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“We were working on a serial killer case. I think Rob found out something that can help us identify a suspect. That is why he was murdered.”

I snort, and her hands tighten again.

“You said you’d tell me. Now speak.”

“I said I’d tell you what I know.”

I lean in closer to her, enjoying every fucking second of this.

“ I know nothing,” I say in a whisper.

It has the exact response I’m searching for when she raises her hand to slap me.

I see it then…she wasn’t just sleeping with Rob. It wasn’t a fling or a hookup. Jen Hiller was and is completely and totally in love with him. What a fool. Rob was using her as much as he was using me. The only difference…I was using him back.

The funniest part of this entire situation is that she has the Dahlia Killer right in her grasp.

I killed Rob, but it will never be proven. I’m the Dahlia Killer, and no one has a single lead because I’m that thorough. She wants the information I gave Rob on the way to Alden’s birthday. He must have sent her a message. Fools both of them. That information is useless. They would’ve been chasing their tails for weeks, if not months, and meanwhile I was just trying to seem helpful.

Everything I told Rob is a hundred percent accurate. Each breeder has certain flowers that are one hundred percent their own strain unique to them, like a signature or fingerprint.

But no one will ever find that particular flower signature because I grow my own. I painstakingly cultivated a distinctive strain, and no one but me knows where I grow. And because I’m not an idiot, I never use those flowers in arrangements. They have two purposes…my poison and my calling card. That’s it.

Even if I tell Jen, it will make no difference, but that isn’t the point anymore. Watching the cool and perfectly put-together detective lose herself is far too entertaining.

Everything she’s hunting, all the answers she’s after, and all the revenge she’s plotting…and she’s clueless. The irony makes me giddy like a happy drug in my system, and I’m not giving it up.

Fuck Rob. He was just like his father and deserved what he got.

Fuck Jen. She dares to put on a police badge and say she stands for law and justice while sleeping with a man who is with someone else. Then she tries to set me up for assault because of that same man? She makes good officers look bad and doesn’t deserve to wear a badge.

Karma is a bitch, and it’s going to bite her in the ass in three…two…the door opens just as Jen’s hand strikes me across the face.

Alden is here. But Jen’s been too preoccupied to notice the two people who just arrived outside the door.

I grab the side of my face and cry out, putting far more into the performance than necessary. I’m far from a helpless victim, but sometimes…just sometimes…it’s the perfect card to play.

“What the hell is going on in here, Detective?”

The door bangs open and the captain’s voice booms through the room. Jen jumps back while Alden rushes around the table.

He cups my face, and I’m reminded of the night he saved me from his father. His piercing blue eyes are filled with the same concern.

“Are you okay?”

His fingers are soft on my cheek as I move my hand away to show him the red handprint.

“Yeah, it just stings. I’ll be fine.” I lay my hand over his. “Thank you for coming,” I say, ignoring the argument on the other side of the small interrogation room.

Jen frantically tries to explain that I have information on the case and that I provoked her. No matter what she says, she’ll be suspended for this, maybe fired. I really don’t care which. I’ll get my own justice. Police officers, even detectives, can’t assault someone in their custody, and she just did it in front of her superior.

Naughty, naughty Jen.

It’ll probably make her unstable and reckless. Reckless Jen is good.

Besides…if I don’t neutralize her, Alden will. I can see the rage under the worry, and know that despite his strict code on kills, he’ll tip the scales for me with a little push.

“Go wait in my office, right now,” the captain orders.