Page 117 of Kiss of Deceit

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” I muttered under my breath.

“Well, I do.” He turned on his side, propping his head up with his hand. “I’m glad you know. And if you decide to tell someone, then I guess I judged you wrong.”

I laughed lightly. “Guilting me doesn’t work, Kole.”

“I’m not trying to guilt you. I’m telling the truth. I might not be able to read people like you can, but I consider myself a decent judge of character.” He paused, glancing past me to the laptop as I took another bite. “Did you find what you’re looking for?”

“I already said I believe you.”

A muscle in his jaw flexed. “Did you findwhoyou were looking for?”

“What?” Ice chilled my veins a second later when I realized what he meant. I almost forgot that I told him about the morning I thought I saw the monster who attacked me.

“I know it crossed your mind,” he murmured. “And now you know the town is full of criminals? You’re searching for the person who hurt you.”

“Yes,” I whispered, my chest growing tight.

“You don’t know his name?”

“No. Only what he looks like—or what he looked like twelve years ago.”

Kole was staring at the ceiling fan with a frown on his lips as I ate my ice cream. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, which surprised me. This whole situation was far from normal. This town. Kole’s secret job. My admittance to him that I’d killed before. Twenty-four hours ago, was when I found his hidden room. The dread that had smothered me in that moment was nearly gone. With everything I learned, I was positive he wasn’t the killer.

“There’s another file you can look at,” he said, his tone reserved. “But not tonight. You need sleep before going back to the station.”

My stomach churned. “What other file?”

“You know about the factory.”

“Yes.”

“It is a box factory—at least part of it is.”

I stared at him. “And the other part?”

“A prison. With minimum security.”

I gaped at him. “What?”

“That night I followed you there, when you threw your knife at me? I know you questioned why there was security at a box factory. That’s why. I have all the files of every inmate in there.”

A chill raced down my spine. “How many?”

“Over a hundred.”

“You didn’t tell me this earlier.”

He chuckled. “Still so suspicious. If you remember, we got interrupted. You asked to see my laptop the second we walked in the door and have been holed up in your room since then.”

“Are there guards in the prison?”

“Sure. The people you see heading to the factory every day.”

My jaw dropped in shock. “There are inmates policing other inmates?”

“Yes.”

“Unbelievable,” I mumbled, shaking my head. “When I first read about this town on Natalie’s computer, I believed this could be a start to a positive way of reform. But learning this? I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there was an experiment in the past that proved power roles can lead to dangerous situations.”