Page 18 of To All the Guys I Killed Before

“Yes. In Howard Marshall’s closet.”

It takes Fi a full ten seconds to respond.

“You met someone in Howard Marshall’s closet who gnawed on your neck like a rabid wildebeest?” Her voice builds to a shriek as she processes it out loud, and yeah, I get it. I’m still shrieking inside a little too. “Who was it?”

“I didn’t catch his name, but he’s like me.” I flick my eyes up to her. “Like us.” Fi’s never killed anyone, but she’s our mother’s daughter too. If I’m Mom with better control, she’s Mom with better patience.

Well, except for right now.

“Do we need to… to run?” She stands and looks wildly around the room. “Or take him out?”

“Take him out? We’re not the mob.”

“This isn’t funny!” She plunges her hands in her hair and spins in a circle, her rumpled bun unfurling behind her. “This is really bad, Rue!”

“It’s fine.” I stand and gently push her back into her fancy office chair. “I swear. We… we talked. He only goes after the bad ones too.”

She looks pointedly at my vampire bites. “You talked, huh?”

“Yes.” I yank the towel from my head, allowing my wet hair to slither around my neck and cover the marks. Out of sight, out of mind. “I was scared.” I fall back against the couch cushions with a groan. “Until I wasn’t.”

I’ve never met anyone like him. Dark. Funny. Curious. Confident. Competent. Really good with his fingers.

Dammit, I should’ve gotten his name.

“Okay, but in Howard’s house?”

“I knowwwww.” I bury my face in my hands. “It was so reckless.”

“Definitely not part of the plan.”

I fight back a laugh. If she’s already worried about going off plan, she’s really gonna hate this next part.

“Funny you bring that up.” I point to the capybara dangling from the chain around her neck. “I need you to be chill like a big, friendly rodent when I tell you this next part.”

She frowns and wraps her fingers around the little gold pendant. “Why?”

“Thing is… he’s the one who’s going to kill Marshall.”

“What?”

“He’s staging a house fire.”

“What?”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight?” She’s out of her chair and back in screech mode, but this time she’s looking at me like I’ve been body-swapped by aliens. “With no plan?”

“He showed up with a plan.” Kind of. “Plus, he kind of has to do it tonight because DNA.”

Her gaze darkens. “So that was your blood.”

“Nope, I stabbed him.” My cheeks heat. “I… he was… when we…”

Fi shakes her head, baffled by what I’m not saying, but the confusion eventually clears from her face, and she claps her hands over her mouth. “Seriously?”

And that’s when the adrenaline crash slams into me. I’ve been running on nerves and oxytocin, but it’s finally wearing off, leaving me shaky and exhausted. Worse, it cracks the door for the thought I’ve been trying to ignore since I jogged away from Marshall’s place.