“It makes sense, of course. For a while there, Sanford Rule believed he trulywasBurbank Gates.” Cosmo snorts like it’s hilarious while my head fucking spins. “Like father, like son, huh? It’s a good thing I’m here to save you before the grandson knocked you up.” Cosmo glances at my stomach. “You didn’t let him, right?” he asks, his voice lower as he drags his gaze back up to mine. “I mean, he certainly seemed okay when I stripped him down naked, so I assume he already fucked you and let you see him. But surely you weren’t so stupid as to?—”
“No.” I whisper it at first, but Cosmo stops talking. “No,” I say again, staring down at my lap. My exposed thighs, shorts shoved up from the way I’m sitting. “No, Sanford saidyouwere diverting Stein. You were going to tell them we took a flight to Florida. He said you were helping us and he… he spoke to you, didn’t he?”
“Oh, he did, yes. That’s how I know all about his erection for Burbank Gates. I demanded information for information. The man is very resourceful but I suppose everyone leaves their phones lying around now and then, don’t they, and calling me from your father’s was extremely intelligent because of course I picked up. Gramps spies on everyone in Septem, did you know that? He knew all about you and I. How I was going to fuck you before everything went to shit. And I did agree that gettingyouaway from Stein Rule was paramount. I don’t trust Writhe not to give into Stein’s demands for your head, which will eventually come. My priority is keeping you safe, no matter how you fucked me over. But I’m not workingwithWrithe.” He laughs, shaking his head. “My diversion was as much forme,as for you. I can’t compete with a whole ass cult, but no one knows you’re here, everyone is heading to Orlando like they’re taking some big family vacation. It’s hilarious, really, how easy it was. Or maybe I’m just that good at performing.” He smiles, showing white teeth. Then he leans in closer. “I cried for you, in front of them.”
I don’t care about that.
I only think of Sullen, naked.
Alone.
More than scared, he would behumiliated.
“And what do you think of his scars?” I ask Cosmo, keeping my tone low, my voice strong, even as my head hurts, trying to understand his angle. His end goal. “Sullen’s wounds? The words carved into his chest? You saw them before, at the hotel,what did you think? How can you say he’s the monster when you know what his father has done to him?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it all to himself, and I do think it’s a tragedy, either way. But if you think a person like that could ever be well-adjusted, ever treat you with any sort of respect, then you’re even stupider and more pathetic than I thought you were.”
My heart leaps to my throat and I slap him.
His head turns with the force, my palm stinging, but the smile hooked on his lips stays.
Then slowly, calmly, he turns back to face me again. Even in the darkness, I swear I can see the red on his cheekbone.
“You’re my friend,” I say quietly, curling my fingers into a tight fist, my arm still lifted between us. “For years, you’ve been my friend.” In my head, I hear Sullen.Friend? What the fuck is that?I push it aside and ask Cosmo, “What are you doing to us?”
He doesn’t answer for a moment.
Something shadows over his face.
His brows pull together, a muscle in his neck seems to jump. He blinks once, twice. Then he says, “I think you did this all on your own, Karia.” His voice is softer. Nearly breaking. “When you chose him, over me. After he hurt us both.” The pain in his words is real. I know him enough to understand that.
But I wouldn’t take any of it back.
Cosmo was a substitute. Sullen isreal.
“So now what? You’re going to kill him?”
Cosmo frowns, as if he hadn’t thought of the idea before but despite what he may think, I amnotstupid. “Well I had only planned to kiss you in front of him, maybe fuck you if I’m lucky, but now that you mention it…”
I narrow my gaze. “Stop fucking around. What was your plan when you came here? To rescue me? You keep telling me howstupid and pathetic I am, so I’m unclear on just what it is you drove all this way for?”
Cosmo straightens.
I feel as if I can breathe as he does, but I don’t move at all, watching as he stares down at me, hands in the pockets of his pants now.
His green eyes seem to glow in the dark the longer we look at one another, and finally he shrugs his shoulders and answers me with a lie. “One should never waste an opportunity for good art. I don’t know if you’ve seen this place yet, but it isincredible.”
It amazes me, how he makes the last word sound so awful.
He takes a step back, then another, until finally he turns his back to me, headed toward the door.
Does he truly expect I’ll just follow?
Maybe in another life I would have.
Maybe before Sullen, I was just a puppet.
But now…
