Page 66 of Devil May Lie
He’d had the chance to catch her but he hadn’t because she’d told him not to get anything dirty, yet here they both were, drenched in blood anyway. He was a dummy.
And judging by the loathing and disgust swirling in his father’s gaze when he looked over at him, their father knew it too.
“Butcher,” a new voice purred from the dark corner of the basement, the only area where the light swinging above them didn’t reach. “You look badass and dangerous.”
Berga frowned, mind blanking for a moment, unable to understand what was happening because…that wasn’t right. There hadn’t been anyone else with them at the house that day—
That day.
That day sixteen years ago.
This was a dream.
Almost as soon as he realized it, Madden stepped from the shadows. He was in his military training pants and boots but shirtless. The look he settled on Berga was kind despite the man’s overpowering stature—almost comforting. He crouched down, still a ways away, and smiled softly. His hair looked pretty as always. Sparkling in the basement’s golden, swinging light.
Berga wanted to touch it. But there was still blood on his hands.
“Planning on experimenting on me, Butcher?” Madden asked. “Mad Scientist? We can be mad together, what do you think?”
His parents were still screaming and crying, clinging to his sister’s corpse, but their sounds were getting harder to hear the more Madden spoke in that low drawl of his. It was confusing. Everything jumbled together, not making any sense.
“Butcher,” Madden’s gaze dropped to the blood-stained t-shirt Berga was wearing. “You look badass and dangerous.”
“That’s not…” He shook his head and dared turning back to his father. “He thinks I’m disgusting.” Unlovable.
“You look badass and dangerous.”
“No, I—”
“Should we help him?” another voice, this one more challenging to place and coming from nowhere yet everywhere all at once.
“He told us to protect the Butcher,” a reply from someone else, harried and clearly concerned.
“Yeah, but Madden is outnumbered down there! What if he’s injured or—”
Berga frowned at the dream Madden, who didn’t look the least bit concerned about what the voices were saying. “What’s going on?”
“I think it’s sexy,” he said. “I think you’ve never looked hotter than you do right now.”
When he glanced back at himself, Berga was no longer his six-year-old self but fully grown and dressed in his school uniform.
Because this was a dream, and everything Madden was saying was just repeats of things he’d said in the real world. But those other voices…Ah. One of them belonged to one of the racers Berga had walked in on that first night he and Madden had hooked up. The other was Bay.
He was fairly certain they hadn’t said anything then about Madden being outnumbered, which most likely meant…
He needed to wake up.
He needed to wake up.
Chapter 17:
Madden’s bike was still burning.
Kind of like his insides, though he called upon that steely calm façade his father had beaten into both him and his sister—one of them successfully—since they were kids. The Odells had appearances to keep, after all, and losing your temper wasn’t a good look.
Odd, considering murder was totally cool and acceptable behavior, but whatever. Madden didn’t make the rules, he merely surprised everyone by attempting to play by them.
For the most part.