Chapter Six #2
“Including your sorority sisters? Twelve.”
“How do you know about this?” She turned to look at me, and for the first time since she’d set foot on my mountain, I saw her facade crack. Her eyes were glossy with unshed tears, her lips trembling.
“I had six years and nothing but time, little lamb. The police closed your case and moved on. But I connected the dots they were too lazy to see.” I reached over her, ripped down the folded photo of me and handed it to her.
She held it tight in her grip, visibly swallowing. “I remember this. Detective Parsons showed it to me… said you were the killer.” Her finger trailed over the scar on my face. “Said there was no doubt it was you.”
“Unfold it.”
Her brows drew together as she slowly opened the photo. She was quiet as she studied it, a tremor running through her, worsening the longer she held on to it.
It was an old photograph, one that looked like it had been handled too many times. Two boys stood side by side on a sunlit porch. Brothers. Almost mirrors.
When she finally looked at me, there was a fear in her eyes that I’d seen that day in the courthouse. “He’s the killer?” Her voice was just a whisper. “You’re… twins?”
My jaw clenched as I shook my head once. “No. My younger brother, Cyrus.”
“But he looks just like you. The stance. The eyes. The scar…”
I touched the raised line on my cheek, the memory of Cyrus’s twisted smile, the sound of the tires screeching, still fresh in my mind even after all these years. “Car accident,” I muttered, anger pulsing through me. “He carved up his face to match mine.”
Her face paled as if she couldn’t believe someone would do that.
But he would.
And so much worse.
“He… mutilated himself to match you? I don’t understand.”
Nobody could understand why he’d done it. Not my sister, not my parents. But I knew why.
“He was never normal, even as kids. We all knew something was wrong with him. I just never realized how far he would take it. He was institutionalized soon after that.” I gestured toward the maps.
My gaze drifted to all the pins scattered across them.
“But somehow he managed to slip out, kill, and slip back in without anyone noticing.”
“That’s why Courtney said it was the contractor.” Her shoulders slumped, as if the full weight of the situation was finally hitting her. “Wait.” She grabbed my arm, forcing me to face her. “If you knew it was him, why didn’t the police arrest him? Why did they come after you?”
The accusation in her voice made my blood boil, but I reeled my anger in, not wanting to lose control.
“I tried to tell them.” I pulled away from her.
“That useless fuck Detective Parsons laughed in my face. Called me psychotic.” I ran my finger across my bottom lip, pushing the memory out of my head.
“Cyrus’s alibi was concrete. Video surveillance showed he never left his room all night.
A staff member vouched for him. The DNA from the original crime scene was contaminated—Parsons and his team trampled through everything before forensics arrived.
They had nothing solid, but they didn’t care.
I fit the part.” I clenched my jaw. “Took them six fucking years and a demolition crew finding that knife to admit they were wrong.”
“Someone helped him.” She stared at the wall in silence, as if letting all the pieces click together in her mind.
“I know my brother.” A chill ran through me at the memory of his face right after I’d found my sister’s body.
“He’s brilliant. Manipulative. Charming.
The kind who could convince a guard to look the other way.
” I gestured to news articles pinned to the wall.
“You told that courtroom Courtney Thorgen said it was the contractor. Cyrus had an airtight alibi.”
“Oh, my God.” She was breathless as she leaned against the wall.
“He framed you. All this time I’d wondered why he let me live.
Why he hadn’t taken my eyes out like the others.
And it was so I could be the one to put you behind bars.
But why my sorority?” She searched my face, looking for something I didn’t want to give her.
An answer to why he’d ruined her life.
I could have told her that I’d seen her a week before the murders. That I’d been on campus to give the dean an estimate on renovations. That I’d seen her across the courtyard and my heart had stopped for just a moment. She’d been sketching, a smile wide on her face. She’d taken my breath away.
Sixty seconds.
That was all it was.
Sixty seconds and both of our lives were ruined.
Because for one fucking minute, I let myself think she was beautiful, and he must have seen it too.
That was the only explanation I had. During those five years in the cage, the thought had haunted me.
That my moment of weakness, my one goddamn minute of noticing her, had signed her friends’ death warrants.
Between the rage and fury, the thought had eaten away at me.
But I couldn’t tell her that. Because I didn’t know if it was true. And because a part of me didn’t want her to hate me more than she already did, even if I deserved it.
“Only Cyrus can answer that.” The lie slipped from my lips easy enough.
“Where is he now? Is he still at the institution?” Hope gleamed in her eyes for a brief moment, but I shook my head.
“He escaped five months ago. They don’t know how he did it, but he vanished.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” She covered her mouth, her breathing becoming shallow and frantic, like she was drowning.
I recognized the signs immediately. Her wide eyes, trembling fingers. I’d lived through enough panic attacks in my cell to know what was happening to her now.
“Look at me, Seraphine. Breathe.” I inhaled slowly through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. “Match me.” I repeated the breathing pattern over and over for the next several minutes until the color returned to her face.
“I’m sorry.” She sounded torn apart, and a heaviness settled in my chest. “Five years, Valen. Five years of your life taken from you because I was too scared and traumatized to think clearly.”
The old me would have fed on her turmoil and anguish. I would have savored every sweet tear she shed. But watching her fall apart right in front of me made me feel nothing but hollow.
“I know that doesn’t fix what I’ve done or give you those years back.
” She wiped her eyes, her nails digging into my arms. “I could blame Detective Parsons, or the DA, everyone who pressured me. But I’m the one who got on that stand and didn’t make it clear enough.
” She turned and faced the wall, her back rigid.
“You asked why I’m here. Why I came back.
” Her fists clenched at her sides and she glanced over her shoulder at me.
“I came back to finish this. I’m going to put a bullet in his head and end what he started. ”
The words hit me like a punch in the face. I could tell this wasn’t her grief talking. This was vengeance.
“Because I know he’s after me. All the new victims…” Her back tensed as she touched one of the recent articles on the wall.
“They look exactly like you.” I gripped her shoulder and turned her to face me. “He’ll kill you, Seraphine.” I said the words slowly, needed her to understand she didn’t stand a chance against him.
The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. “Then I’ll drag him to hell with me.” She clenched her jaw, a determined look in her eye. “I just need to let him find me first.”
“He already knows you’re coming home.” I walked around the desk and pulled out the letter that had arrived days after her Instagram post.
“‘Dear brother, it’s time to come home. See you soon.’” She read the words out loud before handing it back to me. “Well, this time I’ll be ready for him.”
The power in her voice did little to impress me. Because I knew him and what he was capable of. He was rotten to the core. She was foolish to think she could do this on her own.
“You think you can kill him?” I leaned down, tilting her chin so she was forced to look at me. “What if he walks through that door right fucking now? What if your gun jams? He’s been planning this for years.”
“So what do I do? Just let him keep killing while I keep hiding?” Fire flashed in her eyes.
“No. We end this. Together.” The words came out rougher than intended. “He’s my blood. My responsibility. I’ve carried the weight of his sins for over a decade. But you’re owed your vengeance, Seraphine.”
She was quiet for a moment, her eyes dropping down to my lips, then back to my eyes. “I’ll be the bait,” she said, matter-of-fact.
“We draw him out. Hunt him down. Finish what he started.” I couldn’t stop her from wanting to be bait, so I’d use it to my advantage. “Partners.”
She stared down at my outreached hand for a long moment before gripping it in her small one. Her skin was soft and warm, but her grip was surprisingly strong.
“Partners, then.” She smiled slightly, like she couldn’t believe she was agreeing to a truce. A partnership.
A twisted one at that.
We’d either kill Cyrus together or destroy each other in the process.