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“Do I have to drug you next?” Bennett asks.
“Over my dead body,” I say as my spine instinctively stiffens.
“She can shit on me, but I can’t dish it back? Quit your posturing.” Bennett grabs a rolled-up piece of turkey and shoves it into his mouth, but not before I catch the sparkle in his eye as a thought strikes him. “Did you know Midnight Masochist is coming for the hunt?”
I choke on my spit.
“Who’s that?” Kindra asks as she pats my back.
I continue coughing.
Bennett smiles. “He’s an old friend, isn’t he, Ezra?”
She gives me an odd look, and I get it. Who reacts like this when they hear of a good friend’s imminent arrival?
Instead of pressing the issue, Kindra keeps patting my back. I’m still coughing up my panic when she stops and stares at me.
“Okay, I’m going to get you a drink before you drown on air,” she says. “Water good?”
“Splendid,” I say with the most pained smile I’ve ever plastered on my face. Regardless, she doesn’t notice as she heads to the outdoor bar. I immediately turn to face Bennett. “Since when is Maverick coming?”
“Jim mentioned that he finished his assignment early, so I shot him an invite. He couldn’t be more pleased to come, honestly.”
This is a low blow if I’ve ever seen one. Midnight is a good friend of ours, and we’ve known him almost as long as we’ve known each other. Which means he knows I’m not the Crumpet Killer.
Which means this could all blow up in my face.
“What the hell did I do to you, Bennett?”
“You didn’t doanythingto me. Except announce my STD history to the entire island.”
“You invited Maverick because I... Goddamn it, Bennett.”
“No, it has nothing to do with that.” Bennett grabs some bread from the board and starts slathering it with mayo. “I just don’t think you’re going to tell her. You said you’d tell herbeforethe hunt, so he shouldn’t fuck anything up. She’ll already know.”
I need to get to him before he gets here and tells her everything I don’t have the balls to tell her. The selfish side of me wants to keep her in the dark for the foreseeable future. It’s bloody unfair. Now that I’ve finally fallen for someone, she’ll be ripped away from me. But do I have any right to keep hiding this from her?
Because I am the villain here.
Not because I killed her brother—the piece of shit deserved his death—but because I’ve lied to Kindra. But I don’t know how to stop.
“Bennett—”
“No, Ezra. Donottry to get me on your side here. You’ve played with that poor girl’s heart and vagina long enough.” He begins grabbing each type of meat and at least two different types of cheese, all of which he crams onto the pile of mayo.
“You don’t understand. You have no idea what it’s like to have someone care about you.”
“Plenty of women have cared about me, Ezra. The feelings havenotbeen mutual.”
“Then you don’t know what it’s like to be in?—”
“Hey, guys, what are you talking about so angrily?” Kindra asks as she sets a bottle of water in front of me and takes her seat.
Bennett and I answer in unison. Unfortunately, our responses differ as I shout sports and he cries politics. For people who thrive at concealing their misdeeds, we’re really making a mess of this.
“Sportsandpolitics,” I clarify to Kindra.
“Sounds awfully boring.”
