Page 88 of X's and O's

But everything was in place.

X eventually sat beside me. “I brought you a present.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” But I was curious to know what it was.

“Close your eyes. I didn’t wrap it.”

“That’s okay. I don’t really like surprises anyway.” I’d had enough of those in the last few weeks.

X screwed up his face. “You’ll like this. Trust me.”

“Trust me, says the man who killed a guy in front of me in cold blood.”

His eyes darkened. “Not just any man. I killed a man who hurt you.”

The helpless feeling of being drugged and pinned beneath Paul Jeddersen as he cut away my clothes came back in a rush.

I never wanted to feel like that ever again.

I was glad he was dead.

And though X was terrifying, something deep inside me did trust him.

I closed my eyes.

He laid something in my hands. “Be careful. It’s sharp.”

My eyes flew open.

The knife on my lap was one I’d seen in my nightmares. Long, deadly tip, sharp, serrated edges, and a bone-colored handle.

The knife X had used to kill Paul Jeddersen.

The man had given me a murder weapon.

I yelped and flung my arms up, sending the knife flying through the air. I had already scuttled away from it by the time the deadly weapon bounced harmlessly on the carpet. “What the hell, X?”

He knelt at my feet, collecting his “gift” from the floor. “You don’t like it?”

“No, I don’t like it!” I wanted to shout at him, but with Toby and Devin in the other room, I had to hiss at him instead. “You just put my fingerprints all over a murder weapon!”

He waved a hand around dismissively, like that wasn’t a big deal at all. “They’re never going to find Paul’s body. There’s nothing to link this weapon to his death.”

I glared at him. “And how many other people have you murdered with that thing?”

He grinned. “Well, there was that guy over on Fourth Street who had a computer full of kiddie porn. Then there was that woman in the city who was injecting women with heroine and using them as sex slaves…”

My mouth fell open. “I wasn’t actually asking for a blow-by-blow description of your kills!”

His smile fell. “Oh. Just me who likes to relive them, huh?”

“Yes, it’s just you. I don’t have any!”

He raised his pierced eyebrow. “We could change that, now that you have a knife. Want to name her?”

“No, I don’t want to name her! It! Not her! Oh my God, now you’ve got me talking like a psychopath.” I stared at him. “You and me hanging out? This was a mistake.”

His fingers wrapped around the handle of the blade. He pushed up onto his feet, looming over me.