“Nope.”

“I could hide it.”

“There’s too many eyes on you. You’d be found out.” Nita smiled slightly. “You’re going to have to put on your tragic hero face and brood for the next few years.”

He sighed heavily. “If I must.” He looked up, toward the sky and grudgingly admitted, “Maybe it’s not such a bad thing.”

Nita tilted her head. “Pardon?”

“I wanted a way off the hamster wheel. I wanted a chance to force myself into a completely different life, just to get out of this toxic cycle. Well, there’s nothing more different than having to behave like a good person. None of my old habits are allowed. I’ll have to completely reform my image.”

She looked at him. “You’re not actually seriously thinking of becoming a good person?”

“God, no.” He burst into laughter. “Obviously, it won’t be real. I’d never actually be good. I like hurting people. Far too much to ever stop.” He shrugged. “But as long as I behave in a ‘moral’ way or whatever, no one’s ever going to know I don’t give a shit, right?”

Nita snorted. “True enough.”

“And . . .” He hesitated. “I need to prove something to my sister. To all of them.”

“What?”

“That I’m in control.” His voice was hard. “My sister thought it was lack of control that makes me hurt people. That I succumb to my need for pain in dark ways, like an out-of-control serial killer. But it’s nothing so excusable. I genuinely enjoy it. And I’m not going to stop.” His gaze was intense. “There’s a difference between not having control and hurting people because you can’t help it, and hurting people because you just don’t care. I don’t think my sister quite realizes how . . .” His smile turned bitter. “Well, to use her words, how ‘evil’ I am.”

Nita was quiet for a long time. “So you plan to not hurt anyone for the duration of the trial and public spotlight to prove a point?”

“Exactly.” He stretched languidly. “And then, the moment it’s safe, I’m going to find someone, and I’m going to make them scream in ways they never even imagined.”

He closed his eyes briefly, as though savoring the image, and Nita shuddered softly at the expression on his face, dark and hungry and terrible.

She forced herself to crack a smile. “And here I thought you were on your way to a cheesy movie redemption arc.”

He laughed, light and free. “Redemption? Me? Not likely.”

She smiled a little at that.

He turned to her and sighed softly. “This break will also give me a chance to update my rules.”

Nita’s eyebrows rose. “I thought you never changed your rules?”