Page 96 of His Trick

Broken indeed.

“Wonderful. We’ve raised quite a bit already for the charities. It has been a great turnout.”

Carmen was fussing with her blonde hair when I spoke again, moving my seat placement closer to hers.

“Have you gone this year? To the hunt? Caught by any masked men I should be jealous of?”

Her face paled, but my smile remained.

“N-No. I.. I skipped it this year. Tyler has a wedding he’s going to this weekend, and I didn’t want to impose…”

Now my smile dissipated like acid.

Tyler.

My obsession’s choice of women was somehow affiliated with Tyler of all fucking people?

A small, incessant world we lived in. I’d expect no less than the pool of Normal’s people would be soured with Tyler’s influence.

A quick glance at her fingers showed no rings, so Tyler must be a relative of Carmen.

“Ah. I see. Tyler has always required a lot of attention, hasn’t he?”

Carmen chuckled at my face. I was good at hiding many things, but my hatred for Tyler Veering wasn’t my strong suit.

“Yeah. My brother is as flashy as your sister.”

Ah. Brother. Shame she needed to die.

She seemed to hate my sister and her brother as much as I did.

“Yes, Xanthy did always need the prettiest toys growing up, or she’d throw a fit and get the nanny fired.”

Carmen wasn’t an idiot. She seemed astute enough to follow my hidden meanings. The conversation with her was interesting, nearly engaging. But it was all a means to an end.

“Whose wedding is Tyler going to?”

“Someone Xanthy knows. I don’t know. He’s always trying to get her back. But she has a new boyfriend, doesn’t she?”

Yes.My fucking Sunshine.

“She does. His name is Shiloh Anderson. He is a doctor-in-training at Kentucky State. Long-distance lovers and all that.”

Carmen seemed surprised that I gave so much information, but I did so to understand what she would do with it.

“I haven’t met him, I guess. Nice, Xanthy has someone that isn’t Tyler. Lord knows she’s better off with anyone but him.”

Hmm. So she doesn’t know who her nightmare is. How fun it will be to awaken her to the reality.

“Why’d you deny my drink for you?” I said suddenly, staring at the liquid still in the glass across the bar top.

Carmen’s eyes looked haunted, and I guessed it was likely from the fact that we served this type of drink at the hunt. Specifically, sex on the beach for the first night. It was clearly triggering for her. I wanted to press harder. But I had to be careful. Carmen was a broken, fragile woman.

She hated attention, and her scars were as visible on the inside as they were on the outside. Even with long sleeves, the marks across her wrists were evident to anyone who looked. She too wore a mask for people.

What interested me wasn’t the mask itself, but what lay behind it.

More importantly, how do I make her break, to shatter, and reveal Shiloh’s cracked façade in the process?