Page 25 of Pleasure & Prey: Vol. 2

“Virgil is one of our best friends,” Wren explains. “He’s actually the one who brought that body out here the other day. He killed the guy spur of the moment, after what he saw him do.” His eyes are locked on mine as he speaks, and his water bottle crunches between his fingers softly. “You know that much, right? That we’re killers? Some of us aren’t as discerning as others, I suppose. But we don’t just go around killing people for fun. Your friend at the marsh deserved it. That guy in the shed? Definitely deserved it after what he did to a little boy, I promise.”

He sits back in his chair, like he’s trying to choose his words carefully before he goes on. “Virgil is one of our best friends, like I said. Way less fun than me, but still more talkative than him.” He gestures with the bottle at Jed. “Not that it’s difficult to talk more than our darling chef here.”

Chef? It makes sense, and my gaze slides to Jed’s face at the word. Is that his day job, then? The one he said he’d taken a break from?

“Sloane is Virgil’s girlfriend,” Wren goes on, explaining that part as well. “They met, uh, in a special way.”

“Fiancee as of a week ago,” Jed corrects quietly. “And don’t sit there pretending you didn’t meet Hazel in a special way.” His glare is baleful when he turns it on Wren. “I’m not the only one who goes about things poorly.”

“I keep forgetting he proposed. Can’t believe she said yes.” Wren sighs, dipping his head in agreement.

“Can’t believe you haven’t,” Jed quips under his breath. “Or do you just wear a collar with a bell for Hazel to clip a leash onto when you get home?”

“Don’t be shitty.” Wren bares his teeth in a sudden predator’s snarl. “I’m not the one who kidnapped a girl who doesn’t trust him and went about this all wrong.”

“I don’t know what else to do!” Jed jumps to his feet, upset for the first time since I’ve met him. It’s enough to freeze me in place, though I can’t take my eyes off of him as he chucks the bottle into the sink and rakes his fingers through his hair, forcing it to stand on end. “If I hadn’t, we’d all be in jail. I’m good at cleanup, but not that good.” His voice is a low, agitated growl. Not a yell like I’d been expecting.

And he doesn’t seem…mad exactly. Just exasperated and at the end of his rope.

“I know I went about this all wrong. I know she’s never going to like me, okay? But I had to figure out what to do in that moment and she was going to call the police. I’m sorry.” He looks at me, and for the first time I see the tumultuous whirl of emotion on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know I’d meet you there. Saylor, I didn’t know what to do, but I had to kill him before he left and hurt someone else. I know you’ll never want to see me again. I’m just hoping I can—Wren can—convince you not to go to the police.”

“Whatever you want,” Wren agrees. “Money or an excuse. A job if you want. I can get you⁠—”

“I don’t need that.” I don’t know why, but the words make my throat burn like I’m about to vomit up more bile. Still, I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest. “Okay, yeah, I don’t have a lot of money, but…” I look away from Wren, back to Jed. “I thought you were going to convince me not to tell.”

It shouldn’t have come out like a challenge. Then again, it shouldn’t have come out at all.

But now that the words are out, like so many others I can’t keep bottled up, I can’t take them back. My fingers curl, crinkling the bottle loudly. “I just mean…” God, there’s no way to fix what I’ve said. Especially when I see the wicked grin cross Wren’s face.

“No, I get what you mean,” he assures me, his chair scraping on the laminate floor as he gets to his feet. “Trust me.” He flicks a look to Jed, who, in my opinion, looks like he’s been hit with a thousand volts and just hasn’t fallen over yet. “Maybe I was wrong to, uh, floor it all the way up here, huh?” There’s something in his face I can’t read as he looks me over, like what I’ve said is some divine announcement. “Just…” He looks between us with a frown. “Let her go soon, okay? Don’t keep her here for too long, Jed. And when things are better?” He sounds a little iffy on that one. “Bring her to dinner.”

Before my brain can process any of that, Wren saunters out the door, leaving both of us in the open area of the cabin only a few feet apart.

Finally Jed takes a breath. Then another one. He comes toward me and reaches out a hand for the bottle I hadn’t realized was empty, before tossing it into the sink without walking away from me. “Did you mean it?” he asks, his voice soft enough that I barely hear him. “What you said?”

“Which part?” I ask in response, my own voice a hoarse croak.

“He really would give you anything you want,” Jed goes on like he hadn’t heard me and I’d given him some kind of an answer. “He has money and connections. He’s friends with the CEO at GreenCo⁠—”

“I don’t need it,” I cut him off, feeling my wide eyes and the way my heart stutters in my chest. “I don’t…want that.”

“Okay.” Jed looks down, then back up at me. “So you meant what you said, then? That you want me to convince you, instead of taking something he’d give you?”

Shit. Of course this is where we are, and my words have trapped me in this predicament better than any handcuffs ever could. Why hadn’t I been able to keep my mouth shut when Wren had been talking before?

Why had I said that? I could’ve said…literally anything but that, honestly.

“Can you?” my treacherous mouth asks, eyes flicking up to his blue ones.

“Can I what?” Jed tilts his head to the side, his hands at his side.

“Convince me?”

13

He’s too close. Especially in the silence, Jed is too close for me to do anything except stare into his blue eyes and take one deep, almost-shuddering breath after another. Why had I said that? Why had I said any of that to Wren?

Because now that he’s gone, it’s like the buffer is gone from between us. I can’t do anything but look at him; focus on Jed. When Wren was here, at least, he had some of Jed’s attention on him, so the chainsaw-killer couldn’t look at me like this and make me feel…