It wasn’t Roxie, but Alessa.
A bullet between her eyes, her carcass in my bed.
Before I could react, someone pressed the muzzle of a gun to the back of my head. “You got what you wanted, Cristian. You turned me into a monster—a fucking monster who kills people—all because you couldn’t take care of your ex-girlfriend.”
My breath caught in my throat. “Roxie.”
When I went to turn around, she pressed the muzzle harder against my head. “Don’t fucking move unless I tell you to.”
Yet, still, I couldn’t stop myself from turning to the side to see her face. I was so fucking relieved that Roxie was the one who had killed Alessa and not the other way around. I needed to see her, to hold her, to show her that I was sorry that I hadn’t taken care of Alessa beforehand.
But when I turned fully, Roxie slammed a kitchen knife into my thigh, pain shooting through me and warm blood running down my leg.
She pulled it out and pushed the gun further against my head with a shaky hand. “Sit down on the bed, Cristian, next to your ex-girlfriend, before I have to kill you tonight too.”
56
roxie
“Do as I fucking say, Cristian,”I said through clenched teeth, warning him one last time before I accidentally did something that I’d regret. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop the adrenaline pumping through my veins and my thoughts from running a million miles an hour.
Killing Alessa had been the most gratifying feeling in the world. It scared me how good I’d felt to watch the life drain out of her eyes and to know that her heart had slowly stopped beating because of me. She had made my life a living hell for the past few weeks and killed countless other girls for no good reason, all because they had once crushed on Cristian.
Cristian slowly sat on the bed, shoulders slumping forward while he yanked the knife out of his thigh. “Put the gun down, Roxie.”
“No,” I snapped. “You wanted me this way since the moment you laid eyes on me. You’re not getting rid of me that easily. This is who you fucking made me out to be, so you’d better shut your mouth and enjoy it.”
The words seemed to tumble right out of my mouth, and I couldn’t for the life of me stop myself from seizing control of the conversation and demanding my answers. This man had made me kill her and made me a murderer. This was what he got.
With the gun still pointed at him, I grabbed the box of Alessa’s shit and placed it on the bed in front of him. He glanced down at it, then down the barrel of the gun and right at me, as if he wasn’t scared that I could pull the trigger at any moment and kill him.
“What’s this?”
“The girls yourgirlfriendkilled.”
Cristian clenched his jaw. “Don’t call her that. She’s not my fucking girlfriend.”
I pressed the muzzle harder against his temple. “Open the box and look at it.”
After cursing under his breath, Cristian opened the box and pulled out the pictures of the girls with redXs over their faces. He laid them all out on the bed and stared at each one, brow furrowing and shaking his head.
“That could’ve fucking beenmebecause you let Alessa stay in your life,” I said.
“She wouldn’t have done that to you.”
“But you thought she did!” I shouted at him. “You thought she killed me! And she fucking tried to too.” Nerves ran through my body, shooting up and down my arms and making them tingle. “Why, Cristian? Tell me why you let her stay so close to us. Tell me why you risked my life like that. You … you were supposed to fucking love me.”
Cristian put all the images back into the box and placed it next to Alessa’s dead body, then stood back up and postured over me. “Put the gun down.”
Instead of letting him intimidate me, like he always did, I clicked off the safety and held my hands steady. “Tell. Me. Now,” I said through gritted teeth, my patience running thin, yet I couldn’t stop myself from feeling pain. “Do you still love her?”
Cristian didn’t take another step toward me or even grab the gun. He just stared down at me with trembling eyes and gave a short shake of his head. “Don’t be stupid. I could never love someone like her.”
“Were you still sleeping with her?” I asked, desperate for answers.
Cristian curled his lips. “No.”
“Then, why, Cristian?” My voice was quiet. I couldn’t figure this fucking out, and I wasn’t going to let him go because of it.