Page 49 of Shattered Souls

“Maverick is reckless. He’ll show.” Rick is confident in his words, but only time will tell if Maverick has the balls to show his face.

“Synn,” He halts, holding a hand out to stop me since there’s no other actors around. Rick never uses my name when others are around, to help my identity. “There's talk about a few patrons and even a few actors vanishing. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“No.” I deadpan. Rick knows I have a history of sorts, though he doesn’t know the extent, or if I ever spent time in prison. Though, I wouldn’t have given him a true answer. “What makes you think I have involvement?”

“I’m just asking around, Synn. Asking all of the actors that were here those nights. Not to mention, there’s been talks of a new scare actor working here that’s not actually in the books. She’s hired on paper, but not on the books—and she’s only seen with the duo.” Rick sees a pair of officers walking our way and curses under his breath, placing our conversation on the back burner.

“Gentleman,” one of the officers says.

“How can I help you boys today?” Rick hooks his thumbs into his belt and rocks on his heels as he speaks to the officers.

“Just wanted to ask a few follow up questions about yesterday’s incident—plus a few more regarding a few missing persons reports.” I scrunch my brows, completely forgetting the officers can see my entire face without my usual mask. I’ve become reliant on face covering. I thrive for this time of year, just for the mask, so I can interact with people and let my annoyance show on my face while they stay none the wiser.

“Of course. We can speak in my office, if that’s better.” Rick offers.

“That won’t be necessary, as this is just a few questions. No formal questioning.” The shorter and stockier officer responds.

“Alright, shoot.” I make my move to walk away, feeling out of place near the officers. I’ve long since gone numb to being around members of the law, but that doesn’t mean I’m a fan of them.

“Oh, both of you, if it’s not too much trouble.” The scrawnier one quickly interrupts, sidestepping to grab my attention. Rick shoots me a look that’s asking if I’m comfortable with this.

“Sure thing.” I say in a bored tone.

The shorter officer grabs a paper with a list of names. He asks both me and Rick if we’ve heard the following names and then begins listing off a few, as well as their last known location and a brief description of them. None of them stand out as important. Even if one of them were my victims, I don’t learn the identities of the lives I take, I just take.

“And finally, Rayvn Harlow: twenty-five with waist length black hair, roughly five foot three and brown eyes. She was last reported here by her coworkers and hasn’t been seen since.” Something in the pit of my stomach tenses at her description. Not quite fear, but something more delicious and twisted, mixed with anger that they got her eye color wrong.

“None of those stand out to me,” Rick motions to me. “You?”

“Nope, sorry.”

“Hey, Seek!” Someone calls from off in the crowd of actors and clean up crew. I give them a polite nod as they walk past us.

“If you boys will excuse me.” I nod my head to the officers, ones that look like they want to stop me and continue their questioning. My shoes stomp on the ground as I walk to the house, passing a few tense and quiet actors as they mull around.

I find Rayvn exactly where I wanted, sitting on the couch with one arm cuffed to a table beside it. Her eyes are swollen and red from the non stop crying she’s been doing since last night. She hasn’t even seen the worst of what we can do and she’s already breaking.

“Cops are here,” she looks up at me, sniffling.

“Did they find Maverick?” Her teeth are clenched as she talks, pure hatred emanating off of her.

“No. They’re here looking for a few missing persons.” Her eyes drift back to the floor, defeated.

“Let me guess—Damien.”

“You, as well.” Her eyes widen to saucers. I don’t miss the fact that her skin breaks out in goosebumps and her breathing hitches.

“Me?”

“Sure thing.” I don’t offer the information that they know she was last seen here, and she’s just a mission person. No. This is such a visceral reaction that I know there’s something hiding under that innocent mask she shows everyone.

“Are you going to turn me in?” I don’t respond right away, letting her dig this hole deeper. “I can just tell them of all the activities I’ve seen you two doing.”

Bingo.

Blackmailing me just to get away from the authorities. She’s guilty of something—and I plan on uncovering that. I know in my gut that our little scarecrow is just as twisted and corrupt as we are, I just have to prove it.

“You’re not going out tonight.”