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Holland didn’t look like he was in a hurry anyway.

“How long has your wife… known?”

“She knows everything about me, and I know everything about her.”

A match made in fucking hell.

They somehow found each other.

Was this destiny?

He tugged at my coat, and I subtly took my hand away from the knife. He took my coat off and placed it down.

I gritted my teeth when his fingers went to my throat.

“Why? Why did you do it?”

I saw it, his desire to gloat, to tell stories. He was itching… After all these years, he finally wanted to tell his secrets.

“I had always been a curious boy. I used to throw toys against the wall over and over again to see how resilient and strong they were. And when they finally shattered… It made me happy. Truly happy like nothing ever did.” He groaned. “I grew up, and model cars stopped satisfying my need.”

Curious, my ass!

“Then you did it to animals. How old were you?” I asked.

“Thirteen.”

“Alone? Or with Ellis?”

“With Ellis, of course. She gets off on it, you know? Manipulating, controlling, breaking. More than I ever did. I just followed her lead,” his voice was wistful. He was a psychopath and he loved her. He shouldn’t be able to, but he did. “And when we were done, she’d be hornier, and she’d play rough with me. I love it.” He licked his lips.

“Millie was your first victim.”

He nodded, his eyes eager. “She is. She’s special. I was twenty, and oh… it was amazing when she screamed.”

“But you weren’t even in town?” I asked, thinking about what Asher told me. “You were in college, right?”

“Nobody knew I was in town. I saw Millie with Jonah. She was beautiful and I wanted her. Killing animals had stopped being fun.” He closed his eyes, smiling like he was reliving a fond memory. I swallowed back the curse on the tip of my tongue. “I was here the whole time. In here.”

“Ellis was the one who kidnapped Millie, wasn’t she?”

He smiled. “You’re smarter than I thought. Ellis has always been good at befriending the quiet, stupid ones. They’re desperate for friendship. Once Millie was here, it was easy, but we got careless.” He frowned. “Millie was a fighter. Good for her, but really, what was the point in surviving like… that?” He grinned. “I’m glad she didn’t die. That was my biggest trophy. Her life.”

I gritted my teeth.

“And that’s why you go to the asylum every year,” I said quietly. “To see her.”

Serial killers often went to the scene of their crimes to relive their experiences. For him, Millie was the scene of crime. It made my blood boil.

Millie didn’t deserve that. None of them did.

“I wanted to fuck her again. Millie is still beautiful, you know. I wanted more, but Ellis…” he shrugged.

“When did you start it? The men… the blackmailing?”

“Oh. Ellis was smart like that. Killing randomly became boring. They died too soon, too easily. Fuck. Some of them didn’t even fight. So we found a way… to make them all special like Millie. Tabitha was quite fun.”

“And Riley,” I whispered.