Chapter 13 #2
By the time I reached the clearing where the stiffs were, Hale was already making a habit of walking ahead of me, poking at a piece of debris with his boot.
His eyebrows were scrunched like he was changing a dirty diaper, and I laughed out loud. The smell of decaying bodies didn’t faze me any longer, and not just because I had killed hundreds myself.
“Two bodies. Females,” he announced to no one in particular, grinning like he’d won a small victory prize. The crime scene photographer, Janetlee, and I had the same look.
I didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, I reached into my bag and snapped on my gloves. I had all the shit I needed in my bag: bleach, tarps, and tools. They were all laid out in methodical order. The ritual calmed me, or at least it usually did.
“Do you need me to do it? You’re being slow.” Hale said, squinting at the drape on the first body.
I shook my head. “Nope. I’ve got it. You continue your circle jerk party of one.”
Why do people insist on watching me work?
My hands itched under the nylon gloves, and my jaw was tight.
It was my scene. Not yours, asshole.
Back the fuck up before there’s another body added to the tarps. Step by step, I moved through the motions.
Spray, scrub, bag, tag.
The morning air was colder than yesterday, and it nipped at my balls with a heavy, damp smell of earth and iron. My boots sank into the mud, leaving prints like my own personal signatures.
One thing I didn’t need to cover. Hale was breathing so fucking loud it was disrupting my space. I could smell the tobacco on his breath with him this far up my ass.
“Are we going steady, Hale? My last lay wasn’t even this damn close to my face.”
The detective snorted, but backed away from me long enough for me to breathe without his warm air sapping my oxygen. I cleaned the scene, but something about the way the female bodies looked was eerily familiar and made my skin itch.
“You sure you didn’t miss anything? You look…jumpy.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m fine.”
Inside, my mind rebelled at the statement. Small details kept poking me like the curve of the first woman’s wrist, or the second woman’s dark hair that was matted in a familiar pattern, the faint discoloration along her neck, where a knife wound declared her cause of death.
My stomach pitched, and I stumbled when I saw something crudely carved into the back of the woman’s hand. It didn’t have an overt shape, unseen and unnoticed by others, but it stood out to me.
It was a smiley face.
Who the fuck shined a light on this?
Light…
I couldn’t help but smirk as I bit my lip.
That smug little asshole thought he’d play with me?
Me? Oh, just you wait, Sunshine.
You wanted to point a beacon on my crimes? Now I’m going to make you scream all of yours when I fuck you.
Stay calm. Professional. You’ve done this a thousand times. Shiloh, growing some balls isn’t going to sway you.
Despite my internal pep talk, the tremor in my hands betrayed me, and I had to step back before Hale’s intense fucking eyes noticed.
Did I cover my tracks well enough? Had I left evidence these idiots could follow to my own crime scene?
That creeping doubt gnawed at me, a fucking sour taste filling my mouth.
Hale sniffed again. “Man, you’ve seen worse than this? Ew. That bitch is cheese grated.”
“Pretty sure dead people’s ghosts don’t like being called bitches, Hale.”
Dumbass ignored me with another gruff snort, and I looked at the bodies again. They just lay there, half-covered by dirt and leaves. It was sloppy as fuck.
Naughty Sunshine. If you want to get me in trouble, perhaps be more prudent in your work.
He hadn’t even finished the job. But I noticed everything he left. Picked up every detail and latched onto the message he wanted me to see. The way the female’s jaw tilted, and the bend of her fingers.
Recognition struck like ice water.
And I froze.
Oh fuuuuuck.
I was hard instantly. My blood was pumping wildly in my veins as I realized…
My eyes darted to the chewed skin of the woman’s neck, the crusted dark hair that pointed to being wet before death, instead of drying properly. This wasn’t just any scene. This wasn’t random. These bodies were moved here.
I swallowed harder, trying to phase out Hale’s voice as I continued to follow the clues laid out for me. My gloved hands gripped the tarp like a lifeline, on the verge of fucking coming in my damn pants at the wit.
Hale was still there, grumbling and oblivious. “Not a surprise you get a chode from a crime scene, you freak.”
“Yeah,” I said absently, too fixated on the art in front of me.
They’re mine. These are my victims.
That explained the little shit’s weakened state this morning. He had to have taken hours during the night to pull this off.
Fear and fucking hardcore lust shot through me in waves, making me dizzy.
Hale made a noise, distracted by a fallen branch, and I seized the moment to breathe without him breathing down my neck. My heart hammered in my chest.
Oh, Sunshine. You’re trying to get me in trouble. Do I need a spanking, Baby Boy?
Step by step, I pushed down the lust and spikes of adrenaline from being caught so that I could finish the cleanup. The coroner arrived, along with some other crew members, and I was able to take notes and pack up my gear.
I walked back to my truck on autopilot. Everything felt like it was in slow motion as his words replayed in my mind from earlier. He knew I’d figure it out. He had to have stayed up all night to pull this off. It made sense why his reflexes were so delayed when I shoved him against the wall.
Hale jabbed at the mud with his boot, distracted by the smallest details, and yet completely unaware of the puzzle pieces in front of him.
All of them led to me, if you looked close enough.
But no one was, and I smiled. They were packing away my kills and closing the case to chase a known criminal already in their files.
The easy option.
The quiet one.
Perfect.
I waved to the ladies. Kiki and Rai were now in the safety of the truck as they were hauled off.
The world didn’t know my secret. Hale, the blubbering windbag, didn’t know. Hell, no one even suspected it.
But Shiloh Anderson did.
And that knowledge burned hotter than any chemical in my bag.
Hale banged on my window, and I jolted, annoyed at being interrupted from my thoughts.
“What do you want?”
“Why are you fucking jerking off in a crime scene, lab nerd? Your nasty ass needs to be fired for fuck’s sake.”
I started to laugh, but when I looked down, I was staring at the silver piercing looped in the head of my dick with my hand wrapped around it.
Well…This makes for an awkward convo.
“I knew something was wrong with your damn head, Harding. I am going to be keeping an eye on you. I don’t care who your fucking dad is, or how tightly wound the damn town is by your snake oil charm. I will fucking bring you down.”
I forced a nod. “Have the day you deserve, Hale.”
The fucker tried to hold onto my window as I raised it, hanging on until the last second before losing his grubby sausage fingers.
Fucking, Hale.
He was definitely going to tell his stupid boss about this. And that would get my dad breathing down my neck.
Yippee.
I growled in frustration, putting the truck in drive and ignoring the shouts of Hale as he chased my vehicle.
My own victims moved without my knowledge…it was a dangerous thing to miss. My perfect track record felt suddenly vulnerable. Shiloh was too smart. A fucking joke to do what he did, making me work extra hard to cover my tracks.
The world outside the clearing remained blissfully ignorant, except maybe Hale, who was still shouting at me in the rearview mirror and kicking at the leaves.
Shiloh was watching me now. Maybe he didn’t want me caught, but he wanted this…to ruin my routine, break my ritual. My little Sunshine, always clinging to the control he desperately wanted. And now he thought pissing me the fuck off would get it?
The law didn’t see what I saw. They didn’t feel the cold claws of recognition. They were too blind to see the truth in front of them.
As I drove back to the mansion, somewhere in that quiet, I felt the weight of my own work staring back at me. It was a smack in the damn face, one I planned to return with tax.
Oh, you want to test me, Sunshine? Good. I like it when you bare your teeth, Baby Boy. Just remember. I’m the one who decides when you bite and when you fucking beg.