“Correct. Instead of sitting around moping about assholes, you and I are going to try something new. Take some classes, learn a new hobby?—”
“With what free time?” I ask. “We’re always here.”
“And now we have an employee!” Jade reasons. “One we can trust to handle running the store on his own for a few hours!”
The moment she says this, there’s a loud crash from the back, and we both hear Justin swear.
I give Jade a deadpan look.
“I’m sure he’s fine.” Jade waves a hand in the air dismissively. “The point is all you’ve done lately is work. You need a break.”
“Fine,” I relent. “But let’s start off with something light, okay? I don’t think either of us should be learning beekeeping, or anything like that.”
“You have no evidence I wouldn’t be a fantastic beekeeper.”
“You’re allergic to bees,” I remind her. “And I just think if we’re doing this, we might want to start with something a little less likely to end with us going to the hospital.” I chew mylip, considering our options. “Maybe ceramics? We took that ceramics class in middle school, remember? That could be?—”
I freeze, eyes on a figure moving through the crowds outside. It’s just a brief flash, barely enough to recognize the person weaving their way down the sidewalk. Barely enough to register the familiar sandy brown hair and tan skin.
Chase.
“Sydney?” Jade asks. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I lie. The figure is already gone, out of sight. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
It wasn’t him. Jade is talking, scrolling through her phone and already making a list of projects for Operation Sydney, but I’m having trouble listening.
It wasn’t him, I tell myself, willing myself to believe it.
5
SEBASTIAN
I chewthe side of my thumb, biting at the nail, lost in thought. A filthy fucking habit. But at least here, in the wet lab, I’m free to indulge in my filthy habits. All of them.
Andfuckdo I need that right now.
The man kneeling on the cold, sterile floor whimpers as Viper approaches him with a scalpel clutched in one hand. He tries to move, tries to pull away, but the restraints holding his arms above his head and attached to the ceiling stop him from going anywhere.
“I swear I don’t know anything,” he sobs.
Viper grabs his face, laughing, and draws the point of the scalpel over his cheek and jaw. He’s not pressing hard enough to draw much blood, not yet, but the sharp tip leaves an angry red line in its wake.
“Here’s the problem, Daryl,” I say, chewing at my nail. “I don’t believe you. And, more importantly, I don’t thinkhebelieves you. Right, brother?”
Viper brings the scalpel up to Daryl’s eye.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Daryl chants, pulling ineffectively at the restraints.
Daryl is good at pretending. Better than most. But it won’t take much more to break him.
“I’m going to make you look so pretty,” Viper purrs. He cackles, angling the weapon closer, almost touching the man’s cornea. “Give you a nice new hole to stick my dick in.”
“Jesus Christ,” Daryl sobs.
There’s no Christ down here, I think with a chuckle. No Gods, no masters. There’s just me and Viper. And whatever the fuck we want to do. Daryl will learn that soon enough. They always do.
Viper pulls his arm back, ready to strike, and, irritated, I finally intervene.
