Page 277 of Good Boys Don’t Bite

“What?”

Ronan turned the screen. Elliot read. The color drained from him. For the first time since confessing to five murders, Elliot looked genuinely terrified. Ronan noticed immediately.

“What?”

Elliot didn't answer.

“Why does that scare you?”

Nothing.

“Elliot.”

He looked up.

“That phrase.”

“What about it?”

Elliot swallowed.

“Nobody knows that.”

Ronan frowned.

“Knows what?”

Elliot stared at the message. Then at him.

“I said it to you.”

“When?”

“The first time.”

Ronan’s stomach tightened. He remembered. A bedroom. Elliot’s teeth against his shoulder. Ronan laughing under his breath. Good boys don’t bite. Elliot biting harder just to prove him wrong. Private. No messages. No photographs. No one else. Ronan went cold.

“That was inside.”

“Yes.”

“No open window.”

“No.”

“Phones?”

“Mine was downstairs.”

Ronan remembered. His had been charging on the bathroom counter. The room had been closed. No camera outside could have heard it. No person in a tree. Nothing. Ronan stared at the phone.

“Then how the fuck do they know?”

Elliot slowly looked around the bedroom. Not at the window. At the room. Walls. Smoke detector. Lamp. Outlets. Ronan understood. His stomach dropped.

“They didn’t just watch us.”

Elliot stood. The fear disappeared. Something colder replaced it.