Paint It All Red (Mindf*ck #5)(16)

He shrugs. “She’s cool. Hacker like me, only not as good as me because she got caught.”

“I was a kid!” I hear Hadley yell, admitting her eavesdropping.

I try not to smile. “And you’re not a lesbian?” I ask.

She walks into the bathroom, her hair a red disarray of wildness. Her clothes are not exactly on right, as though she hurriedly got dressed.

“I told you I wasn’t. I like women, but I’ve been put off by men for a long time. Since you killed Ferguson…some of the unease has lifted. Tonight I met Jake, already knew he was the same as me, and…well, you know what happened in the end.”

“Can we discuss this when I’m finished washing off the judge and deputy?” I ask dryly.

Jake grimaces, his eyes flicking warily to Hadley, but she just shrugs. “You’ve seen what I’m working with. It’s only fair I see what you have.”

I’d laugh under normal circumstances, but I haven’t thawed enough for that yet.

Jake, however, snickers under his breath, seeming to relax at her casual reaction.

“Later. What’s up? Why’d you track us down? And more importantly, how’d you find us?”

She flicks her gaze to Jake. “He’s not as good as he thinks he is.”

She smiles sweetly at him, her double entendre clear, and he arches a challenging eyebrow at her.

“Alright then. Jake, make sure no one else can find us the same way she did.”

Hadley bats her hand. “I’m way better than Alan, and he’s the only one who would be tracking you. No way will he find you the way I did.”

Her phone goes off, and she checks it. Her frown forms immediately.

“What?” Jake asks her, peering over at her phone.

I expect her to shield it from him, but she hands it to him instead. “Guess I need to borrow a brush,” she says to me. “And some clothes. Thor over there ripped my pants open, and now the zipper is gone. My shirt has something on it too. I’ll spare you the guessing game as to what.”

I groan while waving my hand in her general direction. “Take what you need. But I hope you look good in red.”

She curses before flicking her red hair. “Red is the one color I can’t pull off. Every shade clashes with this. I thought you had a black hoodie or something.”

“My black hoodies are kill shirts, and probably have traces of blood on them. Not a good idea to wear them.”

She spins and walks out, plucking her phone back out of Jake’s hand on her way. I look at him questioningly.

“They already found the judge and the deputy.”

A smile curves my lips. “Good. Now the real fun begins.”





Chapter 5


False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

—William Shakespeare



LOGAN



“What do we know?” I ask Leonard, peeling the glove off.

“You mean besides the fact the sheriff is trying to get us the hell out of here? Not much.”

Johnson eyes me from across the room, pure hatred in his glare. I ignore him.

He knows I’m close to digging up hard evidence against him. It’s just a matter of time.

“I think that message was meant for you,” Leonard whispers as my eyes lift from the gory remains of Deputy Murdock.

My eyes flit up to the message he’s pointing out.



They stole. They lied. They brokered peace with the devil in exchange for the souls of an innocent family. Yet you call me the monster.

Fuck you. <3



The little heart on the end is definitely a signature Lana used to leave for me. Apparently she’s going to personalize these kills now, even address them to me without using my name.

“I silenced her, so now she’s getting her words in,” I say quietly.

Leonard looks around, making sure no one is close enough to overhear.

“This is quite literally a ‘fuck you’ message. It’s not rage or even a threat to us. She’s just basically sounding like a true ex. People might do the math.”

“No one here knows Lana and I broke up. I told the others she went back home because I convinced her it wasn’t safe.”

“What happens when people see her in town?”

I lean back, surveying the damage to the neck of Judge Thomas. I doubt it’s a coincidence his son came back to town today, and Lana decided to kill the father tonight.

“She won’t be seen,” I say absently. “Dev Thomas was there that night, and he seemed certain he’d been spared when he talked to us earlier. I think she paid him a visit when he arrived in town today.”

“Why?”

“To see why he was here.”

He looks confused, but I don’t want to talk in front of everyone.

“I shouldn’t be involving you in this and forcing you to—”

“You’re not forcing me to do anything,” Leonard says on a sigh. “Like I said, I get why she’s doing it. This town has been killing and torturing people for years, and no one even cared about it until her.”

I start to say something else, but Donny walks up, silencing our private conversation.

“So our unsub goes from quoting Voltaire to leaving a crude ‘fuck you’ message with a heart? Maybe you were right about it being a female, but why bother with the men’s boot prints if you’re going to leave a heart signature?”