Page 141 of Boys Who Taint

“However, that fucker over there stole our candy …” I grab his wrist and point the knife at Grey instead. “And it’s about time we made him spit it out.”

His ire is finally averted when his eyes fixate on Grey’s hands grabbing Aspen’s juicy ass. She kisses him, wildly, feverishly, as her eyes slowly turn to the side.

Turn to us.

“I want to kill him,” he says.

“I know. But that won’t help you one bit. See, it might work for like one second when you detach his hands from his body, but then she’ll scream, grab a knife, and cut you open like a piñata. And then she’ll never want you again.”

“She doesn’twantme.”

“I know. But we’re speaking in hypotheticals here, right?”

“She wants medead.”

Aspen sits down on the edge of the fountain with him. They cuddle and talk with smiles on their faces, and it makes me want to stab something. Maybe my eyes, maybe his. “Then let’s make her wanthimdead instead.”

Levi snorts. “That’ll never happen. Not in a million years.”

“Unless we make it happen.”

“How?” The glimmer in his eyes tells me he’s at the very least intrigued by the possibility.

“You think that fucker doesn’t have secrets?” I whisper. “Everyone does, and with the right amount of pressure …” I smash his wrist down into the table, and the knife cracks the wood he was scratching. “He’ll break.”

I can see the clocks ticking behind his eyes, the rattling of an idea planted in his head.

“And when he’s in danger,” he says. “She’ll do anything to set him free.”

I pat him on the back a few times. Now he’s getting the picture.

I pull one of the masks from last night from my bag and put it on.

“What are you gonna do?”

I wave it around. “Her stalker wears this.”

His pupils dilate. “How do you know about that?”

“She was looking for it in my room, and she told me.” I jump off the bench and put on my red jacket. “Watch this.”

CHAPTER 33

Aspen

A guyin a red jacket and a black crop-top, along with an eerie white mask approaches. On his face is a devious grin, and my heart skips a beat.

Is it him?

Is he coming for me, in the middle of the day?

I grip the stones of the fountain, wondering if I can rip one loose and chuck it at him before he gets to me, while simultaneously stuck in limbo, thoughts of being swept away from here fluttering into the forefront of my mind.

I feel untethered from reality as he comes closer and closer, as though he doesn’t give a shit who sees him. But I’m with my boyfriend, and it’s broad daylight, so there’s no way he’d do this here, right?

I brace myself, but the swagger in his walk makes me narrow my eyes.

What the …?