The heart was a bit crude—his art professors would weep if they ever saw it—but it was identifiable, and he was rather proud that he’d managed to carve it around the gaping hole that was also there.
With a sigh, almost as though he were bored, Zane straightened, and without removing his eyes from Samuel said in a firm voice, “Come out.”
Pavel didn’t need to be told twice. He rounded the tree he’d been hiding behind and stepped close enough for a swath of moonlight to illuminate him. It wasn’t hard, considering the white ensemble he was in. Though, admittedly it was now more red than snowy.
There was a flicker of surprise on Zane’s face before he schooled his features once more.
Soon, Pavel was going to teach him not to do that. Not with him. He wanted everything. His thoughts. His emotions. Hishonesty. He would claw the truth out of the sexy doctor-to-be if he had to. His time of being denied was over.
“Where is his heart, Pavel?” Zane asked casually, as though he was asking where the TV remote had gone.
“That’s it?” He placed his hands in the front pockets of his linen pants and lazily came closer. “Not, why did you kill him? Or how? Just, where is his heart?”
“The how is fairly obvious,” Zane stated. “These are scalpel marks.” He stared down at Samuel’s hands and thenadded, “How long did it take you to cut off his fingers with only a scalpel?’
Pavel held back the smirk, only because he knew it would irritate Zane and he wasn’t quite ready for that yet. “You sound very interested in the answer, Doctor.”
He hummed in agreement, then lifted his gaze back to Pavel, seemingly unbothered that he’d bridged half the gap between them and was now less than ten feet away. “Perhaps I’m considering trying it out on you and would like a timeframe. There are better uses of my night, after all.”
“Surely.” Pavel didn’t take the bait.
“This was a mistake,” Zane said. “No matter your reasons for it. Lyra will never let you get away with killing her person.”
The fact that his own threat hadn’t worked so he’d instantly fallen back on using Lyra pissed Pavel off. His hands fisted in his pockets and his gaze darkened. “Kelevra has her in the palm of his hand. All we have to do is tell him Samuel died because he was being used to spy on you.”
Zane tensed, but Pavel wasn’t finished.
“Speaking of, why haven’t you done that already? You have a get-out-of-jail-free card in Kel. Why haven’t you used him to escape from underneath his sister?”
His carefully crafted mask cracked slightly and Zane sucked in a sharp breath. “What do you think you know?”
“Oh, I don’tthinkanything, Doctor. I know all about how she orders you around and rides your cock at her leisure. As though she has a right to any of you. Why haven’t you put a stop to it?” That was the only part of the puzzle Pavel hadn’t been able to find out.
Kelevra was a heartless bastard, but he was also highly attentive when it came to his things, of which he fully—wrongly—believed Zane to be one of. If Zane had told him Lyra was making him uncomfortable and using him, Kel would have puta stop to it on pride alone. Yet, as far as Pavel knew, Zane had never spoken a word. And not just to the prince. Not to anyone.
Except for maybe Kazimir.
Pavel felt his mood sour even more, a thing that wasn’t made better when Zane finally moved past his shock and opened his mouth to reply.
“Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t have a problem with the way she treats me?” Zane cocked out a hip and slipped a thumb through his belt loop. “What takes place between the Imperial Heir and me is none of your business.”
“You’re saying you like it?” Pavel lifted a daring brow. “Her?”
Ignoring the warning Pavel was absolutely certain he’d allowed to ring in his tone, Zane shrugged a single shoulder. “Why not? What’s not to like?”
“Liar.”
He grunted. “Let’s move this along, shall we? Surely you didn’t murder Samuel just because—”
“Of course I did.”
Zane faltered a second time.
“Is this the part where you threaten to report me, gorgeous?” Pavel grinned when the new nickname did the trick and splintered through another layer of Zane’s icy exterior. “I advise against it.”
“Why is that?” He had Zane’s full, undivided attention, that was clear.
“Because you’ll only be exposing yourself.”
