Chapter Twenty-One

Snow

A fter I drive Lyrical home, I head straight to the basement of the mansion that I used to live at. When I head down the stairs, rage fills me up like an ocean.

This motherfucker is going to pay for trying to kill my fiancée.

I grab a bucket of ice-cold water, pouring it all over the bastard's face. Keanu did a number on him. Half of his face is carved up, and he has two black eyes and fresh scars over his pale chest.

I want to know who sent him after Lyrical.

The guy in the hoodie who was chasing Lyrical, Samuel, has a rap sheet of felonies. Jameson did a background check on him, and it turns out he sells drugs to the students on campus.

He finally opens his eyes and takes in his surroundings, trying to see where he's at. He glances at all four of us. Horror fills his pupils.

That's right.

Be scared.

I'm going to make what Jigsaw did to his victims look like a walk in the damn park.

"Let me go, you fucking bastard!"

He tries to wiggle his way out of the rope restraining him, but it's no use. He won't be able to get free, and if he does, he won't be able to take all of us down at once. He's too weak.

When I step up to him, I yank a fistful of his blond hair that's caked in blood and then punch him in the face, hitting the exposed wound. Biting down on his lip, he tries to keep himself from screaming.

Pure rage courses through my veins and I grind my jaw so hard, my molars ache. I need to distract myself from thinking about Lyrical. I can't stop obsessing over what she's doing. I'm not giving her space either, so she better suck up whatever feelings she has about me not allowing her to watch me kill Samuel.

I don't care.

She can't see this side of me. I know we're a team, but I'm the one who handles the nasty work. I'm doing this to protect her. She doesn't realize it.

"Why did you try to kill my fiancée?" I snap.

He screams for help and Jameson punches him in the face. The way Jameson carries himself, you would think torturing people is beneath him—you wouldn't think he would get his hands dirty like this.

But he can be more savage than I am.

I glance at Irvin; he looks like he doesn't want to be here. But it's in our code to trust and protect each other. I'm still working on the trust part. Since I drowned him, he's been keeping his distance from me, but I know the bastard well enough that he's waiting for the right time to strike back at me. I can't use Lilac as leverage to keep him in check because she told him she doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore.

Samuel spits out blood, getting my T-shirt wet. Blood is a bitch to get out of clothing.

I've had enough of his bullshit.

"Keanu, cut of his pinkie finger," I order.

"Delighted to." He removes his Swiss army knife from his pocket and slices through the pinkie finger, causing Samuel to wail in pain as blood squirts onto the concrete.

"Please! I beg of you! Let me go!" he screams, spit flying everywhere.

"Cut off his thumb." My tone is calm and deathly.

"Fine. I'll tell you. I was paid to do it." His voice is hoarse.

His face is turning more pale, and if I don't hurry up and get all the information he knows out of him soon, he'll die on me.

"By whom?" I ask.

"He shows up in a white mask, never revealing himself to me."

"How did you get in contact with him?" Jameson asks.

"He contacted me and told me he'd send me thirty thousand in cash if I took the girl out. Kill her."

"Give us his address," Jameson asks, folding his arms across his chest.

"I-I don't have his address. He meets me somewhere."

I cock an eyebrow. "Where?"

Samuel snaps his mouth shut.

I squeeze the wound on his severed finger.

"I can't tell you," he groans through gritted teeth.

"Your life is hanging by a thread. So tell me."

"You don't understand. I have a sister. If I say anything, he will kill her."

"I don't give a fuck about your sister. You should have thought about her the moment you tried to kill my fiancée."

Tears run down his face. "We meet in Gogh Hall. Please stop the blood. Please get rid of the pain."

That is the art hall on campus, where the college's art professors hold their classes.

"Can you trust this scum for anything?" Jameson asks.

"What choice do I have?" I grab the gas can and a lighter from the shelf. "Is he a student on campus?"

"I don't know."

"What does he go by?"

He opens his mouth and says, "J-Ju—"

The life leaves his eyes then, and his mouth hangs open, like the Ghostface mask.

"Do you remember Samuel Jacobs from our senior year?" Jameson says, sliding his fingers through his hair.

I nod. He was a famous football player on campus. Unlike other dumb jocks, he graduated at the top of the class and was going to take over his father's tech company that's known throughout the United States. His father is a member of the Billionaire Club.

I look him up and down. I knew he looked familiar since he only graduated last year. What happened to him? How did he end up as a drug dealer?

"Where is his phone?" I ask.

"I already got it, Snow," Jameson says.

I drench gasoline all over Samuel's dead body and then hit the button on the lighter, setting him on fire. I watch his flesh burn, the smell making my head hurt.

I've got to keep Lyrical safe, no matter what happens. Whoever the masked man is, I'm going to find and kill him slowly.

"What do we do next?" Keanu asks, folding his arms across his chest.

"Get rid of his body," I state.

"I'm going to hack into his phone and find the person who hired him to kill Lyrical." Jameson says. "In the meantime, keep an eye out on Lyrical and tell her to change up her routine. I'm assuming he's going to send someone else to finish the job."

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and a notification pops up showing me she's at her parents' house. She can't sit still to save her life—I told her to stay at the farmhouse.

"We can set him up, pretend to be the guy, and tell him that job is done, and when he's ready to give the cash, we'll torture him until we get answers," I state before heading upstairs. "I have to take care of Lyrical," I mutter just as I'm leaving the basement.