“That’s not cheating, that’s withholding the truth.”

Sebastian laughed, and shook his head.

He sighed at the window. “I can walk down this street. I can go in these shops. Sixteen years I’ve been in that prison, and now I’m out.”

“It must be a good feeling.”

“Yes, and at the same time a massive no.”

“Why no?”

“I’ll have to cook my own meals for a start.”

Rory’s lips tingled with another smile. “The food in there was awful.”

“It got better over the years, trust me. When I first went inside, food poisoning was a monthly occurrence.”

“The food improved, but the rat problem got worse?”

Sebastian tipped his head back and laughed. “The rat problem will continue.”

“You passed that scam onto someone else?”

“Teddy. You never know, he might even smuggle maggots into the prison, inside a fake dead rat…” Sebastian chuckled, “I still can’t believe you were gonna open up a dead rat.”

“It was for Ollie.”

“It’s still disgusting.”

“When you ripped it open, I thought I’d gone mad.”

“You’d gone mad long before I did that.”

Rory peeked a look at Sebastian, and his chest felt all fluttery when he saw he was smiling. His heart wasn’t supposed to feel like that, it was supposed to have been dead of all feeling.

“You drove me madder with that Vaseline tub…”

“I drove myself mad. You weren’t the only one suffering through that, I couldn’t get you out of my head, and knowing you were doing it above me, and at any moment I wanted … let’s just say it was a massive turn on.”

Rory glanced at the road sign. “We’re leaving the city. Where do you want me to go now?”

“The sea.”

“The sea?”

“Rashford Pier, remember I told you about it?”

Rory nodded. “I remember. What we gonna do there?”

“We’re gonna get this over and done with.”

****

Rory parked the car in the rest stop, then looked out at the sea. It was the same dreary grey color as the sky, and instead of flawless golden sand, there were pebbles, and piles of seaweed. Rory stared at the pier and questioned its stability. He was sure it was rocking as the waves hit it.

“Nothing beats our murky looking sea…” Sebastian murmured.

Rory snorted. “Won’t sell any holidays looking like that.”

Sebastian reached into the back for his belongings. He emptied everything on the backseat, rooted through until he found what he’d been looking for. Rory side-eyed Sebastian and watched him put on his gloves. Somehow being strangled with gloves, rather than without, made it seem colder, clinical, heartless.

Sebastian pulled the clear plastic bag into the front, folded it up, then shoved it in his pocket. “Come on.”

Rory took a deep breath, then got out of the car. The bitter sea air blasted his face, and he shivered.