Dark Lies (House of Sin 2)

There it is.

The one and only single truth … and my downfall all wrapped into one sinful sentence.

Chapter 20

Eli

The night of the murder

After I saw those bruises on Amelia’s skin, I knew exactly what kind of fucker her boyfriend really was. I thought about going up to his apartment to shoot him in the face multiple times, but only my greed stopped me from doing just that. Because if I shot her boyfriend, she would hate me forever, no matter the reason.

Instead, I’ve been waiting out here near her apartment, waiting until he would hurt her again so I could step in.

I stare up at the apartment window, through which I can see the pig watching football on his TV while his girlfriend is off partying at some club, trying to drown in her sorrow. What a fucking waste of space.

I will wait until the end of time if I have to, but I will catch this fucker in his sin, and I will make him pay for his crimes.

Twenty minutes later, he suddenly walks to his door. I don’t see him, but I know it went off. Within minutes, he’s right back at the couch … kissing the same woman who Amelia saw him with. Tiffany.

My fingers dig into the leather seat below me.

It takes every ounce of my self-control not to intervene.

He doesn’t deserve to fuck anyone, let alone Amelia.

Yet for some reason, she still fell for this disgusting pig.

He’s fucking around with Tiffany in the bedroom. I can tell from where the lights switched on and off. I can briefly make out two figures through the blinds before everything goes dark.

I wait in my car, watching the apartment closely for any sign of movement. In the middle of the night, Amelia suddenly comes home. She’s wobbling on her feet, clearly intoxicated as hell.

I frown, watching her as she stumbles into the building, wondering if I should follow her. But something tells me that she needs to see this for herself. She needs to know what kind of man her boyfriend really is.

After a while, the lights go on again.

I peer up through the night sky.

Chris comes out of the bedroom, but then he moves into a spot I can’t see from where I’m at. The sheer pressure of the moment is making me bite my nails.

A panicked squeal follows mere minutes later.

Adrenaline switches on, and I instantly open the car door and rush out, speeding across the road to get to the other side. I swiftly make it into the building and run up the stairs, not giving a shit about the slow elevator. I go up to the apartment and run toward the door, which appears unlocked … only to come to a complete, almost-screeching halt.

Right in front of a dead body.

My eyes widen.

Blood pools everywhere.

But it isn’t Amelia lying there.

It’s Chris.

And Amelia is nowhere to be seen.

A woman wearing only an oversized shirt suddenly stumbles out of the bedroom.

Tiffany.

I immediately march toward her. Right as she opens her mouth to squeal, I cover it with my hand.

“Shh …”

Her eyes grow big. “It’s you.”

“Yes, it’s me,” I reply. I guess she didn’t expect to see me here. “But I didn’t expect to see you here. Did you really have to go that far?”

Her panicked eyes flick back and forth between me and the body.

“Chris,” she murmurs. “I didn’t do this.”

“I know. He’s gone. Now keep quiet. I don’t want to alert the neighbors or her landlord,” I say. “So when I remove my hand, you’re going to sit on that couch and wait. Is that understood?”

Only after she nods do I release her from my grasp.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” she mutters, tiptoeing around like she’s afraid she’s going to mess up a crime scene.

But I won’t ever let this become one.

Because doing so would mean letting Amelia fall into the hands of the cops, and that’s the last thing I want.

There is only one thing that can fix this. Only one thing I can do to make this go away.

With a sigh, I grab my phone from my pocket and dial the number I only call in the biggest of emergencies. “Hey. I need a cleanup crew now. I’ll text the address.” I quickly end the call and send a text as I promised, making sure to note how much time they’re going to get.

It’s not much, but it’ll have to do. I don’t know where she went or when she’ll be back, but this place needs to be spotless when she arrives.

Wherever she is right now, she can’t be far. She’ll eventually come back to see what happened.

Oh, Amelia. If I had known you would go this far to protect yourself, I would’ve intervened much sooner. If only I knew just what kind of monster you kept hidden inside that precious angel heart of yours.