Page 113 of Ice Covered Heart

“Should have kept it in your pants,” Hunter tossed out. “Dumbass. Why would you ever cheat on Shelby?”

“Because she doesn’t put out. Isn’t that obvious? Fucking final girl rule, right? They don’t sleep around. They don’t screw until they get the shiny wedding ring on their—” Nate stopped. Narrowed his eyes on Shelby’s face.

She inhaled. Exhaled. “Hunter and I fucked within twenty-four hours of our first meeting.” Okay, fine, maybe it had been longer than that. Not much, though. “Guess I’m not the perfect final girl any longer, am I? Spoiler, though, I never was.”

His eyes glittered. “Bad move, Shelby. Bad. You break the rules, you pay.”

“How are you going to make me pay when you’re in here?” She was baiting him. Trying to, anyway. She just needed him to reveal…

“I heard a college girl was recently killed at the site of the old sorority house.” Nate’s brows arched. “Bet the real killer did it. The one who has been on the loose all this time while I’ve been locked away in here. Bet, also, that he’d love to get his hands on you.”

She could feel each beat of her heart, so strong that the beats almost shook her body.

“How did you hear that?” Hunter wanted to know.

“I get to watch the TV, genius. Saw the story there. Carried via a local affiliate. Channel Seven.” His forehead scrunched. “Which reminds me. Shamus was supposed to be here today. Where the fuck is he?”

“Does Shamus come visit you often?” Hunter asked.

“Often enough. He knows I’m innocent. Got another appeal going. Sooner or later, I will be out. Especially with the real killer at work again.” He flexed his fingers in the cuffs. “One day, Shelby, you’ll realize I was the hero in this story. I went to the house, found the bodies. Tried to help—that’s why the blood was on my gloves. See, I was riding my motorcycle when I arrived. I always put on my gloves when I’m on the bike. I went in. I found the bodies. I saw you, running through the house with a knife in your hand. I grabbed you, because I could see the blood on you. So much blood…”

She didn’t look away from him.

Hunter kept softly caressing her shoulder.

You are not alone.

“You ran. I guess your nightgown tore when you jerked away from me. You rushed out of the back door.”

She barely breathed.

“I followed you. Someone attacked me. Knocked me out. When I woke up, I thought I was still being attacked. That’s why I cut the cop in the stomach. Why I fought the other one. I was just confused.” Another flex of his fingers. “A confused hero. Maybe I’ll write a book when I get out. Could even get a movie deal out of things. Your ex, uh, what was his name? Andre? He tried to put out a book about you once, didn’t he? But that got squashed.”

Her cheeks felt numb. “How did you know about Andre?”

A slow blink. “Shamus might have mentioned him to me. That Shamus, he is good at digging up interesting details.”

Yes, he seemed to be.

“Where is Andre these days?” Nate cocked his head. “Bet he isn’t happy with the new man being in your life.”

She hadn’t heard from Andre in ages. Once he’d realized she would not cooperate with any book he planned, he’d vanished fast enough from her life. He’d said something about her trauma being too much for him.

“Hey, Shelby.” Nate leaned forward. “Did you ever think…you could be the killer? Andre believed you might be. At least, that’s what Shamus told me.”

She shook her head.

“Think about it,” Nate mused. “You were pissed at Margot. Your best friend fucked your boyfriend. So you go after her with a knife. You just lose it and you kill her. Maybe Aisha or Tonya saw you—you were all on the same hall. That meant you had to take them out, too. And their screams could have alerted the girls downstairs. One after the other, you had to take them all out.” His shackled hands lifted—as high as they could lift—and he pointed to his right ear. “Someone fought back. My money is on Jenna. That girl was a wildcat. Bet she drove the knife into your ear.”

That girl was a wildcat.

Shelby almost vomited. Right there.

Jenna had fought back. Jenna had defensive wounds all over her arms. She’d crawled across the kitchen, a trail of blood…

“Maybe you did everything,” Nate told her. “That’s why you attacked me outside. Why you shot me. Because you were afraid I saw something in the house that made me realize the truth. You were never a victim. You were the killer. It was always you. Sweet Shelby Carter wasn’t the final girl. She was the monster hiding in plain sight.” A sigh. A sad shake of his head. “Guess you just shouldn’t underestimate a woman’s rage, should you?”

“I didn’t kill my friends.”