Page 152 of Hide And Seek

“Wait.” I lifted a hand. “Back up a second. What was the original plan?”

Rhys rubbed at his jaw for a few seconds, like he was mentally sorting through the version of events he’d almost used. Then he shifted a little closer to me on the bed.

“There was a story I planned to tell once all of this was over,” he said. “The idea was that the fake death scheme was actually Zach’s. He pitched it to me and Knox as a way to lure out the killer or catch him off guard. I’d play the dead guy while the two of them handled everything else.”

“Okay,” I said slowly.

“We went along with it, thinking it was a good idea, and it seemed fine for the first day. Then I woke up one morninghandcuffed to that.” He gestured toward one of the thick wooden support beams that separated the sleeping area from the rest of the room. “I was completely out of it. That was when I realized I’d been drugged.”

A chill slid down my spine as I glanced toward the beam.

“Then Zach came in and told me Knox had outlived his usefulness, so he’d killed him,” Rhys continued. His voice stayed calm, almost detached. “Apparently I was more useful alive for the time being. That was when I finally realized what he was doing. He was the killer, and he was setting me up to take the fall for everything. Eventually he’d kill me too and stage it as a suicide.”

I nodded slowly. “Right.”

“He kept me sedated enough that fighting back or trying to escape wasn’t really an option. The only time he uncuffed me was when he dragged me to the bathroom once a day, and even then I could barely stand upright,” he said. “Then one night he came in to feed me and dose me again. Enough of the previous drugs had worn off that I had a little strength back, and I noticed he had a gun tucked into his pocket. So I waited until he got close enough, grabbed it, and shot him. Self-defense.”

I stared at him for a second. “Wouldn’t the hospital run a tox screen on you?” I asked skeptically. “To confirm whether you’d actually been drugged?”

Rhys flashed me a wolfish grin. Then he stood and crossed the room to one of the drawers near the table. After rummaging around for a moment, he returned holding a small syringe between his fingers.

“This is midazolam,” he replied. “Fast-acting benzodiazepine. Strong sedative. I was going to inject myself with it before the cops or paramedics arrived so it’d show up in my bloodstream.”

“So then the tox screen would support your story.”

“Exactly.”

I slowly shook my head. “How the hell did you even get something like that? Did you rob a hospital or something?”

“Dark web.” His mouth twitched, and he rolled the syringe lazily between his fingers. “Using accounts and shipping details connected to Zach, obviously.”

“Right,” I muttered.

Rhys tucked the syringe back into the drawer and shut it again. “Anyway, like I said, that plan doesn’t work anymore.”

“Because of me. And Jasmine.”

He nodded. “You two know too much,” he said, returning to his spot on the bed. “You know the fake death scheme only involved me and Knox, and you also know I was never drugged or held captive by Zach. So there’s no way I could sell that story to the cops, because the two of you would tell them a completely different version of events.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That definitely would’ve fallen apart.”

“So.” Rhys shifted even closer on the bed, his knee brushing mine. “For the sake of clarity, I’m going to explain the new version as if you’ve already agreed to help me.”

A flicker of unease passed through me. “Okay.”

“Knox and I staged the fake deaths together. You and Jasmine discovered what we were doing, but you agreed not to tell the others because you thought it might help flush out the real killer.”

I gave him a slow nod.

“Every night, I went into the woods alone to search for him,” Rhys continued. “One night, I spotted someone in a mask chasing another person through the trees. I tried to follow, but I lost them in the dark. I kept searching anyway, and that’s when I started finding bodies.” His eyes flicked briefly toward me. “Jensen. Chris. Grace. Sutton. Then eventually I found you,dangling upside down from a tree. You’d been caught in one of the killer’s traps.”

“Sounds familiar,” I muttered.

“You were unconscious but still alive. So I cut you down and brought you back here to the cabin to recover.”

I raised a brow. “Why wouldn’t you take me back to the main group?”

“Because by then I suspected the killer was one of the counselors.” Rhys rubbed absently at his jaw. “There was something familiar about the way he moved when I saw him running through the woods. I couldn’t place it exactly, but I knew it had to be someone from camp.” His gaze settled back on me. “And if I’d taken you back to the group…”