12. Vicki
Chapter 12
Vicki
" W hat's Talon doing out back?" I crossed my arms near the window when I started peering out after he pulled around the back of the house. It confused me as to why, and Leopold only made me more curious with how he dashed to stop me from looking.
"No reason!" Yeah, that reaction had me knowing how to play my hand. "He just parks around back when Kage has to use the garage for a project."
"That makes sense." I dipped my chin, touching some hair behind my ear, knowing I had to distract him to find out. "Did you say dinner was almost ready?"
Leopold muttered a string of curses, worrying if he burned his homemade croutons. It made me smile at how cute it was, but I wouldn't tell him I enjoyed him doing the trivial tasks most women had to do. They all surprised me with their other jobs, so it made me want to know why they'd ransom me for more. I got the vendetta against my father, but not the money part. With three men living together, shouldn't their three jobs be solid enough support?
My feet crept over the floor to not alert Leopold. Kage slept and worked in the basement, so I hadn't seen him since lunch when Talon was quickly called away. He cleaned buildings from what Leopold shared, but this felt like something else, and I couldn't stop myself from trying to figure it out. The door squeaked just a little as I slipped through it, but I got out without being noticed. We'd have to have a talk about how easy it was for me to do it because I was supposed to be their hostage.
The ground was a little uneven, being more woods than lawn, but I used the tips of my toes to make it easier. I rounded the other side of the van at the wrong time. Talon rammed right into me because he couldn't see me through the stack of stuff he carried. Even worse, a red liquid smeared over my chest and face from where we bumped into each other. My nose quickly caught the iron scent just as Talo n dashed to shove the contaminated items into a burn barrel.
He was cute turning around in a panic. His eyes were terrified of what I might think. I should've been scared out of my mind, wondering where it came from. Revulsion should've had me gagging, but it didn't. I nodded my head, standing from the ground to right myself after being knocked over. "This is my fault."
"Your what?" He didn't think he heard me right when I said it.
"I told you I was a dark romance girlie, so you automatically assumed I'd be into blood play."
"Blood play?" His eyes widened.
"Yeah, and I forgot to tell you I'm not into getting cut on purpose. Knife play, yes, blood play, no. The only blood play I'm into is sex on my period." I moaned at the thought of good sex on my period. "Nothing makes my bitchy uterus feel better than being rammed by something long and hard that makes it feel like there isn't a gapping hole of cramping pain between the legs. It's like it can push things back into place for a short time to forget that gravity is an enemy. And orgasms? Oh fuck! They're like the secret antidote for the excruciating cramps..."
" Knife.. Blood...What?" I had him so lost, and it made this even better. I moved beside him, helping him dose the clothes in lighter fluid before he moved robotically to throw the match on it. We watched the bright flames against the darkening sky, knowing dinner was about ready.
"No one said shedding uterine lining would be easy, but we ladies do it monthly like a champ, and we still manage to work too. It's absolute hell bleeding for nearly a week, especially on the heavy days that make a girl wonder if a knife up the cuckoo-ca-choo would make it better or worse."
"Victoria, I can explain." He rubbed the back of his head, coming out of his daze to comprehend I saw too much.
"Look, I'm into knowing what's going on, but if any of this could incriminate me too, I don't want to know. I would just like some basic and upfront warning that I've fucked a serial killer and am a hostage in his house. I'd rather not wait to find out what would happen to my body after I died. Some killers like to keep using the body, and I am not game to be a decomposing sex doll! I only like my organs rearranged during sex!" A little fear had me worrying for my li fe when that theory finally clicked into place.
"I'm not a serial killer!" he shouted to get me to stop talking. That's when he took a deep breath to deal with me. "I'm a cleaner."
A sense of relief tried finding me, but I also wanted more information about what that was. It could be his name in the FBI database for the kinds of kills he does. "A cleaner? Is that a code for something? Is that your killer name the media gave you?"
"I'm the guy who goes in after a certain group of people kill those who wronged them and scrubs up the mess to keep their noses clean. I never learn the name of the killer or victims to make sure I can always pass a polygraph, if it ever came to that, but I'm too thorough to ever leave a trace. I don't know their identities, and they don't ask for mine. I get paid in cash to never leave a paper trail, and they contact me on a separate burner phone. They call me, The Cleaner."
"The phone that buzzed during lunch!" I gasped.
"Led to this. I burn their clothes and my compromised equipment to help having no trace of the missing bodies that'll never be found."
"Oh cool! What do you do with the bodies?"
He could tell I was actually interested to learn. "Another time. For now, I need you to remove that shirt, so it can be burned too. You'll need to shower and scrub your skin good."
My eyes hurried to look around us, seeing no one who'd be paying attention. I flipped the shirt over my head and let it fall with the other bloody clothes, standing naked near the barrel. At least it provided heat to my naked body.
Talon stood on the other side of the fire, mesmerized by how the fire's dance moved the shadows over my body. He licked his lips, loving how I had smears of blood on me, standing outside in nothing but my flesh. The intensity quickened my heart rate, making our tension tighter. God, I was fucked up to love all the things I'd been doing here because I wanted him to tackle me to the ground and rut into me with the same ferocity a killer had when he took a life, riding only on pure adrenaline.
Before we could dive at each other, Leopold opened the door. "Sorry! I'm sorry! I should've been watching her better. She snuck out when I had to get my croutons out of the oven." He fixed his glasses and took a deep breath. "Also, dinner is ready."
"It's fine." Ta lon never looked away from me, piercing me with his hungry stare, and it wasn't the food on the table that he wanted. "We were just heading inside."
My body didn't move until his did, guiding me back to the house, grabbing my ass just to see me jump. I hiccupped, rubbing the now tender spot. He just winked as we neared the entry. We ran into Kage leaving the basement, seeing my current state of undress and gore. His nostrils flared, pinging his gaze to Talon quickly with a question. His face looked feral, aggressive. "So this is how you get revenge because I ate your sandwich last week? You bring her to the doorstep I'd be at, looking like that, outside our house?"
He sounded pissed, but I wasn't clueing in. The man next to me doubled over, catching his hand on the doorframe to let out all his laughter. After, Talon patted Kage's shoulder and moved by him. "You know what? It is revenge for that. You're welcome for the blue balls and fantasies."
"How is this revenge?" I called after Talon, seeing how primal Kage's gaze was over my body.
"You might want to hurry and shower because he might just kill you for looking like that," Talon teased... I think.
"W-what do you mean by that?" I chased after him, hearing Kage's guttural growl from here. Yeah, I yipped and ran to the bathroom. I mean, being kidnapped was one kind of psycho I could get behind, but a killer? Nah, that was a harder line. Well, unless he killed pedophiles and rapists... I could get behind that kind of killer. I could also get behind the ones who sought revenge like Lana in the Mindf*ck series by St. Abby. Hell, I'd help her seek that revenge. So maybe I could do a killer taking me.
Huh, I just surprised myself with how low my moral compass was. No wonder Booktok liked to call it morally gray.