Page 31 of Cruel Charming Psychos (Necessary Evils 2)

“The only thing I’m guilty of is letting this charade go on long enough.” He points his finger in my face like I’m a dog. “You’re going to take that girl to get an abortion and then we are going to tell everyone in a few months that she had a miscarriage. Is that clear?”

I don’t want to say that great minds think alike because that’d be giving my father too much praise, but I’ve had similar ideas. Now that I know that Addison isn’t pregnant, I figured the easiest way out of this mess was to fake a miscarriage. That’s off the table now. As far as these people will ever know, Addison was pregnant and still is.

“That’s not going to happen,” I say, straightening myself out. “We’re having the baby.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” he scowls. “If you don’t take care of it, I will.”

Those words are absolutely a threat, but I know it’s best to not push him too hard. Instead, I just offer him a nod before pushing past him and making my way into the kitchen. Mother is there, standing at the island in the middle of the kitchen with a glass of vodka in her hand. The bottle sits idle on the counter.

“Since when do you drink vodka?” I question accusingly.

“I needed something a little harder than a glass of Pinot.”

She can barely handle her alcohol. After a glass of wine, she loosens up just a little bit. Vodka might actually make her tell the truth. “What do you know about Asher?”

“Who?”

“The boy that died, Mother!”

She recoils, and that’s so not like her. She’s cold and hard, always standing straight and defiant as hell. “The only things I know are the things that your father told me.”

Interesting.“Care to share those revelations?”

“He and that girl were trying to ruin this family.”

The revelation hits like a fucking ton of bricks to the face. I gesture with my hands as I scream at her from across the kitchen. “Are the two of you out of your fucking minds?”

“Do not raise your voice to me, you ungrateful prick.”

“Did you have him killed?”

She looks at me as if she’s deaf, as if she didn’t hear the question. There’s a panic in her eyes though that screams that she understood exactly what I said. “I don’t know who killed that boy, but it’s best to leave it alone. Let the police take care of it.”

“Why are you drinking Vodka, Mother?”

“I already answered your inquiry and it’s starting to feel like a witch hunt. Did that whore put you up to this?”

“I think you know something and it’s eating you alive. It’s okay, though. Why don’t you just drink until you pass out. Maybe when you wake up, you’ll find out that it was all just a dream.”

As soon as I turn my back to her, she launches the glass across the room. It shatters against the cabinetry, sending shards of glass underneath my feet. The glass crunches as I walk over it, determined to find out the truth.

And the truth starts with finding out what’s on those disks.

ChapterFifteen

ADDISON

They say the Devil comes for you in the weakest of moments, but I’ve never ascribed to that philosophy. The devil can destroy you when you’re at your lowest just the same as he can rip people from ivory towers. I am lost in a vortex of mixed emotions and confusion.

Mother looks at me with sad eyes, but I don’t want her sympathy. She’s the reason I’m even in this mess in the first place. If she could have just stayed sober, I never would have come back home to take care of her. I don’t have love left in my body for her.

I can’t even explain why I’m so upset. Nick knows the truth. Even without me confirming that I’m not actually pregnant, he knows. It’s not like the two of us ever had a real, actual future together. We were always on borrowed time, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And yet, I feel an emptiness in me. As if everything leading up to this point has been pointless and for naught.

I think the thing thatreallyupsets me is that Asher died for nothing. He never should have been involved in the first place. I should have dragged him out of this town kicking and screaming the second he showed up. Without Nick, I don’t have the access that I need to find out the truth and avenge the murder of Asher.

Or maybe… It’s a dangerous thought, but what if I was actually falling in love with Nick? It’s absurd, depraved, and unfathomable, but sometimes when I’m with him I forget that I’m playing a role. Sometimes, I forget that he’s nothing more than a pawn in my game. That has to mean something. It has to mean something that I feel safe when he’s holding me in the latest hours of the night.

Not that that matters anymore because we are right back to square one. There is no trust between us. It’s been absolutely destroyed.

---