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I catch up to her with ease, grabbing her arm and wrenching her toward me. She does her best to squirm away, beating at my chest.
“You killed him,” she shouts, tears falling from her eyes.
Grabbing both of her arms, I pin them at her sides. “He deserved to die.”
She lets out a sharp laugh. Bitter. Afraid. “And you’re the one who gets to decide that? Why did you push him into the pool?” As she says the words, she starts to struggle again, but I shove her against the house.
“Why didn’t you jump in to save him?” My voice is calm, the meaning behind my words ruthless. You wanted him dead, too.
Sophia stills, letting out a small breath. She glares up at me, and even though her tears are still flowing and her chest is heaving from panic, I can’t stop thinking about her lips. Perfect, pink, small. So sweet.
“Fuck you,” she whispers.
“You know I’m not a good person, little bird. You fell for me anyway.”
She winces, and I regret my words immediately.
She’ll never trust her judgment again.
Her voice breaks as she says, “I wish I never had.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SOPHIA
I FEEL sick as Dominic drives me back to his house.
Watching Dominic shoot Tristan? It was terrible, yes, but Dom did what he had to do to save Xan. But watching Tristan drown? Watching him die?
I shiver. I don’t know how anyone could look at another human being and decide to end their life.
As if he can read my mind, Dominic clears his throat. “Please just remember that Tristan was a man who literally kidnapped children and sold them into sex slavery.”
I nod. Maybe Xander is right—Tristan deserved to die. Hell, he probably deserved worse. But who are we to decide that?
“As for Francis...” Dominic grimaces.
We’d made it to Xander’s backyard just in time to hear Tristan talking about Francis’s death. More specifically, how Xander had killed him.
“I thought he crashed his boat and fell off while he was drunk,” I say, my voice small. But even as the words leave my mouth, it all clicks into place.
No witnesses. Easy enough to fake if you know what you’re doing.
“Francis was a terrible man, Soph. He hurt Everly. And you saw what he did to Brooke when we were kids.”
I sink down into my seat. “He also destroyed my father.”
As I stare at the passing houses, a thought slips into my head, unwarranted and unwanted. What if Xander killed him for me?
The timing adds up. Xander made it clear that Francis was the reason we had to break up. And not even six months after his death, there was Xander, invading my life and taking up all of my spare thoughts.
However much I hate the thought of Xander murdering people, there’s a part of me that craves the safety of loving a man who’ll go to the ends of the earth to keep me safe.
But it’s not enough. Xander is a cold-blooded killer. And I want nothing to do with a man like that.
Once we’re back at Dominic’s house, I disappear into my room and lock the door. The Graysons convinced Xander to spend the night here, just in case David comes around, and I have no desire to see him.
Not now, and not ever again.
