Scarlet Angel (Mindf*ck #3)(23)

“The Boogeyman is dead, and what makes you think it was me or that those were ever my intentions?” I muse, hiding my smile.

“I know it was you. The roses were paid for with a prepaid Visa. Plemmons was done with Lisa, but she’s Logan’s ex, and you chose a poor way to fuck with her.”

“She actually fucked with me first. I just sent her some roses,” I say with a coy grin.

Her face gets redder. “Don’t fuck with my team, Lana. You have too much too lose to play games with us.”

“Us? I’m not playing games with anyone but her, and she started it. She did everything but piss on Logan. And the roses were ages ago. It’s not even a good joke if she doesn’t get it when the guy is still alive. In case you’ve forgotten, I sort of killed him, so she has no reason to be afraid…unless she’s scared of serial killer ghosts.”

I grab a flashlight and shine it under my chin, and Hadley’s eyes narrow to slits. She seriously needs a sense of humor.

“This is crazy stuff. You know that, right?” she snaps.

I roll my eyes, cutting the flashlight off. “No, crazy is being his ex and getting all bitchy toward me. And you said I couldn’t kill anyone who didn’t truly deserve to die. You never said I couldn’t send roses to a girl who was an utter bitch to me.”

“Don’t downplay this,” she hisses. “You sent those roses to terrorize her. Mind fuck her even. The guy carved an actual word into her arm while she was conscious, and he damn near killed her and Elise before Lisa managed to get a few shots off.”

“And missed him,” I remind her. Who can’t shoot a guy that size?

“Grazed him,” she corrects.

“Missed him,” I say again, smirking at the funny little shade of red she continues to turn. “I didn’t miss him. And, again, the guy is dead. The joke isn’t funny now. How ungrateful is she to just now be thanking Logan for the flowers she arrogantly assumed he sent?”

Her mouth opens and closes, and I half wonder if her skull is going to blow off like it does in the cartoons.

“It’s not funny at all! It’s cruel. And wicked. And—”

“Lisa your bestie?”

“No,” she says, frowning.

“Saved your life or something?”

She shakes her head.

“Do you even like her?”

Her eyes narrow, but she doesn’t respond to that question.

“I’ll take that as a no. So why the self-righteous, indignant act over me poking a little fun at a bully bitch? I couldn’t outright put her in her place, so yes, I fucked with her head a little. And it wasn’t even a good head-fucking because she caught onto the joke too late. No harm. No foul.”

“It’s the fact you targeted one of our team members, and you don’t even realize how sick and twisted your joke was.”

My smile vanishes. “I could have sent her a pig’s heart or something, if you want sick and twisted. I could have sent a bouquet that spelled KEEP. I could have sent her the twisted Russian song of the Boogeyman. I sent her roses, Hadley. A tiny little mind fuck, as you like to call it. That’s all. I spared her, if you really think about it. We both know I could be a lot colder.”

Her look pales a little.

“No,” I groan, rolling my eyes. “That was not me threatening to kill her.”

She drops to the bed, running a hand through her hair. “This is too much. You’re too much.”

“You’re overreacting to some roses. Calm down, Hadley. If you didn’t want the truth, you shouldn’t have searched for answers.”

She looks up, and genuine exhaustion shines in her eyes.

“Logan’s morals aren’t as skewed as mine, Lana. If you really love him, you’ll stop this quest for revenge. Let us try to figure out a way to take the others down. We can—”

“Take down an entire police force? Take down rapists whose word will be against mine? The daughter of a convicted serial killer who was wrongly profiled by one of your own?” I deadpan.

“Logan knows the profile was wrong,” she says, shocking me.

She studies my face.

“This is the first you’ve heard of it, isn’t it?”

I nod, slowly lowering myself to the seat.

“You really don’t ask him any questions about your case, do you?”

I glare at her this time. “If I wanted to know what you all knew, I’d have Jake hack the cameras. I don’t need to use my boyfriend or betray him like that. I hate lying to him as it is.”

“No more games on my team members,” she says, frustrated.

“Only if she leaves me alone,” I tell her, watching her as she thinks that over.

“Nothing so morbid.”

I shrug, grinning. “I have a morbid sense of humor. And I’m territorial. At least I didn’t piss in the roses before sending them.”

She studies me; I grin at her.

“You’re so confusing, and I stupidly think you really do love him.”

“I do love him,” I tell her on a long sigh.

“Nice to know.” Logan’s voice has us both screeching, and Hadley actually drops to the floor.

Logan grins at her as she bounces back up to her feet. If he’s grinning, then he missed all the important bits about me being a killing psycho, right?