“You’re fucked in the head,”I said. Something flickered across his face, subtle, but I saw it.
“Yeah?”he muttered, rolling his shoulders like the words hadn’t touched him, even if they had.“And yet here I am, fixing yourmistakes again.”He gestured vaguely toward her with the object still in his hand before dropping it to the side.“You should really start appreciating that, Rowan.”
I let out a short breath that wasn’t quite a laugh, more like something bitter caught halfway out.
“Appreciating what?”I shot back, finally looking at him properly now.“That you jump straight to murder and chaos every time? That you don’t even stop and think about it?”My voice lowered on its own, and there was something in it now that hadn’t been there a second ago.“You’re not helping, you’re just…”
I paused, searching for the word and landing on the one I knew would hit.
“A fucking psychopathic freak, Zwierek.”
This time, it stayed on his face a fraction longer. It wasn’t anger. It felt uglier than that, too exposed somehow, like he let something slip out that he usually kept buried. But it disappeared almost immediately, gone before I could really look at it for too long.
“A freak,”he repeated, almost thoughtful, like he was trying to figure out how the word felt out loud. Then a small, humorless huff.“Right.”His eyes lifted back to mine, steady again.“Good thing your ‘freak’ is the one keeping you out of prison.”
I opened my mouth to respond, and stopped. A sound cut through the space, sudden and out of place. A notification. I looked down.
Her phone.
Still on the floor, screen lighting up the concrete in a pale rectangle. I bent, picked it up. The lock screen was already open from before, the message sitting there like it had been waiting. From him.
Did you get the power back on?
For a second, I just stared at it. Then I let out a slow breath, straightening up and tossing the phone toward Zwierek without looking at him.
“Answer it,”I said. He caught it easily.
“Mm. What do you want me to say?”
“Tell him you can’t figure it out,”I replied, already turning away, eyes flickering toward the stairs like I could see through them.“Ask him to come home. Make it sound normal.”
There was the faint tapping of his fingers against the screen. He tilted the phone slightly, glancing at it.
“He’s quick,”he murmured.“Yeah, I’m leaving the office in ten,”he read aloud, voice flattening just enough to mimic the message without fully mocking it.“Good,”I said. My pulse had shifted again.“Send another one.”
“What now?”
“That you’re downstairs,”I said.“That you’re checking the breaker.”
Silence for a second, then the soft sound of typing again.
“There,”Zwierek said after a moment, tossing the phone lightly in his hand before stilling it.“Done.”
I nodded once, didn’t look at him, didn’t look at her either. Just stood there, listening to the house above us. Waiting for something that hadn’t happened yet, but was already on its way.
The Depraved
Chapter 26
The sound came through the floor before anything else. A shift in the air, a distant crunch of tires over gravel that my brain caught onto a fraction of a second before I consciously registered what it meant. I stilled enough that the movement I’d been in the middle of lost direction. Then it clicked.
I turned my head. Zwierek was already looking at me. There was no question in his expression, no need to confirm it out loud, but the way his eyes held mine said it anyway. He heard it too. A car door slammed somewhere above us, muted through layers of walls and wood, but unmistakable.
“Ready?”he asked, sounding like he was asking if I wanted another drink, not… this. I held his gaze, then I nodded once and let go of her. Not completely, my hand lingered for a moment like it hadn’t gotten the message yet, like it still thought there was something left to hold onto.
I shifted her instead. It took more effort than I expected, her weight pulling in the wrong directions, forcing me to adjust twice before I managed to get her sitting against the wall. Her shoulder hit it lightly, and I froze for a second, listening like that small sound might matter. I crouched down in front of her, didn’t rush it, didn’t really think about why I wasn’t rushing either.
Her eyes were still open. They caught the dim light in a way that made it look like she was still there, still aware, just… quiet now. I reached up without thinking. My fingers brushed her cheek first, a small absent motion, like something I’d done before in a completely different context.
