Page 216 of I Will Break You
“Second question. Whose idea was it to target Amethyst Crowley?”
“Who is that?” he asks.
“The woman who runs the official Xero fan club,” I snarl. “The woman who was supposed to die instead of Lizzie Bath.”
Disbelief etches across his features. His eyes bulge, and his mouth gapes like a fish struggling for air. It looks like the gears in his head are turning to propel his brain toward the truth. With each shocked gasp, he tries to form words but only manages a strangled moan.
“You’re…”
“What?” I snarl.
“Y-You’re that killer who went viral on social media. The one whose execution we broadcasted.”
“And?”
“But you’re supposed to be dead.”
I turn to Camila. “Help him focus on my question.”
Harlan screams so loud my ears ring, although this time, I’m not sure it’s all about the pain. Now that it’s clear he’s not in the clutches of law-abiding vigilantes, I expect him to be more cooperative.
“Don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me. It wasn’t my idea to go after her.”
“Then whose?” I snarl.
“Dolly’s!” he screams.
Leaning down, I glare into his hazel eyes, waiting for him to calm. Harlan thrashes from side to side, already panicking in the throes of his impending death. He’s probably worked out that the infamous killer, Xero Greaves, won’t take kindly to pornographers killing or targeting the women who campaigned for his humane treatment on Death Row.
I’m usually a patient man, but not when I’m missing out on the chance to sleep with my little ghost.
“Focus,” I hiss and snap my fingers in front of his eyes. “Why does Dolly want her dead?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Not to me,” I snarl.
“They’re related. Dolly resents Amethyst enough to have her killed.”
“Why?”
“She flaunts her luxury lifestyle on social media. I mean, she raises funds, gets lavish gifts, and earns hundreds of thousandsfrom her millions of followers. That’s bound to stir up some jealousy.”
I scoff. “Bullshit.”
“I don’t get to question the boss’s wife. I just manage the content. Maybe Dolly hates the fact that there’s someone out there who looks exactly like her, only younger, fresher, and untouched.”
“She must have hinted something.”
“Fuck!” he screams. “Dolly and Delta are money-obsessed. Maybe the reason was financial.”
Like freeing up some real estate? Or riding the wave of an execution they’re still debating on the news and social media? I straighten, my heart plummeting to my stomach. We had Melonie Crowley in our grasp. She was under our noses this entire time, yet I dismissed her as irrelevant.
Melonie Crowley, whose daughter is her spitting image, only younger and more beautiful. The woman who treats her criminally insane daughter like a burden she must lock away in a proverbial tower.
The woman desperate to auction off her house, leaving her only daughter destitute.
I should have killed her when I had the chance.