The Merciless (The Merciless #1)(47)

Grabbing the wine bottle, I stand and slip out of the alcove, placing a hand on Riley’s shoulder.

“She’s messing with you,” I say, squeezing Riley’s arm. I lift the wine bottle to my mouth and tip it back, but I keep my lips tight to keep from drinking the drugged wine. I pretend to swallow as I lower the bottle. “She wants you and Alexis to tear each other apart.”

“Give me that.” Riley’s face is blank as she rips the bottle from my hands. She stares down at it for a long moment. Across from us, Alexis sinks to the floor. She sobs quietly, her hands curled into fists around her hair.

“You’re right.” Riley smiles as she turns the wine bottle in her hand, watching the liquid slosh up against the sides. “We have to trust each other.”

“Exactly,” I say. “We can’t let Brooklyn come between us.”

Riley’s smile immediately disappears. “We can’t let Brooklyn come between us,” she repeats. She lingers on Brooklyn’s name and tightens her grip around the bottle.

Grace weaves her fingers together. She glances at me nervously, but I won’t look at her. I can’t tear my eyes away from Riley.

Riley shifts her eyes back up to me. They’re the eyes of a predator: dead and calculating.

“Didn’t realize you were a big drinker,” she says, lifting the bottle.

“What?” I swallow, waiting, but Riley holds the wine just below her mouth. The glass brushes against her lower lip.

“The wine,” she says. “You seem more interested in it all of the sudden.”

“I guess I’m just thirsty,” I say.

Riley inhales the scent of the wine, closing her eyes. “Me, too,” she murmurs. She tips the bottle back and the wine slides forward. I hold my breath, but the second seems to stretch for an eternity. Sweat breaks out along my palms.

Just before she drinks, Riley’s eyes flicker back open.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” she whispers. My throat goes dry.

“Of course not.”

Riley lowers the bottle. “What did you put in here?”

Dread creeps into my gut. “I . . .”

Riley heaves the wine bottle across the room. It shatters against the wall just a few feet from where Alexis is crouched, spraying the floor with glass. Alexis flinches, throwing her hands over her face. The thick liquid oozes down the boards behind her head, but the wood drinks the wine before it slides to the floor, leaving behind a deep red stain.

“You tell me you want me to trust you, but you’re lying to me!” Riley screams.

“Riley, I didn’t . . . ,” I say.

“Shut up!” Riley says. Alexis releases another loud sob, and Riley’s face twists. She whirls around to face her.

“None of us feel sorry for you!” she yells. “You deserve to suffer. You’re a monster.”

Something in Alexis snaps when Riley screams that last word at her. The light drains from her eyes, leaving her skin hollow and pale. The final sob dies on her lips, and her mouth hangs open—shocked.

“Lexie.” Grace takes a step toward her, but Alexis pushes herself to her feet and races from the room. The rickety ladder shakes and moans as she climbs to the second floor.

“You bitch, I told you not to leave.” Riley pushes past Grace and tears down the ladder after Alexis. Alexis’s sobs echo below us. Her bare feet slap against the floor as she drops from the ladder and starts to run.

“Should we go after them?” Grace asks.

As an answer, I head for the ladder. I shouldn’t be so worried. Alexis has been almost as bad as Riley this whole time. She put her sister in a coma. I should leave the two of them together—they deserve each other.

Still, I can’t get Alexis’s broken expression out of my mind.

Riley drops to the floor, causing the ladder to shake. I grip the banister to keep from falling.

“You’re as bad as Brooklyn!” Riley shouts, tearing down the hallway. “Maybe we should exorcise you next.”

My heart thuds in my chest as my shoe slips on a blood-coated rung. I smack my chin on the ladder before managing to catch myself. Black stars blossom before my eyes.

“Get back here, psycho!” Riley trips over a beer bottle and falls, hitting the ground on her knees. Alexis races into the master bedroom. Riley pushes herself back to her feet.

“Riley, wait!” Stomach turning, I jump to the second floor. The shock jolts through my legs, but I don’t pause long enough to notice. I reach for Riley’s shoulder, but she whips around on me.

“This has nothing to do with you,” she spits out, pushing me. I slam against the wall.

“Riley,” I groan, but she follows Alexis into the master bedroom and shuts the door in my face. I grab the doorknob, but it won’t turn. Grace runs up behind me, breathless.

“Locked,” I say. “From the inside.”

Grace wiggles the doorknob, but it holds tight. She swears under her breath, then pounds against the door with her open hand.

“Riley! Let us in.”

No one answers. I picture Riley pushing Brooklyn below the water in the bathtub, Riley peeling away Brooklyn’s fingernail and letting it fall to the floor in the basement.

“Riley wouldn’t hurt Alexis, right?” I ask.

Grace swallows and presses her lips together. “I don’t know what Riley would do.”