“I don’t understand ... You’re working with Remus? Why? What did we ever do to you? I thought we were—”
Devin lifts his head off Derek’s shoulder and goes back to his side.
“Were you going to say friends?” He slaps Derek’s shoulder while still gripping the gun. “I told you she really likes us.”
“I’m ashamed I doubted it,” Derek levels. “But authenticity is rare in this business. Look at us, always having to sneak around and hide our affection for the macabre.”
He reaches into his back pocket, tugging out the fuckingTexas Chainsaw Massacre–style flesh mask of Remus, and pulls it over his head. He holds up his hands as he shifts the face back and forth between me and his brother.
Devin lifts the gun, putting it under his chin, pretending to shoot himself as he says, “It’s macabre, for sure. A lost art, really.”
I grimace. “You’re crazy. You’ve been working together with a guy who faked his death to try and kill us all? That’s not macabre. It’s psycho.”
They look at each other before Devin reaches for his brother’s cheek, patting the mask. “I know ... I was rooting for her to get the twist too. But give her a minute—I told you that storyline needed more fleshing out. And you’re going to hate me for saying this, but I still think there’s something elegant and sexy about the villain’s monologue.”
“Storyline? This is entertainment to you?”
My head feels like it’s going to explode as I volley between Chase and the guys, desperate for some explanation, but more so hoping Chase is quietly trying to figure a way out of here. He gives me a small shake of his head before his eyes tick to the other side of the room.
Derek pulls off Remus, dropping it to the floor.
“Evie. Catch up,” he snaps. “You’re smarter than this. There is no Remus—he died the first time around.”
I can’t even process what they’re saying, but I cut him off. “I don’t understand ... because I saw him ...”
“Or you saw what we wanted you to see,” Devin offers.
I stare down at the mask on the floor and back at them as silence fills the room.
Oh my god.
They were the ones who first told me about the footage. They led me to it. Son of a bitch.
A thousand thoughts race through my mind, and they’re heavy and suffocating as I think through all the little things I missed—their curiosity with my history, the way they never even flinched when I got scared that day on set, or how I only saw one of them at a time before Chase went missing.
They have access to my phone, to all our numbers, because I gave them my code.
Jesus, I made it so easy for them to get to us.Holy fuck.
“But why?” I whisper, fear coursing through me.
They smile. But it’s different from the countless other times I’ve seen them do it. There’s no light behind either of their eyes. It’s as if whatever mask they’ve had on is gone.
Devin presses the corner of his lip between his teeth, using the barrel of the gun as he tilts his head.
“Because every thriller needs a good bait and switch.”
My brows draw together. They’re talking like it’s a ...
Chase’s voice finishes my thought.
“They’re making a movie,” he says quietly, garnering a tsk from Devin before the gun is aimed at his head.
“Stop fucking up my script. I’m a writer, Chase. We hate last-minute changes.” Devin’s voice is strained with anger as he stabs the gun forward. “You already committed that offense once when you showed up at the restaurant, and this makes two. Another, and she’ll be picking brains out of those braids for days.”
Derek piggybacks on what he says. “Don’t you see? We made it up.Wesent the email to Goldie ... and doctored the video. She doesn’t even have a brother. It was just the right amount of drama and suspense. Especially since we secured this set.”
He motions around as it all starts to fall into place.
