncomfortable with my insinuation, what they saved me from that night. The look in The Serpent’s eyes though, is eerily still.

It may have looked to them like I didn’t need saving, but it didn’t feel the same to me. I was… unhinged, definitely not in control, and only control can give you the confidence to win something like that. I had none of it, I was just… manic.

“Ryan used to be like a puppy after I became single, always following me, always around. Now I wonder if any of that was a normal crush, or if it was just a growing, unnatural obsession. It turns out that he was around that night as well. At least that’s my conclusion, because there’s no way anyone else would have found us there. And I’m sure Ryan wasn’t expecting what he saw when he did.”

“Whatdidhe find?” The Serpent speaks in a different tone now, lower, rougher, each word spilled slowly, punctuated, my skin responding with goosebumps before my brain even registers the need for a reply.

“Lawson knocked me out and put me in his car. I woke up in the forest, not far from Brook Lane, as he was trying to rip my clothes off.” I hear the growl coming from Maddox before my eyes land on his fury. But it’s the darkness, the possessiveness in The Serpent’s eyes that pulls my attention. “He didn’t intend to finish what he started. Believe me. He wanted to beat the shit out of me, humiliate me, leave me for dead, naked, for the animals to find me. When I woke up and pushed him off, he got two more kicks in my stomach before I managed to get on my feet. I guess Ryan saw his car at the side of the road and came into the forest. Maybe he thought he was coming to my rescue… only I wasn’t the one in need of it.”

I pause for a moment, catching my breath.

“I fell into a frenzy. I saw red and no other colors. He screamed… Ryan did, when he saw me bashing Lawson’s head in with a thick tree branch. I couldn’t stop myself. I’m not even sure I thought of stopping at all. I broke it on his mangled skull…”

“Jesus…” Vincent whispers. But I don’t know what to make of that reaction. He stands there, his eyes just a tad wider than normal, enough for that to be a complete shift in his demeanor.

It’s strange, but I always think about him as my first kill, and this haunts me more than the memory of his cracking skull. I haven’t killed since; he’s my one and only, but my brain… I think it already calculated the risks, considering my behavior. Maybe it’s just a matter of time. And I wish that would actually scare me.

“Ryan helped me. He left, got shovels and some clothes, while I stayed in the forest. He helped me bury him. He helped me move his car, then took me home. I thought it was done. We never spoke of it ever again.” I look at the envelope clutched in my small hands. “Now I understand why.”

“So he’s the one that took the photos,” Maddox states.

“Definitely. I remember there was a point when he said he was going to the car to pick up something, since we had some fingerprints to wipe off Lawson’s skin. I was in the middle of digging. I didn’t think anything of it. I was broken, exhausted, and that’s most likely when he took the photos.”

I turn toward the window, watching the clouds move slowly in the night sky, at the same speed as the breeze that moves the branches of the walnut tree that hovers from the right-hand side of the window.

“The world moved on from Lawson. He was so problematic, even his dad thought he ran away. No one even questioned the fact that he disappeared suddenly. More girls were coming out, accusing him of rape or sexual assault. Everyone just thought he ran away to escape a trial. I moved on too… never did I think that it would come back to bite me in the ass this way.”

“We need to get all the copies,” Maddox speaks as he walks to the door, his ear close to it as he listens for movement. He opens it and peeks through, then walks out without another word.

We should go too. We can’t risk my parents even thinking we’re friendly any time but in their presence.

“We’ll never get the copies. He’s not going to tell us anything, you know that.” I walk toward the door too, stopping just in front of it, when an arm wraps around my waist from behind, and the other pulls the envelope from my hand. My body hums in awareness, tense as I force myself not to sink into him. The corridor is lit, but here, in my childhood bedroom, we’re bathed in the shadows. The same shadows that adore The Serpent so much.

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