Page 69 of The Obsession

“Okay,” she said, after a beat. She broke eye contact first. “Fine. But you’re no longer welcome here, Delilah. You don’t work for me anymore.”

I felt a sudden zap of anger, but as quickly as it came, it fizzled away. I didn’t need the job anymore. I’d saved up enough to at least get me to Singapore. Mom would help me out the rest of the way.

“Okay,” I said. Lisa looked visibly relieved. “But I need you to do one last thing for me.” She stiffened. “I need an alibi.”

Now the fear was clear as words on a page. “An alibi? Jesus, Dee, what the hell did you do?”

“Don’t worry about that. I fixed everything. Log me in so it looks like I was here working the whole evening.” I nodded at her computer. Lisa hesitated, but I held my ground, gazing at her until she moved to the computer. She typed in her access code and did as I asked, logging me on the roster from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. “Thank you.”

She swallowed and refused to look at me. “Get out.”

It stung a little. We’d worked so closely for so long, and she wasn’t even the least bit grateful that I’d saved her ass. I shook my head and sighed as I left the library for the last time.

The night air was cool and refreshing on my skin. I breathed deep and my eyes fluttered closed. The air tasted of freedom. Despite everything that had happened tonight, a laugh escaped me. I was free. Of Brandon. Of Logan.

And I realized then why Lisa had been so eager to get rid of me. Why I shouldn’t take her rejection personally. Because one thing I had learned about predators is that there can only be one around. Lisa, Brandon, and Logan were all predators, in their own ways. And, as it turned out, so was I. Maybe Lisa sensed that I was a bit of a natural when it came to killing predators. That I was the snake after all. And maybe, just maybe, I liked it a little.