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“What makes you so sure?” I’m eager to get him out of here. Get this over with. I also need him to reveal his cards. “He’d never been big on talking when we lived together. I can’t imagine him opening up to you. Being that explicit.”

“You’re right. He hadn’t been that open. Hadn’t changed throughout the years he spent at Berkshire.” It’s obvious that he’s itching to take another glance at my apartment. His fingers tap his lap incessantly. “However, I was able to observe him during that period. He was the only one who had a few privileges the others never had. Just so I could learn more about him.”

That prick. He played Kaleb. He let him hold onto my pictures. To the new mask. All so he could see how theanimalwould react. I bite my tongue. It’s all I can do not to scream.

“Privileges?” I ask while every muscle in my body flexes. My desperate attempt to stay put instead of jumping forward and plucking out his eyes. “What were they? What do they have to do with me?”

“The mask, clearly. I brought him that one myself.” His chest puffs a tiny bit. “He let me ask him two questions for the privilege of keeping it. What it felt like to kill those kids. What he did right after.”

I’m intrigued, but not that intrigued to hear the answers from this guy. I’ll hearit from Kaleb.

My Kaleb.

I clutch the knife in my palm, playing with the thumb stud. One push and the sharp blade pops out, ready to party.

His eyes flicker to my hidden hand, and he nods to himself. “Other than the mask, there were the photos. Yours.”

“What?” My eyes go wide.

It’s the proper expression when hearing shocking news. I hope to God he believes it. That I can become better at lying for Kaleb’s sake.

“Yes, a former patient snuck them past our security. On my orders.”

“Another patient?” Though there’s nothing I want more than to slit his throat, I release my knife, and hug my middle, same as I did out on the sidewalk. “Someone else is after me?”

“Don’t be alarmed. If Kaleb’s accomplice wanted you dead, you’d be dead by now.” A small, reassuring smile to assuage my fears. “What I’m trying to say is thatKaleb loved those photos. Was attached to them. That was how I learned more about him. And consequently, you.”

Calm down. Calm down. Calm the fuck down. You have a full day ahead of you. Shit you have to take care of. None of it includes killing this fucker and hiding the body for treating Kaleb like a lab rat.

This does nothing to soothe my bubbling rage.

So I think about Kaleb.

I imagine him here, in my apartment. Gladly helping me murder his therapist just because I asked him to.

The two of us, Kaleb and me, wielding sharp knives in our hands.

Digging them into his flesh.

Ditching the body where we’d leave it to rot.

Together.

Endorphins simmer in my blood, and I suppress a smile.

“What truly taught me how deep his attachment to you runs was when the photos were stolen from him. Numerous times, unfortunately, despite my constant reprimands.”

The short moment of bliss has been snatched away from under me by Dr. Reynolds. Someone touched Kaleb’s things. Someone taunted him.

Holy shit. So, this is what Kaleb must have felt yesterday when he watched my professor threaten me.

Rapid heartbeats. Burning lungs.

A powerful urge to destroy whatever’s in my path.

I won’t lose control. I won’t let them tear us apart.

Never again.