Page 146 of Hide And Seek

“She knew how much I cared for her, because believe it or not, people like mecanfeel love. And she knew I’d never break a promise to her. So she made me promise I would never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.” A faint, almost reflective smile crossed his face. “And I agreed. It seemed reasonable enough. A fair trade-off for a relatively stable life. So I never hurt anyone.”

“Until this year, you mean.”

“That’s right.” He leaned forward again, lips curving into a smirk. “I can’t even tell you how fucking good it feels to finally have the chance to act on it.”

I dragged a hand over my face, suddenly exhausted again. “I guess that answers my next question, then,” I said. “I was going to ask how you could butcher people or run them off cliffs and not feel any guilt. But now I get it. You're a sociopath.”

“The correct term is actually antisocial personality disorder. And you know, it could be worse.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. I could be one of those guys who kills anyone and anything, just for fun.” He cocked his head again. “Then you wouldn’t be safe here at all. But you are. I’d never,everlet anything happen to you, Alissa.”

I should’ve felt relieved hearing that.

Instead, a strange heaviness settled in my chest. Because every new thing Rhys revealed about himself made him harder to reduce into something simple.

And Iwantedhim to be simple. I wanted him to be the kind of monster people talked about on true crime documentaries. Empty-eyed. Cruel. Sadistic in every direction. The sort of man who would kill anyone just to watch them bleed.

But he wasn’t like that.

He’d protected me. He’d kept Jasmine alive too. He’d spent years forcing himself not to hurt anyone at all. And apparently he was also capable of love.

If he was just pure evil, then hating him would’ve been easy. Instead, I was trapped in this horrible gray area where part of me could still see the man I’d been falling for before I learned the truth.

Worse, some traitorous part of me still had those feelings, coupled with a sense of relief that he wasn’t the worst kind of psychopath after all.

The thought made me feel sick.

But… not sick enough to stop noticing the way his voice softened when he looked at me. Or the intelligence and care in his eyes. Or the intense steadiness that always seemed to radiate from him, even now.

Maybe that was what made him so dangerous. Not that he was incapable of humanity, but that he still possessed enough of it to make people forget what he was capable of.

“I’d never let anything happen to another innocent person, either,” he went on. “It’s like I said. I would only ever kill someone who deserved it. And child murderers? They deserve it. No question.”

I frowned, mind suddenly whirling again. “Well, speaking of that… I’m assuming your plan was to leave all the Dirtbags alone, right?”

“Of course. They had nothing to do with what happened to Carly.”

“But they still could’ve gotten hurt,” I pointed out. “Like, what about the harpoon trap? How could you possibly know Delia would be the one to walk into it?”

“I didn’t. But whenever someone at Blackpine talked about making a late-night run to the Snack Shed, nine times out of ten, it was Delia.” A faint smirk tugged at his mouth. “She had aserious sweet tooth. So statistically speaking, she was the safest bet.”

“Right,” I muttered.

“But I still accounted for the possibility that one of the Dirtbags might go instead,” he continued. “I paid attention to everyone around the fire that night. If one of the Dirtbags had gotten up and said they were heading to the Snack Shed, I would’ve jumped up and gone with them.”

“And then what?”

“I would’ve walked slightly ahead and triggered the trap myself,” he said. “I knew exactly where it was and when it would fire, so I could’ve ducked out of the way and dragged the other person down with me. Then I would’ve looked like the quick-thinking hero who saved their life. Right?”

I stared at him for a second before rolling my eyes in disgust. “And the river thing? How could you possibly know Logan would be the one to get blown up?”

“That one was easy.” Rhys rubbed at his jaw. “Logan and Chris are the camp’s resident boat guys. Or were, I should say. If anyone was going to try escaping by water, it was always going to be one of them.”

“Right,” I muttered.

“I’ve been planning this for a long time, Alissa. I always had fail-safes in place, just in case, so no innocent people ever had to die.”