“We have an old-school incinerator,” I explain. “Some of our jobs require that no trace of a person be found. It’s not as common these days.”
“That’s what Shadow meant?”
“Yes.”
He grips my hand as we enter the smaller room where the burning pit is. Wraith has Bradley laid out on a table while he preps the pit. I feel Colson tense next to me, but he continues to step closer.
Bradley is definitely dead now, almost unrecognizable after the beating I delivered.
“You did this?”
“Yes.” Squeezing his shoulder from behind, I bend and pressa kiss to the side of his head. “Do you want to know his reasoning?”
“Is it different from what I suspected?”
“Slightly.”
“Okay.”
“He definitely played the victim, saying your presence in his family’s life was their downfall, but he took no responsibility for it.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“No, but his plan was to…” I pause, having a hard time saying the words.
“Kill me?”
“No. Humiliate you. Take advantage of you.” I force myself to look at Colson. “He wanted you.”
Colson blinks quickly several times. “He was going to rape me?”
I nod even as my jaw ticks. “He had a thing for you when you were both younger.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “What?”
“He said you wouldn’t reciprocate.”
Colson looks truly confused for a few seconds until his expression morphs into one of understanding. “I thought that was an accident.”
“Accident?”
“He came home once after drinking with his friends and climbed into my bed. He was touching me and stuff but I was asleep. When I woke up, I shoved him away, and he acted like he was confused. Like he thought I was someone else. The next day he acted like nothing happened, so I did too.”
“He seemed to think you rebuffed him.”
Colson rubs his forehead, then a few seconds later, he nods. “The birthday party.”
“What?”
“He had a party at the house but I stayed in my room. He came up at one point and tried to get me to blow him. Again,he was drunk and so belligerent. He called me names and…” He shakes his head. “He was awful. I told him to get out or I would tell his friends what he wanted. He never mentioned it again, but he was mean as fuck after that. He hated me. I assumed he was trying to get me into a sex act so he could beat me up or humiliate me somehow. Not that he actually wanted me.”
“Apparently he didn’t know how to manage his impulses or his attraction to you.”
He visibly shivers. “Disgusting. I never would have… Not with him.”
“He knew it. That’s why he was planning to take it.”
Colson’s eyes move back to Bradley’s bruised and bloodied body. He walks closer, and I can tell from his pained expression that he’s reliving past interactions.
