The woman I love.
“I tried to reason with her first.” Chase is crying now, tears streaming down his filthy face. “I went to her apartment, tried to scare her into silence—told her what the Syndicate would do if she talked, but she wouldn’t listen, wouldn’t be controlled. She said she’d rather die than let innocent people suffer.”
My hands shake and I clench them into fists to stop the trembling.
“I realized James and Valen’s father would silence her anyway—brutally, publicly—as a warning to anyone else who might talk. He’d make an example of her. Torture her, probably. Make her suffer before killing her in some horrible way, or even sell her off.”
“So you convinced yourself you were doing her a favor,” Talon says.
“I thought—” Chase chokes on the words. “I thought if I did it, I could make it quick, painless. Save her from something worse.”
“You’re a fucking coward,” Dredyn spits.
“I know.” Chase’s head drops forward. “I lured her to the catacombs. Told her I had evidence, proof of what was happening. She trusted me. Even after everything, she still trusted me.”
The basement feels too small suddenly—too hot.
I can’t breathe.
“I held her under the water in that pond near the faculty entrance,” Chase whispers. “It was supposed to be quick. She was supposed to just… go to sleep. But she fought—God, she fought so hard.”
I’m moving before I realize it, crossing the distance between us. My hands reach for his throat but Talon catches my arm.
“Not yet. Let him finish.”
I shake him off, stepping back. My whole body is vibrating with rage.
“And you were rewarded,” Dredyn says.
“Connections. Protection. A path deeper into the Syndicate.” Chase laughs bitterly. “Everyone thought I did it for power, for advancement. But I didn’t. I did it to keep her from suffering worse.”
“Bullshit. You did it to save yourself,” Mara snaps.
“Maybe.” Chase’s eyes find mine. “But I think about her every day. Every single day. Her face, her voice, the way she looked at me right before?—”
“Stop,”I sign.
Talon interprets. “He says stop.”
“There’s one more thing—about PTO. Don’t trust anyone from that house. They’re all tainted, all complicit.”
“You’re wrong. Valen is trying to stop his father,” Mara says.
“It won’t work,” Chase says.
I need to know. Need to ask the question that’s been burning in my chest for three years.
“Did she suffer?” I ask.
Fuck this not talking bullshit. He needs to hear me.
Chase looks at me. And in his eyes, I see the truth before he speaks it.
“She called your name... right before she went under. She was crying, fighting, and she kept saying ‘Jasper. Jasper,’ like you could save her. Like you could hear her.”
Something inside me shatters.
My hands slam around Chase’s throat, fingers digging into the soft flesh, thumbs crushing his windpipe with every ounce of hate I’ve carried for six years.
