“Amber?”
She stood, walking towards me, letting out a dramatic sigh. She used her index finger to run through the tendrils of my hair before trailing it down my neck and across my shoulders as she circled me like she was appraising me.
“You’re not what I imagined, you know.” She leaned in from behind to speak to me. “When I started looking for you, I didn’t know what to expect. But you… I actually really liked you. Which is a shame, given what I have to do now.”
Terror shot through me, my fight or flight screaming for me to run, but my body was bound in place.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice cracking as I spoke.
“The doughnuts were drugged. Sedatives. You, Roman, Jarrid. That bitch he was with.” She pouted her bottom lip. “Shame about Jarrid, though. He was a delight. Gave me something to do while I waited. And it helped that he fucked like a god.”
“Are they…” I didn’t want to finish that question; the implication burning the back of my throat.
She walked back to stand in front of me, offering me a shrug. “Depends on how many they ate, I guess.”
A sob tore from me, a tear leaking from my eye that rolled dramatically over my cheek, dropping off my chin, all while Amber continued to stare at me, her smile long gone, replaced with a flat line that looked emotionless.
“Why?” I croaked.
She twisted the dining chair she’d been sitting on so the back faced me and straddled it, leaning her elbows on the tall wooden back and resting her chin in her hand. “You killed him.” She delivered the line so matter-of-factly I presumed I’d misheard, my brain still muddied by the drugs she’d fed me.
“W-what?”
“I gave up everything for a life with him. He loved me, we were planning a future together, and you killed him.”
I shook my head, her words not making any sense. She had the wrong person. She’d got me confused with someone else, and when she realised, she’d let me go. A glimmer of hope flared as I said, “No, I’ve never killed anyone.”
Amber stared at me like she was lost in her memories before she spoke again. “You know, he called me Amber. Said it suited me. I sent him photos, and he told me my eyes reminded him of amber. Did you know that?”
“No,” I whispered, not sure what or who she was talking about. She continued staring, eyes glassy like she wasn’t really here, and I took the opportunity to try to get my hands free, wiggling my wrists back and forth, the rope burning as it moved over my skin.
“I never got to meet him. We had it planned, but then he was stolen from me. We were so close to our future together. He was going to be mine.” Her eyes snapped into focus, an anger so intense burning there I physically recoiled in my seat, trying to put as much distance between us as I could, as she looked murderous. “You did that. You put him there,” she screamed as she stood quickly, throwing the chair away from her where it rocked precariously on one leg before toppling to hit the floor with a crack. “You fucking killed him.”
“I didn’t. You’ve got the wrong person.” I didn’t see her fist until it was too close to avoid, and she punched me hard in the face, catching me in the eye, making the socket feel like it was exploding while my head snapped to the side.
“Don’t say that,” she screamed again as she braced her hands on my arms, digging her nails into my flesh so hard I cried out. She brought her face close to mine, hissing her words with venom. “Don’t say that. He loved me, and he died. We didn’t get our future together because of you, you fucking bitch. You deserve to die. They all did. But I left you till last because you were the worst. How does that feel, Hana? You’re more of a monster than Preston ever was.”
The world went silent, my heart pounding in my ears the only sound as the realisation dawned on me like someone was liftingblinkers from my eyes, the truth almost too harsh to look at head on.
“It was you?” I whispered. Amber had been behind it all—the killings, the threatening text, the attempt on my life—but why?
“I had a debt to pay. An eye for an eye, and all that. It won’t bring him back, but he’ll know I took you all down, so when we meet on the other side, he’ll know how much I loved him.” She lost the anger from her voice with her final declaration, and any hope I had of getting out of here alive died like a bubble in the wind, popping with a violence that made bile surge into my mouth. I swallowed it down and tried to harden myself because I refused to let this woman see I was afraid of her.
“Who? What are you talking about, Amber?” I wriggled harder in my seat, my head thumping with each movement, but I didn’t care. I just needed to get out of here.
She vanished from my line of sight, and I twisted with panic, trying to see where she’d gone. Then, the cold metal of a gun pressed hard into the base of my skull as Amber replied, “Oh, we have so much to catch up on, bestie.”
63
ROMAN
A ringing invaded my sleep,and I mumbled for them to fuck off. They listened because it stopped, but then it started again.
“I’m asleep,” I shouted, shifting in bed. But the bed was hard, something pressed into my side, and my neck rolled backwards, as if there wasn’t a pillow holding it in place.
The ringing stopped and then started again. The fuckers were never going to stop.
I cracked open an eye, confused why I was looking at the dining table and not my bedroom walls. Had I fallen asleep while I worked?
