Page 178 of Trapped With You

“Y-Yes.”

“Did you send Cade the text messages to meet upstairs in his room?”

“Oh, God!” Gavino panted from the pain. “Yes, it was me!”

“How did you unlock my phone?” Ella asked her final question.

His hiss broke into another pitiful wail. “Callie gave me your passcode the night before. I met her at a bar, she was drunk, and it was easy to coax any information I wanted out of her.”

I waved my gun at him. “So not only did you want to drug and assault me, but you wanted to drive a wedge between Ella and me by making it look like I cheated on her in the middle of a crowded party?”

When Gavino just cowered under my angry gaze, I barked at him, “Answer me, you lousy fuck!”

“I-I did, okay?” he wheezed. “It’s not my fault it worked—ah fuckkk!”

I shot his right arm because he pissed me off. “The next bullet is going in your left one unless you give the gloating a rest.”

I promised myself that once I caught the asshole behind the entire shitshow, I was going to force him to write a letter of apology to Mabel Garcia for implicating her in this mess. Unfortunately, Gavino wasn’t in any state to crawl, let alone write, which meant I’d have to create a fake letter on his behalfto give her some form of closure and justice.

“Please,” he slurred. “Can you just let me go? I’ve given you all my truths. I won’t tell anyone about this night. I-I’ll fuck off to another city.”

I glanced at Ella.

She was already staring at me.

We got all our answers.

The puzzle was finally complete.

Gavino Ricci stupidly messed with us to get revenge for his good-for-nothing foster brother—someone who wasn’t even a decent human being—and now he’d pay the price.

Wordlessly, Ella grabbed the gasoline can and started walking around the spinning platform, dousing the entirety in layers of slick oil.

I placed my gun back in my chest holster and cracked my knuckles.

Gavino, through a hazy gaze, watched me wearily.

“You want to know why they call me the fixer?” I smirked. “Ifixpesky little problems like yourself, Gavino. And I’m damn good at it too. You should have done your research before choosing to fuck with me. I’m not a merciful man. I’m even less merciful where my girl is concerned. Fuck with herorme…and you’re a dead man walking.”

“B-But you said I could walk away if I answered all your questions!”

I tilted my head, my cold smirk turning into a frightening grin. “I lied.”

Then I cocked my fist back and smashed it into his face, breaking his nose, his teeth, and the skin of his cheeks. Blood poured out of his orifices as I punched him to a pulp and shoved his head against the pole repeatedly until his cries were a distant sound compared to the vivid heartbeat rushing in my ears. “This is for putting drugs in my drink.”Slam. “This is for trying topaint me as a cheater.”Slam. “This is for messing with Mabel.”Slam. “This is for touching my Ella.”Slam. “And this?”Slam. “This is your final lesson: Youneverfuck with a Remington.”

I bashed his face against the pole one final time, but he was already dead, his skull cracked open, oozing out like an egg. His body slumped like a puppet with its strings cut, his blood covering the once pastel-coloured mechanical horse. Some of his blood had landed on my face during the assault.

When I glanced at my reflection in one of the little carousel mirrors, I looked like I was bathed in his life force. The beast inside of me finally received his pound of flesh.

I was sated.

My eyes cut to my girlfriend, standing next to us with the gasoline can.

I looked like a monster.

She gazed at me like I was her saving grace.

“My bloodthirsty princepin,” Ella said with awe and stars in her eyes, throwing her arms around my neck. “How I love you.”