Page 56 of The Wicked

“I know what—” He stopped, blinking and shaking his head. “Angelo told me you deviated from tonight’s original plan by killing Dion Juan Pablo. He says it is because he almost abused you.”

“Yes.”

“Indeed? You don’t look too shaken up for a person who was almost sexually assaulted.”

I frowned. “Dion was high out of his mind, he tried to hurt me, and I defended myself. I didn’t mean to kill him, but I guess the knife touched the wrong vein because my good luck sometimes is a curse.” My voice shook, and I felt tears risinglike bile in my throat. I stood straighter, struggling to get ahold of my emotions, and I continued. “I couldn’t exactly push him off me because he was twice my size. So, I did the next best thing I could do. I didn’t think—think that he would… die.”

Elio’s brows drew down in a frown.

“My whole team is worried about me, and I fucking hate it when people walk around me like I’m an eggshell they don’t want to crack.” I let out a humorless chuckle, looking away from him. “As much as they don’t like to admit it, they look up to me. I’m not about to make them see me as some weakling.”

Looking back at him, I hardened my features even though I could feel the tears building up in my eyes. “I am shaken up, but I am also angry because I justkilledaperson,and the last thing I want to do right after is talk to the man who sent us on the goddamn mission in the first place. I just need to get under the damn covers and wait for the nightmares I can already feel coming; so sorry if I’m not a fucking weeping woman, but don’t expect me to cry amid my enemies,” I said in one breath.

Elio watched me, his eyes assessing and the frown leaving his face before he spoke. “Why do you even try?”

“What?” I feigned confusion.

“That… was a pathetic attempt at lying. It’s the worst you’ve come up with for as long as I’ve known you.”

“You think… you think I’m—”

“Enough. I see right through it.”

I kept the act on for precisely five seconds before I drew on a blank look. “He got what he deserved,” I said at last. “He wasn’t a good person.”

“So, killing him makes you better?”

“Yes.”

“I will ignore your delusion and return your attention to what I wanted from this. It was not to kill him, but to get access to their system—”

“Which we did.”

“You do not cut me off when I’m speaking, Zahra.”

“Oh, so you do know my na—”

“Not only were you reckless,” he said, cutting me off, “but you also put the lives of your companions at risk; you put the life of my onlyfamilyat risk. And that is something I can’t forgive.”

“Well, head count says Devil is alive, and everyone else is fine.”

“It doesn’t answer the what-if question.”

“There doesn’t have to be a what-if question. Dion was a fucking bastard. I had a score to settle with him. I saw an opportunity to settle that score, and I did. No one was hurt, and no one knew it was us. The world is still turning.”

“¿Qué cuenta?” he asked.What score?

“That is for me to know.”

He turned away from me, facing the pool. “You have no remorse or regret for what you’ve done.”

“I don’t see a reason to.”

He nodded, and I hated that I couldn’t read him right now. Somehow, I had been the open book tonight; he wasn’t giving anything away.

I took a step back from him just to be safe.

His throat worked. “My father used to drown me… here, right in this pool.” His eyes were trained on the water like he could see it happening.