Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Julian
“Why would Detective Ridgeway do any of this?” Wynn’s brow scrunched. “It makes no sense.”
I wanted to answer his questions, but there were too many things currently in play.
Bear was dead, and I had to get him into the container; Corey was alive, and keeping him that way appeared to be Wynn’s main goal.
Wynn…he finally met my eyes, but I felt him slipping away.
Would letting Corey live make him see me a little less like a monster?
With all of that, I had Wynn to worry about. How to get past this but at the same time have him accept this part of me. It was complex—I got that. My family knew—they feared me but at the same time would defend me to the death. I wanted Wynn to love me; I needed that.
“Julian, why is Ridgeway doing this, and can’t you tell Henderson?”
I glared at Corey before giving my attention to Wynn. “I found out recently that Ridgeway was the governor’s cousin.”
Wynn tilted his head. “Okay, that’s a big conflict of interest. However, it doesn’t explain why he’s causing mayhem.” I jolted away. “Is this because he thinks I killed her?”
“He…he told me to tell you or the lady that the prince was a bad man. It d-didn’t seem like he was angry with you,” Corey answered, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention.
Did Ridgeway know what I was…what I did?
“It’s so confusing.” Wynn sighed.
I looked at Corey and contemplated what to do with him. “If I let you live, you do what Wynn said. I’ll give you enough money to live and set up somewhere. Eventually you’ll need a job.” I inched closer. “But if you ever speak of this. If you ever return to the islands, I will kill you.”
He shook his head frantically. “I promise, I won’t talk. I’d love a fresh start. Thank you!” Beads of sweat dripped down his face.
I turned away and pulled out my cell phone to get instructions to my assistant and to loop Edward in on everything that had transpired tonight and what I’d learned. He wasn’t happy and said he had news of his own.
“Fuck,” I groaned as I read the message.
“What is it?” Wynn didn’t come near me, but he wore a concerned expression on his handsome face.
“Corey, I’m going to take you out of here through a back exit. There will be a car waiting and a driver. He will take you to the airport. From there, the royal jet will take you to your new destination. Paper work and money will be handled before you step off the plane.”
“Uh, ok, thanks.” His gaze slipped to my right, where Bear’s body was.
“That’s not why you swore, Julian.” Wynn lifted a brow.
“No, it’s not, but I need to get Corey out of here and Bear handled. You don’t have to stay for any of this. I can bring you upstairs.”
Wynn pursed his lips, and he stared at me intently. Then, to my surprise, he walked over to Bear and glared.
“He was a despicable person.”
“He was.”
He folded his arms across his chest and faced me. “You have only ever killed horrible people like him?”
“Mostly.”
He blinked rapidly. “Mostly…what’s that mean?”
“You write for a psychology magazine, you’ve studied mental health and learned things, right?”
“Mostly.” He smirked.
“What do you know about psychopathy?”
He slipped his hands into his pockets. “The textbook answer to that would be: Psychopathy is a personality construct characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, or egotistical traits.”
“That’s actually exactly what the textbooks say. But have you ever met a psychopath?”
He gestured to me. “Seems I’ve done a lot more than just meet one, Julian.”
“Fair point.” I moved closer to him. “You could read up on it for days, weeks, years and by the end, your head would be spinning. A doctor showed me a model once on theorized subtypes. Unprincipled, which would be the lack of remorse aspect. Disingenuous, that covers the deceptive and untrustworthy part. Covetous, which is the envious and exploitative factors. Lastly, malevolent. Being malicious and cruel.”
“And which part of this model are you?”
I sighed and stared into his brown eyes. I wanted to lie and say none, but he had to know.
“I’m a bit of all of them, but no two psychopaths are the same. The textbooks speak of studies done by doctors. But who I am isn’t so easily defined.”
“Explain it to me, then.”
I nodded. “I will, but first I have to get Corey out of here and deal with Bear. Can I walk you upstairs? Get comfortable and meet me in my bedroom, and I’ll explain more.”
He flinched when I mentioned my bedroom but reluctantly agreed.
Once Wynn was upstairs, I got Corey out of the basement and into a car. Edward would personally drive him to the airport and make sure he got on the plane. Right before he shut the door, I leaned in close.
“Don’t make me fucking find you, Corey.”
“I…I promise, I won’t.”
The car drove off, and I went in to deal with Bear. It wasn’t going to be pleasant but the sooner I was done, the sooner I could find Wynn and get the rest of these secrets out in the open.
It took longer than I’d have liked to handle Bear. I didn’t often kill on Thrindell because disposing of bodies here wasn’t easy. I was sure Wynn would be asleep by the time I was finished. However, when I entered the room, he was sitting up in bed and reading on his phone.
He looked up when I entered. “You showered?”
“Had to. Figured I’d get everything done down there before we talked.”
He bit his bottom lip and nodded. “So, tell me, who are you, Julian? What kind of psychopath?”
“One that was born from two very normal parents. My great-grandfather was like me, and some other family members through the years were as well. Medications and therapy were tried, but in the end it was realized that we needed a way to coexist. Ignoring that part of ourselves, however, wasn’t an option. ”
“Killing is, though?”
“If we ignore it, that makes it worse. We figured out how to sate our cravings while doing some good at the same time. No one we’ve killed were good people, Wynn.”
“Actually.” He placed his phone next to his legs. “I’ve been thinking about that. The last few hours have been swirling around in my head.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, and I realized Ridgeway isn’t out to get me. He’s out to get you, because he’s figured out that it was you that killed the governor, but he can’t prove it. Am I warm?”
I hummed. “I’m not sure what he knows, but I suspect he does.”
“Why?”
“Why, what?”
“Why did you kill her? She was a bitch, sure, but deserving to die? I don’t agree.”
This was going to be a hard one to explain. “Rona wasn’t a great person.”
“Your father chose her as governor, right?”
“Yes.”
“He must have believed in her.”
I scoffed. “He was an idiot to choose her. I can show you all her faults.”
“But was she bad enough to die? Come on, Julian.” He jumped off the bed. “Being a bitch or an asshole isn’t a reason to kill someone.”
I gritted my teeth. “I don’t regret it.”
“No, of course not. You regret nothing, right? That’s the unprincipled part of the model.”
“She treated you badly.”
That seemed to make him speechless for a minute. Then he whispered, “You killed her because she was rude to me?”
“Wynn.” I took two steps, but he held up his hand.
“No!”
I froze.
“This is who you are, but it’s not who I am.”
“No, it’s not, but do you know who you are to me?”
He shook his head, a tear falling down his cheek. I didn’t move closer but I wanted to feel him, and it was making me shake.
“You’re the quiet when it’s loud. You’re the balm every time the itch under my skin gets to be too much. I’ve never connected with anyone until you.”
He swallowed and swiped away his tear. “I’m also someone who you’d kill for even if that person was just rude to me.”
“No.” I took a step and since he didn’t stop me, I took another. “Okay, yes. But I’d do anything for you.”
“Anything?”
“Yes.”
“Then you don’t kill people.”
“Wynn, I—”
He held up a hand. “Wait. Before you came in here, I was reading an article Psychology Weekly posted. I wasn’t the author, but they interviewed a man who was in prison for killing like seventeen people.
One thing the man said was that if he had someone steering the car in his mind, maybe he wouldn’t be where he was. ”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, I can’t unmake who you are. But if I decide to stay—and it will be my choice, Julian, not yours—we do this my way.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he wasn’t done.
“Oh, and I want to meet your family. I need to see where you come from.”
“That’ll be easy.”
“Will it?”
“Mmhmm. Earlier in the basement, when I got upset, that was a text from Edward, informing me that my parents and siblings will be arriving tomorrow.”
Wynn’s eyes widened. “What!”
“Get your questions ready.”