Page 41 of A Smile Full of Lies (Secrets of Stonewood #1)

“No, thanks.” I hovered by the marble island, heart hammering under my ribs. “I just wanted to talk.”

“Talk,” he repeated, opening the fridge and grabbing a beer, ignoring the row of bottles of spirits set out on the side counter.

Right beside a row of little bottles that looked like prescription meds – all of which were full.

Tension wrapped itself around my lungs, and for a minute I couldn’t breathe.

“You and I never really talked, sweetheart. Not unless it was about your feelings. Mostly, we just fucked like rabbits.”

I forced a light laugh, still looking at those bottles – the ones that said he was likely completely crazy, and very unmedicated.

“Yeah, well. I’ve been thinking about the past a lot lately. Wondering if maybe I didn’t know the whole story back then.”

He cracked the cap off the beer.

“About us?”

“About everything.” I tilted my head. “Even the Stonewood Slaughter.”

He paused mid-sip, his dark brown eyes narrowing.

“Interesting,” he murmured.

Got him.

“You ever wonder,” I said, settling onto the edge of his stupidly expensive leather barstool, “how different things could’ve been if you hadn’t blown it?”

Thayer’s brow lifted. He turned, leaning against the counter, beer bottle dangling from his fingers.

“Blown it?” he echoed. “Sweetheart, I had everything.”

“Exactly.” I gave him a slow smile. “Star quarterback. Legacy student. Girls lining up to touch your jersey after every game.” I tilted my head. “I was just the girl who got to call you mine.”

His smile curled sharp and smug.

“You still remember it like that?”

I shrugged.

“I remember a lot of things.”

He sipped his beer, gaze dark with curiosity.

“What brought this on? You been missing me, Cooper?”

I laughed softly, all silk and suggestion.

“Maybe I’m just tired of pretending I don’t remember how good we were. What it felt like when you let me in.”

He set the bottle down and stepped closer, eyes gleaming with old hunger.

“And what exactly do you want to be let into this time?”

“Something bigger,” I said, voice low. “Something real. I keep thinking about the things people whisper around here — about that night, about what happened to Knox’s family.

” I met his gaze, careful and deliberate.

“You ever wonder what it’d feel like to finally say it?

To get it off your chest? To admit you weren’t just some college fuck-up — you were part of something huge. Infamous.”

His breath caught just slightly. I leaned forward, dropped my voice to a whisper.

“Tell me a story, Thayer. Something no one else knows. I promise I’ll keep it just between us.”

Thayer’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

He stepped in closer, his voice casual — but too careful.

“So tell me, Cooper… what makes you think I had anything to do with it?”

He didn’t say what ‘it’ was. He didn’t have to.

The air went still, charged and tense.

I didn’t flinch, just met his gaze like I wasn’t sitting a few feet from a man who might’ve helped kill the family of the man I loved.

I tilted my head slowly.

“Because you’re not nearly as stupid as you like to pretend to be.” His jaw ticked. “You’ve always played the long game,” I said, voice soft, low, and hypnotic. “You act like you’re impulsive. Like you make reckless decisions for the hell of it. But it’s all bullshit.”

He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just stared at me, watching and waiting.

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the counter between us.

“You’ve always been smarter than people give you credit for. Calculating. Strategic. You let guys like Knox think they’re winning while you’re ten moves ahead, playing chess while they’re busy playing checkers.”

His lip twitched.

“I started thinking about everything you’ve ever wanted, and how far you’d go to get it. And I realized — if anyone in this town could be part of something that big , that infamous, and walk away clean?” I smiled, slow and dangerous. “It’d be you.”

His fingers drummed against the bottle once. Twice. Then he smiled — and this time, it was real.

He leaned in, voice dark and low.

“You always were my favorite audience, baby.”

Thayer’s smile lingered like a bruise. He leaned against the kitchen counter, letting the silence stretch until it vibrated between us.

Then he said it — quiet, like he was slipping me a gift wrapped in poison.

“It wasn’t supposed to go down the way it did. The cops got it all wrong when they thought it was a professional hit, because nothing was taken.”

“That so?”

My pulse kicked hard in my throat. Maybe him being unmedicated was playing in my favor – nothing was restricting his willingness to talk about it.

He took a sip from his beer, eyes flicking up to meet mine.

“We were just going to rob the place and steal some tech from Knox’s dad’s safe, and sell it on the black market. They were supposed to be out of town, remember? But they canceled their trip out of town at the last-minute.”

“Why’d they cancel?”

He laughed — low, breathless, almost nostalgic.

“Fucking Knox and his goddamn family, always fucking up the plan. Knox begged off from the family trip to follow a… friend of mine to Gulf Shores. He thought I was cheating on you with her, which I was. Just not that weekend. I already had other plans. When Knox backed out of the trip, his dad used that excuse to cancel the whole thing so he could stay home and work. The old man always was a workaholic, to the point where it was unhealthy.”

I chewed on my bottom lip.

“Why didn’t you leave when you realized they were home, instead of on the trip like they were supposed to be?”

Thayer shrugged and waved his free hand in a dismissive motion.

“We were already in place. Already inside. What were we supposed to do? Leave? Risk being seen?” He shook his head slowly. “Nah. We improvised.”

“Improv? That’s what you’re calling it?”

“To be honest, things might not have gone quite so badly if Henry hadn’t come out of his office waving his gun at us like he thought he could intimidate us into backing down.

He had that king of the world syndrome, just like Knox does.

Didn’t do him any good, though. In the end, I was faster on the trigger than he was. ”

My stomach twisted.

He looked at me like he was proud. Like he was still that golden boy from Stonewood Prep who always got away with everything.

I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat.

“Did you kill Victoria and Ava, too?”

Thayer shook his head, grinning.

“Nah. I’m not the only predator the Williams family created, if that’s what you’re asking.

I ordered my cousins not to leave any witnesses, and they listened well.

Eli ran Victoria down and shot her in the foyer.

Chad went after Ava. He cornered her in her room and shot her three times.

Caleb’s the only one who didn’t shoot anybody.

He was our getaway driver. He had the van ready and waiting for us to pile in and haul ass. ”

My stomach roiled.

“And you got away with it.”

“We were in and out in under ten minutes. Clean. Quiet. No witnesses. No evidence. Eli told us to police our brass. And I kept the shell casings.” He grinned, like it was a joke. “Little trophies, you know? They’re in my safe.”

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

I watched him turn away like it was nothing, open a drawer, and pull out a knife.

Casual. So fucking casual. Like he wasn’t holding a piece of razor-sharp steel in his hand.

He looked down at the blade with an almost nostalgic smile, then back up at me.

“You still have a thing for horror movies, Cooper?”

My mouth went dry.

“They always were my favorite.”

His grin sharpened.

“Let’s see if you scream like the final girls in your favorite movies do when the killer catches up to them.”

The knife caught the light. In that moment, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wasn’t going to walk out of here unless I made him bleed first.

I couldn’t blink. Couldn’t breathe.

The knife glinted in his hand like a sick little secret he’d been dying to show me.

But I couldn’t lose the thread… not yet. I needed him to keep talking.

My voice came out soft. Curious. Like I was impressed.

“You really kept the shell casings from the Stonewood Slaughter?”

Thayer grinned.

“Of course I did. What’s the point of pulling something like that off if you can’t admire your own craftsmanship afterward?”

I forced a shaky smile, hoping he couldn’t hear the wild staccato thundering of my heart over the hum of the refrigerator.

“Where?” I asked, gently. “Where’s the safe?”

He tilted his head.

“You wanna see my trophies, baby?”

My fingers curled at my sides.

“I’m just trying to picture it,” I said lightly. “All this time, we thought it was some clean professional hit. But it was you and your fucking cousins. Just some boys playing dress-up.”

His wolfish grin faltered. Just barely, but I saw it.

“I never play,” he said coldly.

My voice softened.

“That’s not what I meant.”

He watched me like he was trying to decide whether I was prey or threat.

“You’re wearing a wire,” he said, almost fondly. “Aren’t you?”

Fuck.

My mouth went dry.

He stepped forward, close enough that I could feel the heat of his breath as he leaned down and whispered, “You really think I’d fall for this shit?”

His hand slid under the edge of my sweater, fingers sliding up and grazing the mic taped to my bra.

My blood turned to ice.

“I knew you’d come,” he said softly. “I just didn’t think you’d make things so easy for me.”

I stepped back, but the knife was already rising.

The first slice came fast. Too fast.

I barely had time to flinch before the blade slashed across my side, white-hot pain tearing through skin and fabric like it was nothing.

My scream ripped loose from my throat, raw and guttural, as I staggered backward, crashing into the counter.

Blood soaked the hem of my sweater almost instantly.

Thayer’s eyes lit up with feral glee.

“Oh, baby,” he breathed, drunk on the sound. “You scream so fucking pretty for me.”

My legs gave out, and I hit the floor hard, my back slamming against the base of the cabinets. My breath came in ragged gasps. I clutched at my side, warm liquid pouring between my fingers.

“You’re not gonna die yet, baby,” he said, voice low and teasing as he stepped closer, twirling the knife like it was part of some sick magic trick. “Not until you thank me for letting you be part of something so much bigger than yourself.”

I pressed my palm to the floor, trying to slide backward, but my vision was already swimming, blood smearing across the tile beneath my hand.

He crouched beside me, just out of reach, his grin wide and wild.

“You should’ve stuck with being Knox’s little fuckdoll,” he said, lifting the blade again. “But I get it. You always did love a good horror story.”

His mouth brushed the shell of my ear.

“And now, you get to star in one.”

The knife caught the light again, gleaming wicked and sharp as it arced through the air once again, this time aiming straight for my chest.