Page 105 of A Wild Darkness

My head whips around to see Sebastian standing next to the black SUV, with his fists balled at his sides.

“Oh my god, Sebastian!” I shout. “You scared the hell out of me!”

Hayden lowers to grab Pete, who’s already semi-conscious, limp and mumbling.

“Did you kiss him?” Sebastian accuses me sharply, a single dark hair falling over his left eye.

“What?”

“Did you kiss him, Stevie?” he repeats with disdain, as if the question is poisonous leaving his lips.

“N-no.” Caught off guard by his anger, I stumble over my words. “I mean, technically, his lips grazed mine, but we didn’t kiss.”

Sebastian’s eyes darken, and he groans out my name. “Stevie.”

“What was I supposed to do? I needed to distract him so I could put the drugs into his drink!”

“Hate to break this up, lovebirds, but we’ve got to get to the room.” Hayden slams the trunk closed, sealing Pete inside.

Sebastian stares at me for a moment longer before turning his back. “Get in the car.”

Confused and thrown the fuck off, I follow his command and slide into the back seat. Hayden quickly turns out of the alley and drives down two blocks through the small downtown area.

We arrive at a rundown establishment only a couple of minutes later—one you’d only rent by the hour. Hayden parks in front of Room 17, the last one along a strip of hotel room doors with chipped seafoam green paint. The parking lot is not well lit and isn’t somewhere I’d ever want to be alone.

An eerie feeling settles inside my chest as the guys exit the vehicle and go around the back to remove Pete from the trunk. They don’t carry him in, but make him walk instead, which he can barely do. Sebastian and Hayden look like they’re helping out a friend who’s had too much to drink.

I follow quickly behind them.

With one of Pete’s arms over Sebastian and the other, Hayden, they take him into the dark motel room.

The thick, stale air filled with a musty odor infiltrates my nostrils—it’s what I imagine a 1980s living room might smell like. They haven’t updated the interior since that decade either, matching the whole ambiance of the place.

The guys toss Pete’s body onto one of the queen-sized beds. Hayden pulls out a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket and secures one of Pete’s wrists to the metal base of a wall lamp.

“He’s all yours,” Hayden says, opening the door to the hotel. “I’ll be right outside.”

Chewing on my lip, I try to tear my eyes from Sebastian, but I can’t. His entire demeanor has changed once again. This is what it means when there are multiple sides to psychopaths. But I’m not afraid of this side of him either—I want to be closer to it.

“What now?”

Sebastian paces back and forth at the foot of the bed, his eyes narrow on Pete like a lion ready to pounce on its prey. “We didn’t give him much. He’ll regain consciousness soon.”

“Okay. What does that mean?”

“It means I need to act fast.”

I step forward, resting my hand on his forearm. “Should I go so you can…take care of him?”

Sebastian whips his head around. “I’ll shoot him. But first, we’re going to remind him of what he did wrong and why he has to die.”

My lungs rise with a sharp breath. “I should leave.”

“No, I think you need to stay for this.”

I take a moment to replay his words before I respond. “Okay.”

Sebastian walks to the head of the bed, pulls out a small white cylinder no bigger than the size of my pinky from his pocket. Then he snaps it and hovers it under Pete’s nose.