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REST IN PEACE

ASHER

D iya and Layne moved in perfect sync like they’d done this a thousand times before. Maybe they had.

“That’s Jimmy’s room,” Diya said, her tone as casual as if she were pointing out a landmark on a tour.

Layne twirled the syringe between her fingers with a grin, her eyes sparkling with an unsettling enthusiasm. They both looked downright giddy.

“So, why is Jimmy here?” Layne asked.

“Delusional disorder. Drug addiction,” Diya said.

“True or made up?”

“I think it’s true. Asher kept his ruse only because he never talked. Not Jimmy. Jimmy…” Diya shook her head as I opened the door with Doctor T’s key. “Jimmy has problems. He’s scared someone is trying to kill him.”

“And the fear is real?”

“The fear is real.”

“And his worst nightmare is coming true now.” Layne snorted, and Diya shook her head with a grunt, opening the door to his room.

Layne’s smile widened as she slapped him hard. His eyes went wide as he thrashed against her hold.

“Hiya, Rip,” Layne sang. “Word on the street is you’ve been a very, very bad boy.” She tilted her head, her smile sharpening into something less sweet and more sinister. “And we, we really don’t like bad boys.” She plunged the syringe into his neck with clinical precision, her gaze locked on him, unblinking. Her smile didn’t waver for a second.

“Do I get to pull his teeth out?” I asked, glaring at the bastard.

“Oh, pain is one way to control an animal, sure. But come on, Maddox, that’s boring. It’s like using a sledgehammer to open a walnut. No finesse,no flair,” Diya hummed.

“This boy of yours likes it my way,” Layne said as I hauled the now unconscious Jimmy. “And like I always say, my way is more fun.”

“Boy of mine ?” Diya repeated, arching a brow at me. “Layne, stop. He might get ideas.”

Oh, I’m already getting ideas.

Hers. Oh, I love it. I want to be hers. I want to be able to kiss…

Fuck, this wasn’t the time to spiral.

Focus.

I liftedJimmy, carrying him as we walked toward the back entrance until we reached the abandoned building.

“This brings back memories,” Diya said as I put Jimmy on the rusty gurney. She leaned closer, her fingers trailing down my spine, her breath hot on my neck. “When all of this is over, you should put that dagger to good use. You know what I mean?”

“I know.”

“Stop touching his ass and start working. We don’t have all the time in the world,” Layne grunted.

“So what are we doing?”

“Blood is messy. The real art is in breaking them without laying a single finger on them.” Diya’s voice was almost musical, as she studied the man tied to the gurney.

“Not me,” Layne said, a wicked grin tugging at her lips. “I love blood. I love making a mess. I love making men scream… as I saw off their hands, their fingers, their heads. And then I turn them into something beautiful, something they never were in their ugly, pathetic lives.”

As Diya pulled out small glass bottles filled with colorful petals and liquids, I slapped Jimmy, jolting him awake, pressing my elbow against his throat as his mouth opened. “Scream, and I’ll crush your windpipe, Rip,” I snarled. Fucking bastard.

He flinched.

“You want answers,don’t you, Maddox?” Diya said, tilting her head to look at me as she unscrewed a vial. The playful smile on her lips was overshadowed by the darkness in her eyes. “I’ll get them for you.” She moved closer, her tone shifting to one of eerie calm. “What do you hate most in the world, Rip?”

His eyes went wide, and his jaw clenched. Diya leaned in, her voice a soft, almost tender whisper. “Is it spiders? Snakes? Drugs? Needles? Flowers?”

He thrashed.

“Why would anyone be afraid of flowers, right? They’re beautiful.”

Layne chuckled as I watched Diya, my lips parted.

“Careful there, Asher. Your drool will leaveDNA evidence.”

I grunted, and she laughed.

“You’re whipped, Asher.”

“I know,” I murmured, and she smiled at me.

“Then don’t run when she asks you to run. She will, but don’t. Stay.” Layne’s eyes were feral.

I nodded, looking up at the woman who had stolen my sanity. I wouldn’t find a home, not without Diya.

“Are you scared?” Diya’s lips curled into a smile. “Look at me, Jimmy. Why would you be afraid of me?” she asked, her voice saccharine sweet, and I saw her for what she was.

I was grateful that she didn’t decide to hurt me back for my sins.

“I’m not scary, am I?” She paused, her laughter bubbling up, slipping down my skin like the poison in that glass bottle. “I’m so fucking beautiful, Rip.”

Jimmy nodded, tears trailing down his cheeks.

“But that’s the beauty of it.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, so quiet that I had to strain to hear it. “When I’m done with you, you’ll beg me to kill you. But I won’t. I’ll just stand here, watching, as you unravel.”

“Just you wait, Maddox,” Layne whispered. “She’s glorious when she truly gets into the game.” Layne motioned, and my cock agreed readily.

If she’d look at me like that, I’d let her poison me.

“Do you know what this is?” Diya asked Jimmy, shaking the vial filled with murky green liquid. “No?”

“Get ready for the science lesson. She loves talking about her flowers,” Layne muttered.

“It’s Datura stramonium. You might know it as jimsonweed?”

Jimmy wailed.

“The flower has scopolamine and atropine,” she said, unscrewing the bottle. “A few drops can cause frightening hallucinations. It’ll be so fucking vivid you’ll question your reality. Now, if you don’t give me the answers… I’ll make you drink this.”

My heart thundered.

Layne rolled her eyes, moving back. “I’m going to get some air.”

Diya didn’t even look up.

“Now, Jimmy, did you or did you not help a psychopathic rapist kidnap girls from the asylum? Talk.”

“Doctor Sharma… I don’t…”

“If I don’t get what I want, I’ll kill you.”

“I… yes. I don’t know him...”

“What does he have on you?”

“I-I killed two women in a drug-induced frenzy. I didn’t mean to. I ran, but someone knew, and he followed me all the way here—”

“You deserve to die just for that.” Her lips twisted, her eyes darkened.

The confidence, the darkness… it was arousing, yanking me inside the bottomless pit. If I jumped in, I knew I’d never surface, but…

The call was haunting. I didn’t want to resist it. I couldn’t. It wasn’t a choice. I was hers long before I knew I was hers. And honestly, I should’ve seen it coming.

I slid behind her, pressing my nose against her shoulder. She smiled, shaking her head. “Your cock is digging into my ass, Maddox.”

“I know,”

“We’re not here to, you know…”

“I know.”

Sighing, she turned back to Jimmy. “We both know you’re just a patsy. The name, Jimmy.”

“I-I don’t know,” Jimmy sobbed out, his body trembling with fear.

“Wrong,” she said, filling a syringe with whatever was in the vial before pushing it behind his ears.

“I-I’ll tell you. Don’t kill me. Please.”

Diya nodded. “What did you do to the girls?”

“I had to drug them and then…”

I punched him in his fucking mouth.

“You’re hurt,” Diya said, taking my hand in hers.

“I’m fine. This is nothing compared to what I want to do to him.”

She traced my chin. “You’re a good friend.”

Am I though?

I pulled her to me, my heart clenching with something foreign and strange.

“Just stay here for a second,” I whispered when she tried to struggle out of my hold.

“Something wrong?”

“No, everything is too good right now,” I whispered, pressing my lips to her hair. “Diya…”

“Yes?”

“The debt you owe me…” I trailed off, the weight of my words hanging heavy in the air. I knew if I let go now, she might not come back. Damn it, I didn’t want to let go. I shouldn’t. “It’s paid.”

She jerked away from me. “What are you—” Her lips parted. “Oh. OH!” she whispered. “You mean…”

“Yes.” My throat tightened. “You don’t have to. Not anymore.”

Because it stopped being a game now. I wanted the real thing. I wanted it to be more than just fucking her. I wanted everything.

Not just a casual fling, with no strings. Oh no, I had to go and want the whole damn roller-coaster. The emotional baggage, the trauma, the… whatever. Every fucking thing.

She laughed, a sharp, cynical sound that cut through the silence.

“Well,” she said. “How generous of you. Should I thank you for this?”

“Aren’t you happy?” I asked.

“Oh. Can’t you see? I’m jumping in delight,” she said before whirling around to face the poor bastard, and without another word, she punched him in his nose.

“Was that supposed to be my nose?” I asked.

“A nose is a nose.” She shrugged as Jimmy groaned in protest. “Tell me, Jimmy, what’s the thing you fear the most? Ash here… he’s afraid of me.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“Wasn’t asking you, Maddox. Keep your trap shut, why don’t you? Jimmy, it’s your stage, dude. Come on.”

“I… the smoke. The girls, coming to take me. They… Gasping… can’t breathe. Suffocating. The whispers…” I could almost hear his heartbeat quickening. “Run, I can’t run. They are always chasing.”

“Now listen to my voice. You can run now. Run.”

“I can run now.”

She laughed. “Yes. The shadows are parting. You’re fast. You can escape the girls. Run faster.”

“Run faster,” he slurred, his eyes glazed. “I… I think I can survive.” He sounded hopeful.

“Oh, fuck, what’s that? Did you just stumble and fall?Oh, no, the smoke is closing in. It has claws and fangs. If you look, you can see eyes. Were those eyes of the girls you hurt? Can you feel it? They are angry and they want to rip your skin off your bones.”

“Save me.”

“Only the man who forced you to do this can save you. If you give him to these girls, they won’t hurt you.”

“Help me.”

“Give them the one who hurt them, and you might survive this.”

“I-I don’t know him.”

“You might have an inkling of doubt. I want you to think, Jimmy.”

Jimmy banged his head against the gurney.

“Ple-please. I didn’t do anything. He would have hurt me too if I didn’t do it. He just gave me something to give to the girls, and then… I would walk them out of the door. The door was always open. I don’t know how. I didn’t ask. No questions. That’s his first rule.”

Hannigan said the same.

“Who is the one behind all of this?” I asked, gripping his shirt, tightening my grip.

“I… really don’t know.”

“Guess, then,” I said, glaring down at Jimmy. He was already pale, sweating.

One last name. One last kill.

Everything would be over.

Everything.

“I thought… I think it’s Jo-Jonah. My bandmate. He knew my… secret. He knew I killed the girls.”

“Jonah Bricks?”

“Ye-yes.”