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Jeffrey snorts. “Not much of a town.”
“Then you haven’t looked very far.” Sure, it’s mostly a bunch of cabins in the woods, but the more you look, the more Wilde’s End has a charm to it. Everyone is connected to everyone else, and I don’t just mean by the trails Lynx has created. The place feels alive. “Have you met Wilde yet?”
“Is that your friend?” Antonio asks.
I chuckle, even though it takes more effort than I’m used to. “Nah, I know you’ve met him. And I know you never want to again.”
“I’m actually counting on it. It’s not just you we’re here for.”
“Then you have even less self-preservation skills than I do.”
“If you think I can’t take on some punk-ass, incesty forest fucker, you weren’t paying attention while we were together.”
“I was, actually.” I pull myself into a sitting position. “It’s how I know you’re fucked. Lynx isn’t scared of anything.”
“Neither am I.”
“You’re scared of dying.”
“Everyone is scared of dying.”
“Not him.” My head still doesn’t feel right. “And you’re scared of whatever it is that you think that I have.”
I probably shouldn’t have brought it back around to that because Antonio’s face darkens. “Where the fuck is the footage?”
“What footage?”
“Don’t. You’re too smart to play dumb, and I’m too smart to fall for it.”
I’d point out that he’s not smart at all since he came here, because while he thinks he can take on Lynx, he has no idea what he’s up against. I’m already pushing my luck though, and there’s only so far that denial and being a smart-ass can get me. Antonio used to respond to my weakness, to being meek and cute and occasionally a brat, but after Lynx worked so hard to bring out my strength, I don’t know that I can channel that person anymore.
Still, I have to try.
“I’m scared,” I tell him, and I can sell it because it’s not a complete lie. I’m scared that I’m not going to be smart enough to get out of this, and I’ll end up hurting Lynx.
Antonio crouches down closer. “You should be, Sasha. I’m not happy with you.”
“I know.” I drop my gaze, trying to seem smaller than I am. I swallow, really trying to sell it. “I was somewhere I shouldn’t have been, and I panicked.” I conveniently leave off that I was there on purpose. As soon as I overheard Antonio’s plans that night, I made the decision to follow him. I’d had a bad feeling the whole time, and that bad feeling was confirmed when he killed the guy he’d been sleeping with before me. It proved my growing feeling that my days with him were numbered, and I’d done the only thing I could. I ran.
I still have no idea why he killed him, but I wasn’t waiting around to find out.
“And you stole footage from me. Didn’t you?”
The urge to deny it is strong, but it’s obvious he knows. There must have been a camera I didn’t see, or someone saw me … It doesn’t matter now, though, because he has me, and he knows what I did.
“Yes.”
“Right.” He reaches for something behind me, and when he pulls out Jimmity, my chest gives a jolt.
Did I leave him here?
The goose hangs limply from where Antonio’s big hand is wrapped around its throat. “You’re going to start talking. Or I’ll finally fulfill my dream of cutting this thing open and tearing it apart.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
LYNX
