Chapter 29
I nara
The city of New Rome looks smaller from the air. I took the first helicopter ride of my life this morning after a call from the precinct. It’s a new day, and I’m on a new case.
Last night was a revelation. I spent hours in Rex’s arms, cuddled, cuffed, and cared for. Rex claimed me over and over until all I could feel was him. I wished the night would last forever.
But dawn came, and with the light of day, I remembered my ultimate aim. To see justice served. I owe it to my family’s memory to do my job. No matter how much I want Rex.
It’s a relief to go to work, to escape him for a little while. I’m not looking forward to viewing a new crime scene, but I need space to collect myself, to remind myself that I’m only pretending to give in to Rex.
He hadn’t wanted to let me go and then insisted on helicoptering us both in. The closer we got to the city, the further he sank into a cold silence. He wants to keep me in a cage, all to himself. But he knows I won’t tolerate it. When we arrived at the landing strip, he helped me into Ivan’s car.
I told him to have a nice day, curious to see how he’d respond.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, but it sounded like a threat.
“Oh?” I tugged the leash to see how far it’d stretch.
“Be safe,” he ordered. “I’ll be watching.”
And I feel him watching, even now. A part of me is grateful, though, because, since my vision last night, I haven’t been able to shake the sense of growing dread.
If my vision is correct, something horrible is coming. And no one, not even Rex, will be able to stop it.
Ivan turns the car from a busy thoroughfare onto a brownstone-lined street. Up ahead, a bunch of cop cars and yellow tape block the street.
“Drop me here,” I tell him before we get close to the blockade.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” I don’t want my colleagues to see me with a chauffeur. I can’t let anyone know I’ve spent the night with the world’s most eligible billionaire, either. It’ll give me a host of problems I don’t need.
I step out of the car and turn up my coat against the biting wind. I’m still wearing Rex’s collar. I haven’t asked him to remove it. He almost refused to let me leave this morning. I doubt he’d be happy to relinquish this mark of ownership.
And I don’t want him to.
I’ve been claimed by a monster, and it doesn’t matter how I feel about it. Rex isn’t going to let me leave.
A part of me is fine with that, at peace. And the rest of me is unsettled that being owned by Rex puts me at ease.
I have to think of that another day. Right now, I have a job to do.
I flash my badge and sign into the scene. Diego Silva is coming out of the gate as I stop to put on foot coverings.
I greet him, noting the blank expression on his face. “What am I walking into?”
“It’s bad,” he warns.
I step past the gate and get a chill. In the front yard of the brick brownstone are two sugar maples, a handful of yellow leaves clinging to the bare branches.
It’s a coincidence. It must be. There’s no reason this home is exactly like the one I dreamed of. I tread forward, crunching dead leaves under my feet. The front door’s ajar, the stoop has been swept clean, and there are brown spots marring the concrete, just like in my dream. Unlike in my dream, these have been flagged by the techs. I don’t need a test to know the stains are blood.
Just like in my dream, the door creaks open with the wind. What should be the entrance to a safe space, a happy home, is now the portal to my private hell.
There are bloodstains on the stairs. A smeared handprint. The sounds of Burgess and the techs murmuring to each other at the back of the house fade behind a high, frantic keening.
I don’t need to continue on to know what’s happened here. The bodies of the family are lying on the floor, tied by cords. The throats will be cut. Their eyes will be open, straining for help that won’t come.
This is exactly what I dreamed of. Everything I’ve been dreading has come true.
I run out of the house. I can’t see, can’t think. I stagger down the steps. Someone’s calling Ramos? Ramos? But I’m still running. The world has gone dark.
And then I sense him.
“Inara,” Rex’s deep voice makes me turn. I can’t see him, only sense him, but I race into his arms.
I don’t care that he’s Rex Roy and everyone’s watching. I let him wrap his arms around me and bury my face in his chest. The terror is too intense; it fills my throat and won’t let me speak.
“It’s okay,” he says. “You’re all right, little bird. I’m here.”
I hang onto his coat until the world stops spinning. The wool scratches my face. I keep telling myself my submission to him is an act, a way to win, a show of pretend surrender. But at this moment, his comfort is real. I need him.
Finally, I croak, “Why are you here?”
He hesitates, and I know it’s bad. “I had one of my assistants stop by your townhouse to pick up your mail.” He pulls a thick envelope out of his pocket. “He found this. I thought you should see it right away.”
The envelope is old and dirty, with brown stains in the corner. There’s a faint smell of smoke clinging to the pages.
There’s no address, only a cramped scrawl on the front. Swallow.
A chill shoots through my heart. With shaky hands, I pull out the pack of letters and open the first one.
At first, I don’t know what I’m looking at.
Darling Swallow, the letter reads. Inara. My home, my own. I’m coming for you.
The scrawl continues down the page, the ravings of a madman. He calls me Swallow and claims I’m the only one for him. That he’s been watching me for years.
Each letter is signed BK. Exactly how he signed the letters he sent to the police, boasting of his crimes years ago.
My legs buckle under the dawning horror. Only Rex’s support keeps me upright.
I’m back in my childhood bedroom, listening for the murderer in my home. Knowing he’s destroying my family, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
“I know who sent these letters.” It’s the same man who visited death upon this family last night.
The same one I faced the night my family had been murdered.
The scene is exactly from my dreams, but I’m not asleep. I’m awake, my heart numb with the knowledge of what’s happening.
The nightmare has started again.
“It’s him,” I breathe. I look up at Rex and then to the house where the rest of the horror lies. “The Bondage Killer. The man who killed my family is back.”
* * *
Thank you for reading His Perfect Darkness. Rex and Inara’s story continues in book two of the Darkness Duet, Darkest Before Dawn .