Chapter 19

Olivia Bennett

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, tucking my gun into my holster. My oversized shirt concealed it perfectly. The past week had been a whirlwind of stolen glances and heated encounters with Liam. His green eyes and devilish smirk consumed all my thoughts.

Focus, Oli. I shook my head, trying to clear it. Tonight was about my real job, not Liam's cock, though the thought of it was—damn it. No.

There was an event happening at Dead Man’s tonight, and it was my chance to finally gather some more intel. Sneaking in on my day off had felt risky, but I was sure it would be busy enough that I should be able to get in and out without being seen. I took a deep breath and readied to leave, locking the apartment behind me.

As I drove to Dead Man’s Mansion, memories of Liam's touch flooded my mind. His strong hands on my waist. His lips trailing down my neck. No. Stop it. Parking a block away, I approached on foot. The back entrance loomed before me.

This was it. No turning back now.

I reached for the door and slipped through, my senses on high alert. The silence hit me like a physical force. No chatter, no music, no signs of life. Just eerie stillness. I padded softly as I crept down the hallway. Where was everyone? The grand ballroom stood empty, not a single guest in sight.

A chill ran down my spine. Something felt off.

I made my way upstairs, my hand hovering near my concealed weapon. Liam's office door came into view, locked tight.

“Of course,” I muttered, fishing out my lockpick set.

As I worked the lock, Liam's face flashed in my mind. Guilt twisted in my chest—he deserved better than this after everything he’d been through, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to do this, even if it meant betraying the one person, other than Johnathan, who had become something to me. Something so much more than just a friend. I pushed the thoughts away, focusing on the task at hand. I didn’t want to think about that stupid four-letter word.

Click. The door swung open.

I slipped inside, closing it silently behind me. My eyes scanned the room, searching for anything out of place. I quickly made my way to the computer. I settled into Liam's chair, the leather still holding a trace of his cologne. My fingers flew across the keyboard, inputting the password I'd seen him use countless times since I’d been here.

“Please work,” I whispered. The screen flickered to life. I was in. A mix of triumph and dread washed over me. What secrets would I uncover? And how would they change everything I thought I knew about Liam? Would it change how I felt for him? I navigated to the bookings section, my eyes widening as I saw the Croix reservation for tonight. The amount was staggering.

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

Curiosity gnawed at me. I scrolled through previous months and noticed a pattern emerging. Every month, like clockwork, the Croixes booked Dead Man’s Mansion for an obscene sum. And on those days, the place had been a ghost town. I checked the calendar again and it lined up. No one had been scheduled on those days. Including today. This event was a cover.

My stomach churned. What was Liam up to? I searched frantically for contracts but came up empty-handed. I was missing something. My gaze swept the room, landing on a painting. Something about it seemed… wrong. I approached, noticing it wasn’t flush with the wall.

Heart racing, I carefully removed it and a safe stared back at me.

“Bingo,” I whispered. The safe needed a code or you could use a key. I wondered if I could pick it. My hands trembled as I worked, sweat beading on my forehead. One attempt. Two. Three.

“Fuck, c’mon, you stupid piece of…”

Click.

Relief flooded through me as the safe swung open. Inside lay a thick folder and a leather-bound book. I snatched them, hurrying back to the desk. I opened it, revealing page after page of Liam's handwriting. My breath caught as I realized what I was holding.

His journal. Years of entries stretched before me. I felt sick to my stomach. I shouldn’t read this, but I needed answers. This was what I had come for.

My eyes locked onto an entry, the raw pain in the words hitting me like a punch to the gut.

“The therapist seems to think that writing my thoughts will help me cope with my grief or whatever, so here I go. Mom and Mya died six weeks ago today, and I can't help but wonder why I'm here. Why I survived and they didn't. I have so much rage, and as soon as I'm healed, I'm going to do whatever it takes to get justice.”

I traced the words, feeling the indentations where his pen had pressed too hard. The anguish bled through the page. He’d just been a kid. He hadn’t deserved this.

The blade of guilt just kept twisting further and further into my soul. This wasn't just a case anymore. This was Liam's life, his pain, laid bare before me. I glanced at the door, half-expecting him to burst in. I should stop reading, but I couldn't tear myself away. I flipped through more pages, my trained eyes scanning rapidly. Each entry revealed more of Liam's pain, his descent into darkness. My stomach churned.

Another entry caught my attention.

“The justice system is broken,” I read aloud, my voice barely a whisper. “Somehow the Croixes were able to get away with this.”

I closed my eyes, processing the weight of his words. The pain, the anger—it was all there, etched into the paper like scars. Like the same ones they’d put on his back. I understood, even though I shouldn’t condone his actions.

“Aunt Nina adopted me and we changed my name. I know she means well and wants to keep me safe from everything that happened, but they will pay for this.”

I flipped to the back of the journal. A list of names stared back at me, all from the Croix family. Four were crossed out.

I knew two were from Liam’s case file, when they were found their bodies were already too decayed to get much of anything. Another was Marco, I knew he was dead, I connected his death to the executioner case but the other… The image of the man who’d knocked me over flashed in my mind. Damien. So Liam really did kill him. He was crossing off names as he killed.

I set the journal down, my fingers trembling as I reached for the thick folder. Papers spilled across the desk as I spread them out. Contracts. Dozens of them, each for an identical, obscene sum, every month.

He was balancing their checkbooks, but why? To get close? The Croixes weren’t stupid. No, picking them off one by one was too risky. They'd catch on before he was finished. I flipped through the contracts, and all of them were the same except for the most recent one, it was for a wedding. Not only was it for a different sum, but it was for a different event, and in blood red ink, Liam had scrawled “ENDGAME” across the top.

It was a wedding contract for Marianna Croix, daughter of the family's patriarch. If this was going to be a real event, it would bring them all together. In one place—Dead Man’s Mansion.

The realization hit me. He was going to kill them at the wedding. It was what I would do in his position. A sudden creak pierced the silence, and it was one I’d recognize anywhere—that stupid step when someone was coming up the stairs.

My heart leapt into my throat. I scrambled to my feet. The door handle turned with agonizing slowness. I pressed myself against the wall behind the door, hiding behind it as it opened. I held my breath and waited.

Liam stepped inside. His familiar scent—sandalwood and mint—filled the air. I fought the urge to inhale deeply.

He paused, surveying the chaos of papers strewn across his desk. “What the hell?” he murmured to himself. I watched him move towards it, my muscles coiled tight. The moment he was far enough into the room, I bolted and raced down the hallway. Liam's shocked voice called after me, but I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. The man I'd fallen for was definitely a killer, and I wasn’t sure what he would do to me if he caught me. I flew down the stairs. The front door loomed ahead.

“Jade! Jade, wait!” Liam's voice boomed from behind me. I reached for the handle, yanking it desperately. It was locked. My stomach dropped.

“No, no, no,” I muttered, panic rising in my throat. He’d known someone was in here and had planned to lock them in.

“Jade!” Liam called again, his footsteps thundering down the stairs.

I spun around, eyes wild. The haunted house stretched before me, but after all the times I had walked through it, this was by far the most terrifying. I darted into the nearest passageway, my breath coming in short gasps. What would he do if he caught me? The man I thought I knew wouldn't hurt me, but the Liam in those journal entries… the man out for revenge… what would he be willing to do to be sure his plans went through? My fingers brushed against my gun. A small comfort, but one I hoped I wouldn't need to use. My training seemed to evaporate, replaced by raw fear. I'd navigated this place countless times, but now it felt alien. The mirror maze loomed ahead. I hesitated, then plunged in. I didn’t have a choice. I just needed to find another way out of here. Reflections of myself multiplied infinitely. Which way? I spun, disoriented. Lights flickered and cries and screams started sounding from every direction.

The motion sensors were on. Fuck.

Footsteps sounded from behind me. Close. He was too close. And then I hit a dead end. My hands pressed against cold glass. “Shit,” I muttered. I whirled around, drawing the glock. My arms extended, muscle memory taking over.

Liam appeared, his chest heaving. Our eyes locked.

He froze, taking in my stance. Recognition dawned in his eyes. “You're a cop…,” he breathed, voice barely above a whisper. My finger hovered next to the trigger.

Liam's wide, glassy eyes bored into mine. Shock, betrayal, and something else I couldn’t quite name swirled in their depths. The hurt etched across his face was like a knife to my chest, sharper than I had anticipated. I’d known this moment would come—knew it had to—but seeing the raw pain in his expression hit harder than I'd prepared for.

I’d fallen for him. I’d let myself get pulled into the gravity of Liam's world. And now? Now he knew the truth about me, or at least this one, and it made fear prickle at the back of my mind, not just because I was a fed, but because of what he might do to me. What he might become. There was a darkness in Liam that I had only glimpsed, and now that I was possibly the enemy in his eyes, how far would he go?

His eyes, once filled with warmth, now burned with icy disbelief. Seeing him like this, seeing what I’d done to him, hurt more than I thought it would. Maybe I was afraid of how much I still wanted him, even now. Afraid of how this would change us—if we even still existed after all of this.

“Go ahead… Do it.” His voice trembled, cracking through the silence. He wasn’t pleading or angry. It was resignation, maybe even relief. My heart pounded in my ears, louder than his voice, than the thoughts racing through my head. Could I shoot him? The answer that haunted me most was that no matter how much I should, no matter what he might do to me… I couldn’t pull the trigger. I’d never be able to do that to him.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry. My eyes lined with tears. “No. You're a murderer, not a monster… I guess we both have some secrets.”

The words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. My hands trembled slightly, but I kept the gun trained on him.

“I had my reasons.” His voice was low, tinged with a rawness I hadn't heard before. He took a step closer, and I instinctively tightened my grip.

“Don't,” I warned. My vision blurred as tears welled up. “I… I know.” The words came out like a choked sob.

Liam's brow furrowed, confusion and concern etched across his face as he looked at me. Even when I had a gun pulled on him he cared— he still fucking cared. He took another cautious step forward. “You know? You know what?”

I nodded, blinking rapidly. A tear escaped, trailing down my cheek. “I know you had your reasons.”

His jaw clenched. “Then you understand,” he said softly.

I did. God help me, I did.

Liam's eyes searched mine. “What are you going to do, Jade?”

I took a shaky breath, steeling myself. “I want the truth.” Liam's eyes flickered toward the gun then back to me with a mix of emotions. He spread his hands palms up, in a gesture of surrender.

“You already have the truth,” he said. “You saw the contracts, the bookings, the money, my journal. It seems to me you know everything.”

I could feel my pulse throbbing in my temples. “Not everything. I need to hear it from you.”

Liam's gaze never left mine. The weight of his stare was almost palpable. “What more do you want me to say, Jade? That I've been planning this for years? That I've manipulated and lied to get close to the people who destroyed my family—my life?”

His words hit me like a physical blow. I'd known, but hearing him say it… made it real in a way the evidence hadn't. “What was your endgame?” Liam's bitter smile twisted with pain. His eyes, usually so warm when they looked at me, now held a cold, calculating edge, even as tears lined them.

“I'm not sure that matters now,” he said, his voice eerily calm. “Considering there's a cop in my haunted house that knows all my secrets.”

The glock in my hand felt heavier with each passing second. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead, my palms growing clammy. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I wasn't supposed to care about him. This was supposed to be easy.

“Just… enlighten me.” The words came out as a whisper, tears spilling down my cheeks. I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision.

Liam's jaw clenched, his eyes flickering with a mix of emotions—pain, anger, and something that looked dangerously close to regret. He took a deep breath, his shoulders sagging slightly.

“I was going to take everyone on the list in my journal into one of the rooms after the wedding ceremony for drinks,” he said, his voice low and controlled. “Then I was going to drug them and kill them.”

“And then what?”

Liam's eyes met mine, a haunted look passing over his face. He ran a hand through his tousled hair, a gesture I'd seen a hundred times before.

“I was going to burn Dead Man’s down and disappear,” he said. “Make it all look like some freak accident.”

“You'd destroy everything,” I murmured, glancing around at the mirrors surrounding us. Our reflections stared back, a twisted kaleidoscope of betrayal and secrets. “Your whole life here…”

Liam's jaw ticked. “This place stopped being my life a long time ago, Jade. I’ve only ever had one goal in mind… That is, until you.” The bitterness in his voice stung, but I couldn't blame him. We'd both been living lies. My mind spun, putting everything together like a fucked-up jigsaw puzzle. Tears streamed down my cheeks, but a small smile crept onto my lips. The pieces were falling into place—Liam's past, the Croix family, Dead Man’s Mansion. It was all so twisted, yet somehow made perfect sense.

I locked eyes with Liam, needing to ask the question that could change the outcome of everything. “Are you going to kill me?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Liam's expression flickered, a mix of surprise and pain twisting his features. He took a step closer, his hands raised slightly.

“Jade, I—” He paused, shaking his head. Taking back the words he was about to say. “I don't hurt innocent people.”

I laughed, a hollow sound that echoed off the mirrors surrounding us. “But I'm not innocent, am I? I’ve been lying to you this whole time. I’m a fed, Liam.”

“Like you said, we both had secrets. You’re innocent in all of this. I’m only after the Croixes. I’ve only ever been after them. I would never hurt you.” His eyes only held sincerity.

I licked my dry lips, tasting the salt of my tears. “Oli.”

“What?”

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry as I made the decision to tell him everything. “Olivia is my real name,” I said, the word feeling foreign on my tongue after so long. “But everyone calls me Oli.”

“Oli,” he repeated, testing it. It sounded different in his voice, deadly and alluring all at once. I nodded, fighting the urge to close the distance between us. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself and lowering the gun. “Because I think I have a better plan.”