TENACITY

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

She lifted her head and turned so fast that her hair whipped him in the face. "What do you mean 'something to drink'? Did you take it?"

"I mean..." he murmured, rubbing his face, "yeah."

"You're going back to the hospital," she proclaimed, turning to scoot off the bed. "You're going to get a full body exam and lab tests and—"

"Lexi," he said with a chuckle, his heart warming at how much she cared about him. "It was just water."

"Still—"

He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back down, tucking her into himself. "Tap water," he specified, smiling down on her.

She sighed audibly before tensing up again. "He could've wrapped a cloth containing poison or some drug around it and the water flowing would still be doused."

"True, but there was nothing like that. His kitchen is open, so I watched him. He even drank some himself so no worries there." She grumbled incoherently and he continued. "So, he answered a few questions, and guess what?"

"Are you really going to make me guess? Just tell me," she responded, eager to hear what he had to say.

"Now where's the fun in that?" he teased, making her groan. He chuckled, then placing an arm under his head, he turned serious. "Things really weren't as we thought they were."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked quietly, confusion lacing her words.

"Well..." he trailed off, "he admitted to murdering his wife, the lover and the others. But not as a deranged man who went around killing people because he'd lost mind after losing his wife. He was a contract killer," Trey explained somberly.

Her eyes went wide. "Those things exist in real life?"

"Yes, very much—especially with people who for the sake of their reputations want someone who would do the dirty work for them." He pulled his arm from under his head and combed through her hair with his fingers. "He was hired to kill; that is what he channeled his grief into."

"Grief over someone he himself killed?" She scoffed. "He's a psychopath alright. Didn't one of you say he was taken to a psych hospital?"

"Well yeah, that's what it says on the file. But according to him, his judge was bribed to send him there with the excuse of him being mentally unsound when he committed all those murders.

"Two perfectly sane men had been declared insane earlier too just so they could escape prison sentence because they had 'unfinished business'," Trey said, making airy quotes with his fingers. "So, that was his last assignment as a contract killer—to get there and end their lives."

"He doesn't have the right to do that," she said, disagreeing strongly with his methods.

"You might not think the same if you looked at it from this perspective," he murmured, his hands still stroking her hair. "Those two men who went to the psych institution were sane and actual serial killers. They planned on pretending they were getting better with each passing day till they were released to continue."

He paused, not believing he was about to say his next words. "Leander kind of did all of us a favor. These men had no particular motive; they killed for the thrill and fun of it. One of the men had a type—blonde women. So forgive me for being selfishly glad they're no more thanks to Leander."

"God," Lexi mumbled, seriously considering if she wanted to hear more about this.

Trey looked down at her with a small smile then went on. "He sent the proceeds from the last assignment to his sister who had taken his daughter under her care, then he went to prison to serve his sentence."