Chapter 2
chapter
two
Wakingup with the birds chirping outside, the sun squeezing its way through the closed blinds, and Journey at my side has become a routine part of my day that I can”t function without. Especially the part where she is lying next to me, her head on my shoulder with her leg draped across mine. The warmth of her body comforts me more than any blanket ever could, and I can never help the smirk on my face as I look down at her and run the tip of my finger across her beautiful cheek. My Little Devil.
To say that Journey and I have grown together over the last six months would be an understatement. We’re inseparable now. After everything we’ve been through, how could we not be? I met and fell in love with her just under a year ago, and in the beginning our life was a rollercoaster. She showed up on my doorstep looking for someone … someone who was buried in my backyard. Every cell in my body believed that Journey would be the end of me, but the tables somehow turned and she ended up being my true beginning.
Before Journey, I was an introvert who held everything in. I never said what I really wanted to, even when the voice in my head was screaming for me to lash out. After a life of keeping that beast caged, Journey was the one who unlocked the door and freed it. After I first met her, the voice went silent in my head because it was constantly spewing from my mouth. Journey unleashed my beast and allowed it to walk around freely, hunting who it despised all that time I kept it shackled. Now that some time has gone by, the voice returns in situations where I have to keep myself together. Not everyone is allowed to see me at my most depraved. Nonetheless, I no longer run from the beast. We are one.
Letting my true self takeover caused some issues for people who tried to ruin my life and derail my relationship with Journey. Those people—Detective Sam Winter and Cain Adams—are no longer among the living. It’s their own fault, really. Regular people should know better than to fuck with people like Journey and I. Sometimes they have to learn the hard way. Too bad. So sad.
The investigations into those dead idiots ended six months ago. Journey and I have since moved in together, abandoning my little house in Strawberry Mansion so we could be under one roof in Elmwood. I didn”t sell my old place. I couldn”t. I grew up in that house, plus there is still something buried in the backyard. A trophy, of sorts. But leaving it to move in with Journey was still the right move. It’s an upgrade for me, and it allows Journey and I to live the lifestyle both of us have always dreamed of. We get to immerse ourselves in our dynamic twenty-four-seven. While I still have my job with Lane Contracting, and Journey is still at the Seventh Precinct, when we come home I am her beast and she is my Little Devil. The tension of the past has died down, and now we get to just be ourselves in our dark and twisted world.
Without having to worry about what the police will find in my backyard, I no longer have to run off of job sites, which has led to a great relationship between myself and my boss, Trey Greene. He’s the project manager of the concrete warehouse we’re currently constructing, and as I climb out of bed and get dressed, I know he’ll be happy to see me show up on time again. I’ve been stringing along multiple great weeks in a row, and my mood is immediately jovial once I’m cleaned up and standing in front of the coffee maker.
“Hi,” Journey says as she enters the kitchen. Her black hair hangs down past her shoulders and sways as she walks with her head down, clipping her badge to her belt.
I place my new cup of coffee on the counter and face her. “Hey.”
As soon as her badge is in place, Journey focuses solely on me and slides her hands under my arms to pull me into a tight hug. I can hear her breathing me in as I wrap my arms over her shoulders and squeeze. I breathe her in, too, sucking the smell of her hair into my nostrils and letting it fill me with ecstasy. This woman is my devil at night and my angel in the morning, and I love having her in my arms.
“How did you sleep?” I ask, knowing we don”t have much time before both of us walk out the door to our respective jobs.
Journey flashes a smile that has the devil hidden behind it.
“So good,” she says. “After a scene like that, I knew I’d be out cold, especially once you started massaging my head. You know how that makes me feel.”
Now I smile. “Either horny or sleepy.”
She laughs as she says, “Well you’d already fucked the horny out of me, so sleepy was the only option left. It was totally worth it, though. As usual, you were perfect last night, Sir.”
“It wasn”t me who was perfect,” I reply.
I kiss her on the forehead and take a step back to grab my coffee while Journey goes to the fridge for orange juice. She pours a glass and places the container back on the shelf before turning to face me. I take a moment to admire how beautiful she is with those dark brown eyes and that cute little chin dimple. The gaze in her eyes is still as intense as ever, but I love it. She’s an intense person, someone not to be tamed by just anybody, and she’s all mine.
“So, how are things going at the job site?” she asks before sipping her juice.
I lean back against the counter as steam rises from the coffee cup in my hand. “It’s going well. This warehouse is massive and made entirely out of concrete, so we’re doing tons of pouring here soon, but there’s going to be some teaching today. Trey told me we’re getting a couple of new people added to the crew.”
“Oh, yeah? Do you know them or did they just get hired?”
“Trey knows them but I don’t. They’re from the Dover branch, but I guess they both moved and are transferring over. They’re even still living out of hotels. Some guy named Stanley and a girl named Robin.”
Journey drinks her orange juice down in big gulps, emptying the cup like she was dehydrated before placing it in the sink.
“That’s cool,” she says, nodding her head and staring into the living room as if someone is in there. “Awesome.”
“You good?” I ask, following her gaze and finding nothing worth gawking at.
She whirls around with a wide smile. “Of course.”
“Oh, okay. How about you? How’s the new partner working out?”
“Ah, Detective Martin Summers. Ugh. He’s fine, I guess. If I’m being honest, the guy is a little lazy.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely,” she replies, smiling despite her frustration with the new guy. “As much as I hate to say it, he’s trash compared to Sam.”
“Well, Sam was a go-getter who was looking to make big arrests, right?”
“I guess you could say something like that. He was definitely like that before … he killed himself.”
A smirk threatens to take control of my face, but I push it away and stare into the dark abyss of my coffee.
“Yeah,” I say before clearing my throat. “Still such a tragic ending. Well, hopefully the new guy gets his shit together. You guys working on anything interesting?”
“Not really. Captain Saunders keeps throwing us little shit to look into, but it’s never anything serious or time consuming.”
“Well, hopefully something big comes along soon. You deserve it after everything you’ve been through.”
“I agree.” Journey looks down at her watch. “I should go. I don”t need Saunders on my ass for being late.”
I finish my coffee and set the cup on the counter so I can close the distance between Journey and me. We hug again and I kiss the top of her head.
“Have a good day, Little One. Make sure you text me later.”
“Yes, Sir,” she replies before pulling away. “Hopefully the day goes by fast because I desperately want a repeat of last night down in the basement.”
I smile. “I can definitely arrange something … if you”re a good girl.”
“I will be,” she answers, grinning from ear to ear.
The next few minutes are spent grabbing things we both need to perform our jobs and heading to the garage together. We kiss while standing between my truck and her car, and then press the button to raise the door and bring in the sunlight. I let her pull out of the driveway first before backing out myself, and we drive away in two different directions. As much as I hate being apart from her, I know what the night holds for us, and I can’t wait to come back to our dark and twisted world.