Killer Kisses // h.s au

twenty-seven. Explanations

Explanations

There had to be some sort of logical explanation behind this. Niall would never do something like this to me, surely. Not one day ago were his arms wrapped around my sobbing form as I stained his shirt with streaks of mascara. And now I didn't even know what to think, what to feel.

"Hey, Hunter." But from the sardonic smile plastered onto his face, it immediately became evident that I didn't know this boy at all.

"What the fuck? Niall?"

"Nice to see you too. So how are you on this lovely day?"

"As good as I can be when I've been fucking kidnapped and lost the will to live. What's with the small-talk anyway?" I gave a last yank at the handcuff secured around my wrist to try and break it, yet to no avail.

"I'm going to leave you both to it," Boss smiled synthetically, exiting out of the door to leave Niall and I alone.

"Honestly, what the fuck is going on here?" I asked, beginning to subtly feel the ground behind me with my fingertips.

"Yeah, I guess there's quite a lot of questions that you want answered. I suppose it started when we had that chat a while back, and I was upset 'cos all the other guys were getting paid more than me. Remember?"

"I remember," I nodded, still continuing to search the squalid floor as casually as I could manage.

"I told you I hated Harry at times. How he always undermined me and put me down. It was like I was never good enough for him. No matter what I did, it was never right. But yeah, you told your Boss all this, I know. I got a phone call from him the next day. He told me all about your little assignment, how you were going behind our backs and planning on killing Harry. I'll be honest when I say I didn't care as much as I probably should have. So your Boss offered me a deal."

"What kind of deal?" I tried to keep my voice calm and collected, as my digits finally made contact with the disfigured bobby pin behind me.

"A working deal. He was starting to suspect you were getting closer with Harry than you probably should have been. He told me he'd pay me double the amount Harry does if I kept tabs on the two of you. You know, tell him how you seemed to be getting on, if your relationship was developing any further."

"So you betrayed your best friend?" I asked for confirmation although none was needed. My fingers wrapped around the pin.

"I would hardly say 'betrayed'," he air-quoted, "And I would hardly say 'best friend' either. What kind of best friend makes you feel as miserable as he did to me? Anyway, it didn't take long to become obvious that you two were getting closer. So I told Boss. He said that I had to try and get between you two. Maybe destroy the trust that was there. Or just split you up completely. It didn't really matter, I just had to be sly about it."

Sly like the way I'm picking at the lock of my handcuffs this very moment without you noticing.

"So what better opportunity than a party?" he continued, "A place full of strangers, and perverts, and so many potential suspects. Harry helped me without even knowing it when he offered to get you a drink. I just followed suite and roofied it."

My lock-picking froze. "It was you that drugged me?"

"Of course it was. And I was the one that tattooed your arm. I may not look it but I'm quite the artist," he smiled triumphantly like what he had just said hadn't made me want to kill him.

"What did you benefit from tattooing my arm?"

"I wanted Harry to look irresponsible and unable to look after you. And I wanted you to trust him less. And I wanted to practise my art. A lot of reasons."