Page 99 of Atone

His eyes shine, and I wonder if the artist took liberties or if there really was a time he didn’t carry around the darkness he does now.

A muffled voice raises down the hallway, pulling my attention, and I find myself stepping toward it. I really should turn back to the library, but I can’t help that my feet move me to the sound of Gideon Lancaster’s voice when his tone becomes more heated.

“Did you think I wouldn’t recognize her, Alex?” Gideon’s voice is stripped of any of the false pleasantries it held when he pulled Alex away.

I stop outside the office and shuffle closer, barely able to see through a crack in the door. Gideon is standing at his desk, with his fingertips resting on it, while Alex sits in a chair across from him, looking bored. He doesn’t bother responding to his father as his gaze drifts around the room, uninterested.

“We haven’t come this far to dig up old graves, and that’s exactly what she can do. Are you ready to ruin everything we worked for over carnival trash? Have you already forgotten what I’ve sacrificed to protect this family—to protect you?” Gideon circles the desk to get closer, sitting on the edge of it and looking down at his son with a softer gaze. “Not to mention what could happen if you can’t control… this.” He waves a hand like that explains what he’s talking about. “Are you willing to risk hurting her?”

Alex’s gaze snaps to his father, anger flaring.

“Don’t look at me like it’s my fault,” his father continues. “You’re slipping, Alex. Let me help you. Things have changed since you went to Montgomery. Declan threw the game into chaos. We need to trust each other now more than ever, son. You can’t risk everything for some girl whomakes you reckless. Does she even know what you’ve done? Who you are? Have you even told her the truth about Oregon?”

Oregon.

My nails bite into my palms as I clench my fists, fighting the smell of smoke in my memories. Of the Sigma Sin insignia on the ring on the man’s hand. The clues that led me to Bristal to find out who attacked Remi.

Whokilledher.

It couldn’t be Alex.

It couldn’t.

I take a step back and accidentally back into the corner of a table, which causes a vase to topple. The crash echoes through the hallway, shattering my resolve as a tear slips down my cheek.

Alex turns at the sound, and his eyes meet mine through the crack in the door.

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

He wrote that on the mirror at the psychiatric ward. I thought he was saying that because of Oxy or Marco. But he wasn’t.

He meanthere. Bristal.

To this town. To this school.

To Sigma Sin.

Alex was in Oregon the night Remi died. He’s the reason all this started. It’s why he’s never asked me about it. Never questioned the knife on my thigh or the nightmares.

He doesn’t need to. He’s the one who put them there.

32

SHE FOUND ME

ALEX

“You were there?”Mila’s voice cracks. “It was you?”

Tears spill down her cheeks. Emotions pour out. And for the first time, I wonder if that’s why I prefer to take my time killing people. Because I’m trying to figure out what it is that breaks them.

For some, it’s ripping off their fingernails. For others, it’s broken bones.

For Mila, all it took was a quick strike to that soft heart beneath her ribs.

Nothing more than a sentence, and everything she believes is shattered. It morphed until fear became the least horrible emotion brewing in her eyes as she stares at me.

Disappointment and disgust are written all over her face.