I read the e-mail many times, until I had absorbed it and let it become part of me. All he has to do is figure out what it is she wants him to do. Mike is devastated until he realizes that she is still punishing him for his indiscretion. Months later, Mike receives an invitation to her wedding. The first night there, he confesses to having a one-night stand and promises it will never happen again-but V calls it quits. Then, Mike returns to England to spend Christmas with Verity and her family. V visits Mike in the U.S., and they even find a place to indulge in the Crave. Skyping and texting keep the couple in touch during the separation. And because I am useful-looking in that tall, broad way, and because V likes me to lift weights and start all my days with a run, they would invariably back off with their hands in front of their faces, looking scared and timid. In those dark throbbing rooms I would push through the mass of people, pulling at the useless man drooling over her, and ask him what he thought he was doing talking to my girlfriend. We have a signal: As soon as she raises her hand and pulls on the silver eagle she always wears around her neck, I must act. And I would wait, my eyes never leaving her, my body ready to pounce at all times. It never took long, but why would it when V shone as brightly as she did? Some hapless man would approach and offer to buy her a drink or ask her to dance. We made our way to the bar and stood far enough apart for it to seem like we weren’t together but close enough that I could always keep her in my vision. We traveled there together but entered separately. V and I went to a nightclub in a predetermined place a good way from where we lived. They will be able to pick up right where they left off, including playing their secret game, the Crave. Verity encouraged the move for him, as two years would be nothing compared to the rest of their lives together.

They met in college and spent every moment together until Mike left for work in New York City to establish himself in the investment banking world. Mike and Verity-or “V,” as he calls her-know each other so well. A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession as well as the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.Ĭommunication in any relationship is a tricky thing.

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall