Page 27 of Crazy Rich Monsters (Necessary Evils 1)

She cocks her head over her shoulder, her gaze burrowing into my soul. “Maybe it’s better if you leave town again and contemplate never coming back. This place isn’t good for you.”

She’s right. This place is absolutely horrible for me, but I’ve started something and I’m going to be damned sure I finish it before leaving again. Something isn’t adding up and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly, her gaze unwavering. “I know you didn’t mean to kill that girl.”

Typical Calloway bullshit. Brush the cruelty under the rug with sweetness like a burnt cinnamon roll doused with cream frosting. The only difference is that the only thing we’re being doused in is gasoline, one strike away from an explosion.

ChapterFifteen

ADDISON

A loose translation of a Chinese proverb states that what is told into the ear of a man is often heard a hundred miles away. I can’t quite ascertain the meaning of the proverb. Either it means that someone canliterallyhear the words whispered into the ears of another man from miles away or more likely it’s simply stating that men talk and whispers spread until they’re no longer uttered quietly in the quiet corners of rooms. Instead, secrets are traded like currency until they become public domain.

I used to think these walls could talk, almost as if the lattice fences encasing the garden outside could tell the residents of this house precisely what happened to Carter Calloway. This mansion houses a million different secrets varying in degrees of darkness, but never could I have imagined that Nick Calloway has already committed a murder. I knew he was fully capable of monstrous things, but I believed any danger he presented was only beginning to emerge.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Fool me again and I’ll end you.

Anyone could notice me perched up against the doors of the formal living room, but thankfully most of the guests migrated outside after Nick’s bullshit speech. What’s the worst that can happen anyways? I’ll be thrown out onto my ass.

Nick and his mother go silent. I reckon that’s my cue to get the hell out of sight before one of them emerges from the room. Just as I take a step backwards, the door cracks open. I jerk in place, my heart thumping against my chest. I hurry up the stairs as Mrs. Calloway careens out of the room, heading towards the front door. Out of sight and out of mind. It’s as if she wants to get as far away from the scene of a crime as fast as humanly possible. As if she left the corpse of her own son behind.

Once I reach the top of the landing, I cut to the left, taking refuge behind the wall. I peek around the corner and watch as Nick exits the room. He’s not his normal cool and calm collected self. He’s frazzled, carrying the scars of the quiet fight that’s just occurred. He comes to a stop outside the room as he closes the door behind him and then he cocks his gaze upwards.

I’m praying that I’m quick enough on my feet as I twist sideways, hiding behind the safety of the wall. My chest heaves, heart racing and breath hitched as I try to collect the courage to take another peek but I don’t find it. I just close my eyes with my head thrown back against the wall.

I came here with some semblance of a plan to get back at him for what he’s done to my mother. The beginning of that plan was to insert myself into his life in a very public manner. That was also the end of the plan, and he took that away from me by doing the job for me. I can’t quite figure out why he brought me here today, but after eavesdropping on the conversation with his mother, I wager that I don’t care to find out.

And then I feel the weight of his shadow hovering over me. I don’t need to be able to see him to know that it’s him. The scent of his body is unmistakable. Clean and woody with a hint of warm apples. I open my eyes to see him standing before me, one arm thrown over my shoulder as he positions his body against mine.

“You know I can scream, right?” I say, swallowing nervously. “Loud enough so that everyone within a block’s radius will hear me.”

“I think you know me well enough to know that I love it when you scream.”

“Have you ever thought about picking up poetry?”

He forces one leg between my own, bending slightly so that his thigh crushes my cunt. “Have you ever thought about being anything other than a giant pain in my ass?”

Touche.

“I heard everything,” I grind out, fighting the terrifying urge to take him by the back of his head and pull him into my mouth, to devour him, to give him permission to ravage me right here, right now. Out of self-preservation or lust? I’m not entirely sure anymore. “Heard about how you killed that girl.”

“Why don’t you shut the fuck up.” He chuckles maliciously, a blood-curdling laughter that carves its way under my skin. He grabs me by the wrist and drags me down the length of the hall. Once we reach the end of it, he opens a door and pushes me inside, immediately closing the door behind him. He grabs me once more and throws me against the door. “Whatever you think you heard, you didn’t.” He places a single finger against my lips. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I fully understand what he’s trying to say. I’m just too stupid to know better and brave enough to not care. “Is that why you’re so obsessed with me? You killed some girl and I killed your brother. I guess that makes us both killers and I think you get off on it but I’m not like you.” I muster all the strength in my body to throw a hand against his chest. He stumbles backwards, but not out of strength but rather surprise. “I’ll never be like you.”

“Oh yeah, Addison. We’re exactly alike. Neither of us are in prison for what we did. I have rich parents who buried my sins under the rug, and you just got lucky.” He has a bad habit of admitting to things he has done without evidence. He’d be a terrible witness at a trial. “The difference between us is that I didn’t mean to kill that girl.”

“Do you really think I meant to kill him? Do you think I woke up that morning and said,Gee, I really want to kill Carter Calloway today?”I stare him down, waiting for a response. Regardless of the truth, these people seem to believe I’m some one-note villain as if there weren’t a series of events that obviously lead Carter and I to being together that day. “You always have so much to say, Nick. Come on and say it!”

“I was obsessed with that girl.” He scratches at the scruff at the base of his chin. “Is that what you want to hear? Do you want to hear every little detail about the last gasps for air she took on this earth?” He takes a step towards me, his body towering over me as the sun goes down through the window. The room darkens. “Do you want me to tell you how it was an accident but I knew nobody would believe me, so my parents stepped in and handled the problem?” He grabs me by both hips, digs his fingers into the fabric of my dress. “Do you want to hear about how my parents like making problems disappear. You’re lucky to be alive.”

I angle my gaze up to meet his, dark and stormy, filled with a potent combination of lust and hatred. “Are you threatening me?”

“I’m warning you that it was a mistake coming here and you need to stay away in the future.”

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