Chapter 20
Sunny
I take off my helmet and place it on the bike, because I’m not going to sully my precious gear for this, and I roll my eyes as Xavier bolts off at the sight of me.
I fucking knew these guys were up to no good the second that voice blasted over Foley’s phone about one of his cops at Spine Ridge University getting snatched.
I immediately go for the chase as he darts off toward the many broken-down cars stacked up in the back of this dump. He’s squealing like a little fawn being chased by a cheetah, and I quite like the thrill. It’s not often I get to play the predator to such willing prey.
But the moment he makes a wrong turn, I pull out a knife and throw it at his face.
He shrieks as it lands in the distorted metal of the car behind him, shaving off a piece of his hair near his ear.
“Where are you going, Xavier?”
He runs off again, while I casually pluck my knife out of the metal and tuck it back where it belongs. As he bolts through another set of cars, I pull out my gun and aim for the tires in front of me.
BANG!
The air blasts out through the hole in the rubber and knocks him off his feet. Groaning, he scratches at the muddied ground while trying to crawl away from me.
“I thought you learned your lesson by now …” I muse as I sashay toward him, completely unbothered by this scene he made. “There’s no running away from me.”
I plant my heels right beside his head, and he stops moving entirely.
“Xavier. Look at me.”
He slowly rolls around between my feet, the terror quite beautifully distorting the grimace on his face. “Um … don’t kill me.”
A depraved smile forms on my face.
God, I love the adrenaline rush that hunting gives me.
I grab him by the collar and lift him off the ground, then drag him with me like a rag doll back to where I found them scheming behind my back about my business. Orion’s still precisely where I left him, as if he doesn’t give a shit that I caught them in the act.
“You tried …” Orion murmurs as I dump Xavier right next to him.
“Shut up,” Xavier hisses at him as he crawls up from the ground and pats down his pants like nothing ever happened, but the mud-covered blood stains on his pants tell me enough.
“Now, where were we?” I say, folding my arms.
“Sunny … hi, how are you?” Orion says, awkwardly waving at me, like that’s going to save him from the severe trouble they’re in.
“I will kill you later.”
He moans—actually fucking moans. Goddamn melted piece of candle.
“What were you two doing here?”
“Nothing,” Orion answers, running his hands through his luscious locks.
“I wasn’t asking you,” I say, directing my attention toward Xavier. “Answer me.”
“It’s gone now. You don’t have to worry about anything, I swear,” he says.
I get right up in his face, so close he leans backward out of sheer fright.
“Exactly what is gone?”
He rubs his lips together. “Um …”
“How did you even find us?” Orion blurts out, interrupting my interrogation.
My eyes shoot his way, and he visibly flinches. “I saw the goddamn license plate and car brand when I was driving back to campus after I received an ominous warning, and I decided to follow.”
“Goddammit,” Orion mumbles. “I knew we’d been seen.”
“What warning?” Xavier asks in shock.
I grab him by the shirt. “I don’t divulge information. You do. Now tell me the truth.”
He gulps, visibly shaken. “Yes, ma’am.”
My eyes narrow. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about a certain cop named Bob going missing, now, would you?”
“It’s compl—”
“Where is he?” I interject.
Xavier’s finger slowly points toward the blazing fire from the burner in the background, and goose bumps spread on my skin.
“You threw him in there?”
They actually burned him alive? Holy shit.
“Well, he was already dead,” Orion says, scratching the back of his head. “It was an accident.”
Damn. Now I’m almost disappointed.
“What kind of accident involves a goddamn cop?” I grit.
“He didn’t die by accident,” Xavier says, swallowing again when I look at him, and I like how absolutely feeble he feels beneath my fingers, how easily he melts from my touch. “I killed him.”
The only light surrounding us comes from my motorcycle, and as the rain pitter-patters down on his quickly darkening face, he adds, “I slit his throat, and I would do it again and again and again if it meant keeping you safe.”
I tilt my head, amused by the idea that he thinks he can keep me safe from anything at all, and killing a cop, out of all fucking things … is he fucking insane? I never thought someone would be crazier than I am, but I guess I was wrong.
“You killed a fucking cop, Xavier. Do you have any fucking idea how dangerous this is?”
“I’ll live,” he replies.
Bold of him to assume I’ll let him live.
“Do you even think before you act?” I snap. “Cops don’t give a rat’s ass about solving murders until it’s one of their own that’s pulled through the wringer.”
“I know,” he says.
“No, I don’t think you know at all. Those fuckers out there are looking for him as we speak, and if Bob over there doesn’t return to his job soon, they’re going to start a manhunt.”
“The only time Bob has ever been useful was as a pile of ashes,” Xavier retorts cooly.
My eye begins to twitch from the sheer audacity of this fucker. “They are going to come after you.”
“Let them. I don’t care.”
I lean in. “Yet you ran away like a little bitch when you saw me.”
Sweat droplets roll down his forehead, and my tongue darts out to lick them up. God, I love the taste of fear on his skin.
“I’m not afraid of the cops, I’m only…” he cuts himself off.
Fears me.
“Tell me why you killed him, pup.”
His fist balls. “Because you kissed him.”
My eyes widen. I’m completely flabbergasted and nearly lose my grip on his shirt. “You’re jealous.”
His skin flushes bright red, and he averts his gaze. It’s so damn cute that I nearly forget I was supposed to punish him for misbehaving.
“You really can’t stop yourself, can you?” I muse.
He shakes his head.
I focus on Orion next. “And you? What’s your excuse?”
Orion raises his hands. “He roped me into it.”
“That’s a lie, and you fucking know it!” Xavier suddenly yells out of nowhere.
“You’re the one who killed him,” Orion retorts.
When I release Xavier, he jumps at Orion, as if he wants to go for a second kill for today.
“You watched me do it! You snuck up on me!”
“You were making a mess out there. Of course I had to go make sure you cleaned up properly!”
Xavier points at Orion’s chest. “I didn’t ask for shit! You invited yourself into my car!”
“What was I supposed to do? Leave you dragging a corpse all over the Tartarus grounds?”
They’re right up in each other’s faces now, and I have to admit, it’s amusing watching them bicker like girls. Xavier suddenly shoves Orion, who then grabs Xavier’s throat. I’m really not in the mood to stop a fight, but someone’s gotta do it.
“Stop,” I bark. “Now.”
The knives immediately clatter onto the ground, and both their heads turn toward me.
I glance at the burner in the back and the blood staining Xavier’s shirt. I never could’ve imagined these two would actually kill a damn cop … let alone work together to get rid of the evidence.
Impressive.
But this kind of transgression is only going to make my job harder.
“You two have really made a mess here,” I say, rubbing my temples.
“It was his idea,” Orion says, and Xavier immediately shoves his elbow into his gut.
I pick up the knives they dropped and point one of them at Xavier’s throat. “I tell you to stop, you stop.”
Xavier immediately gets in line like a damn soldier. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You keep arguing about whose fault it is. Meanwhile, we’ve got a dead cop on our hands, and a whole damn army of cops swarming the campus. That’s on you two. You should’ve known better than to co-conspire while I was out.”
“Wasn’t my intention,” Orion says. “But since you’ve taken a liking toward him, I wanted to make sure your new toy wasn’t doing anything stupid.”
Xavier steps on his foot, and I do think he deserves it, honestly.
“So you mean to say you did this for me?” I smirk. “Laughable.”
Xavier narrows his eyes at Orion and hisses, “You said you wanted to be my friend.”
“We’re already in this together, so might as well,” Orion replies.
“Together in what, exactly?” I ask.
Orion blushes. “As your playthings.”
“Oh …”
Poor things. Fighting over scraps of my attention.
“I can see that,” I say, and I grab Orion’s throat. “Friends don’t let friends kill someone the Mistress needed.”
“No, ma’am. But I—”
“Shhh.” I silence him. “If I wanted you two to kill, I would tell you two to kill, and you would be happy to oblige.”
I grab Xavier by the chin and make him look at me too. “Behave.”
He nearly slinks into himself. “Okay.”
I tilt my head down while his whole body turns to mush in my hand. “No. Not good enough.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he mutters.
A filthy smirk forms on my face. “Good boy.”
The sparkle in his eyes when I say the words makes me want to bring him to his knees and lick Detective Foley’s cum right out of my slit, but this dump’s owner is still watching us, and the cops could come sniffing at any time. It isn’t safe to stay here.
“Is the body gone?”
They both nod.
“What about the evidence?”
“Maybe some specks of blood, but none of ours,” Orion says.
“I’ll clean it all up as soon as I get back,” Xavier adds.
Hmm. I’m sure he’d like to erase his tracks, but these boys have been fighting among themselves over me, and it’s about time I put a stop to it.
“No. You’re coming with me.”
His pupils dilate. “What?”
I release him from my grip and waltz back to my bike. “You heard me. Follow.”
I put on my helmet and jump onto my bike, waiting until they finally get the memo to hop back into Xavier’s car and put on their goddamn seat belts.
I won’t have my little playthings endangering their lives in traffic.
The only one toying with their bodies will be me.