Jaded (Jaded #1)

“Corrigan will live. Shoot him,” I ordered.

Bryce’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say or do anything.

“No! Don’t shoot, man! Please—don’t shoot!” Corrigan said frantically.

“Shoot him!” I barked with clenched fists.

“Don’t shoot!” Corrigan cried out.

Marcus’ laugh halted everything and it was a heinous evil sound. It sounded unnatural, but then again—he was insane. I saw it, plain as day, and I wondered how I hadn’t noticed it before.

“You didn’t come for the Party Packs this morning, did you?” I asked.

Marcus turned his attention towards me and pretended to slice and dice the air. He still held Corrigan as a shield.

Bryce distracted him, “You have no chance, man. It’s three to one and I’ve got a gun to your knife.”

“And I’ve got a back to my knife.” Marcus nudged Corrigan ahead, a jerking step.

“I think you might have some penance to pay, you know, since you thought he was the killer.”

“I didn’t—”

“What?!” Corrigan asked sharply.

“Well—I didn’t know,” Bryce said just as sharp.

“I’m your best friend!” Corrigan cried out.

“I know!”

“And you thought…” Corrigan glanced at me and cursed. “That’s low, dude.

That’s really…messed up.”

“There were reasons.” Bryce gestured towards the computer screen.

I stepped closer and murmured, cautious and dangerous, “You were here last night.”

Marcus held my gaze.

“And you saw what we were doing.”

“It was pretty ingenious,” Marcus admitted, but smiled victoriously. “I have to admit that. Finding the feeds in the first place was your lucky break.”

“And you routed the feed to Corrigan’s home, didn’t you?”

“Why are you asking when you already know?” Marcus whispered smoothly.

“I notice everything.”

I lashed out, “You notice everything, pervert, because you install videos to watch!

You don’t notice anything—you violate everything!”

Marcus chuckled and relinquished, “The hours I’ve watched you, Sheldon Jeneve, Ruling Queen and Princess Entwined.”

This wasn’t a fairytale and I wasn’t some dark princess. “Shut up!” I snarled.

“You’re so cool and cold to the world, but in the bedroom—that’s where you’re hot. Passionate. That’s where the real Sheldon Jeneve lives and I knew…I had to see the real Sheldon Jeneve. I had to see who she was.” He smiled, tenderly, “And you knew, didn’t you? I felt it. You knew I was watching and you performed for me.”

Corrigan grimaced, disgusted.

Bryce’s jaw was locked in place.

I waited and watched the end of the gun barrel. I was looking for the smoke to uncurl itself and to feel Marcus’ dead body slump to the floor.

It never came.

Marcus wasn’t done.

“You need a lover’s touch,” he whispered, silkily. “You’re left unsatisfied. That’s why you sought solace by Denton Steele, but he didn’t last. He didn’t satisfy you and you returned to him, but he’s not the touch that you want and yearn for. It’s not his touch.”

“I’m going to puke,” Corrigan muttered.

Marcus touched the tip of his knife to Corrigan’s back and he smiled at me, “You weren’t like the others.”

Disgust competed with rage inside of me. I didn’t know which would win.

“You were the only one who came to me. All the others never came, like I was beneath them, only there for them to walk on, but not you. You always came and you smiled. You were nice.”

“Yeah,” Corrigan cracked a joke. “Look where all the niceness got you now, Sheldon.”

“Shut up,” I whispered. I asked Marcus, “What are you talking about?”

Bryce answered instead, intense, “You’re the only girl that goes to the Eatery.

None of the other girls go there. It’s why we go there, Donadeli.”

His contempt was whiplash. Marcus wasn’t happy to be addressed by his competition and he stabbed his best friend. At Corrigan’s sudden cry in pain, Marcus snarled, “You do not address me. You are beneath me.”

“Beneath you?” Bryce asked, a taunt.

And Corrigan cried out louder, “Shut up, man. Just—shut up.”

Blood had started to drip on the floor. It ran the course of Corrigan’s jeans and a small droplet pooled on the wood flooring.

I asked hoarsely, “Why’d you kill Leisha and Bailey? Why them?”

“I was wondering when you’d ask me that and I’d hoped for a more intimate moment between us. Here, with these two, it’s not the right time for those answers. I’m sorry, Sheldon Jeneve, but it’s not the right context.”

Screw context.

I yelled now, “Why’d you kill them, you sick bastard?!”

That was the moment Marcus Donadeli woke up, where he blinked and saw the reality that screamed in his face.

I was the reality and I was screaming in his face.