Page 161 of Hide And Seek

Zach shifted. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you up,” Rhys said. “You did what we asked, and now you get to stretch your arms and legs as a reward.”

“Wow, thanks,” Zach muttered.

The last knot came loose, and his legs uncurled awkwardly as circulation rushed back into them. Rhys caught him before he could tip sideways and hauled him upright, steadying him just long enough for his weight to settle.

“Don’t worry, it’s not your only reward,” Rhys said, untying his wrists. “I’ve got something good in store for you.”

“What?”

Rhys smiled thinly. “You won’t be going to prison after all.”

Zach’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re letting me—”

Before he could say another word, Rhys raised the pistol to his forehead, and a gunshot exploded through the bathroom.

Zach’s head snapped sideways, the back of it striking the wall with a sickening crack before his whole body crumpled to the floor. One second he was standing there breathing, staring at us in disbelief, and the next there was nothing left in his face at all. Just dead weight sprawled against the tiles, blood already spreading beneath him.

My stomach lurched so hard I thought I might throw up.

Rhys caught me by the wrist immediately. “Stay very still,” he said softly. “Don’t move at all.”

With that, he turned around, gaze sweeping the bathroom with quick calculation. Then he lifted the gun again, and another deafening shot cracked through the room.

The bullet tore into the wall beside the mirror. Then another into the ceiling.

Glass exploded outward as the next round pierced the tiny bathroom window. I jerked at every shot, shoulders tightening harder each time while the smell of gunpowder rapidly thickened the air.

By the time Rhys finally lowered the pistol, the bathroom looked chaotic enough for the police to believe that a real struggle for the gun had taken place in here.

He glanced around, face expressionless. Then he looked down at the gun in his hand for a second before turning toward me.

He held it out. “I need you to shoot me now.”

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard him. “What?”

“No one’s going to buy that Zach fired multiple shots at us in such a small space and somehow missed both of us completely,” Rhys said. “The story works a hell of a lot better if one of us actually got hit. And I’m sure as fuck not letting it be you.”

I just stared at him.

“So it’s gotta be me,” he went on. “Now shoot me.”

My mouth had gone dry. “Rhys, I can’t—”

“Upper left arm,” he cut in. “Clean through if you can. We’re at close range, so it should be easy.”

Easy.

My hand shook as he pressed the pistol into it.

It would be unbelievably easy to kill him right now. One slight shift to the left and I could put a bullet straight through his heart before he even had time to react. He knew that. And yet, after everything he’d done, after all the bodies and blood andhorror of the last week, he was willingly placing his life in my hands and trusting me not to pull the trigger anywhere fatal.

It was the ultimate test of trust.

Rhys stepped closer when I didn’t move. “Alissa,” he said, voice softening. “Look at me.”

I forced my eyes up to his.