Chapter 27
Greer
It's been two days since any texts have come through from Koen. I don't understand why he has periods where he goes dark, but then again, I know he's a serial killer.
What’s even more concerning is how he evaded prison time and managed to delete himself from the databases, all while not texting me.
But the most alarming thing should be how I spread myself out at his command the other night and screamed his name as I came, with his voice as the ominous narrator from a hidden camera in my home, which I haven't tried to find.
It's fucking sick.
I'm ruminating on that fact as a knock comes at the door.
My heart races, but when I realize it can’t be Koen because he doesn’t knock, I smirk and relax a little.
The knock comes again, this time louder.
Jesus, I’m coming.
Tightening the tie around my robe, I open the door.
A tall man in a black suit and dark sunglasses stands on my porch, looking like something out of a Men in Black movie.
I swallow. “Can I help you?”
“Greer Allen?” he asks.
“Depends on who’s asking.”
He grins. “I can see why he likes you.”
He?
I assume the man means Koen, so I straighten and steel my nerves. I don’t know what kind of relationship I’m in with the enigmatic killer who talked me through an orgasm through hidden cameras last night, but I’m not about to tell this man anything and get in deeper with said killer, either.
“I’m Agent Helms. I wanted to speak to you about Koen Grady and your association with him.”
“There is no association. He kidnapped me and held me hostage, and stalked me for two years before that. I’m recovering from the ordeal, if I’m honest. So, I’m not too keen on speaking about him.”
His brows furrow as if he’s considering whether he should believe me or not. “Be that as it may, I think you’re a lot closer to him than you’re letting on or even realize.”
“Sir, I have work in a few hours, and I’m nursing a decent hangover.
Can you leave a card so that I can come to your office later on when I’m feeling better?
” I admit, hoping he’ll see the human aspect of me, not being a name in some fucking file, and leave me alone so I can tell Koen about him coming.
Although if Koen has me on camera in the house, it might be a smart idea to let him inside…
“If you’ll just give me a moment of your time, I’ll be out of your hair,” he argues, this time standing taller.
“Fine. But come in, it’s muggy out this morning, and it’s getting in the house.”
Agent Helms looks apprehensive before he steps inside, like he knows Koen is watching.
Looking around when Bear growls at him, the Agent steps back towards the closed door.
“He’s in his crate. He can’t hurt you,” I tell him, heading toward the kitchen where a pot of coffee should be done brewing and on warm.
“Hell of a choice in dogs.”
“Well, when you live alone in the sticks, you have to protect yourself, and I don’t like guns.” Removing the coffee pot from the warmer, I pour out two mugs. “You take cream?”
Agent Helms looks away from Bear’s snarls in the other room, eyeing where I’m hovering the creamer bottle over the mug meant for him. “Oh, yes. Lots. Thank you.”
I nod, dumping the same amount of cream I add to my coffee for the agent, then capping it and placing it back in the fridge.
I hand him his mug and sit across from him at the table, careful not to let my robe open.
My eyes itch to scan the room for any blinking lights or camera shine so that I know Koen’s watching, but you never know he’s present until he wants you to.
“So, tell me what you need to know,” I start.
He sips his coffee. “This is very good, thank you. I need to know anything you know as to Koen’s whereabouts.”
“Excuse me? He was arrested. Was he not? You don’t know where he is?”
The agent removes his sunglasses, placing them on the table before eyeing me as if to see through my lies. “You know he’s out. I know he’s made contact.”
Keeping calm, I sip my coffee. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You can play coy all you want, but I know something more went on between the two of you while he had you captive, and I also know that since you were taken away from him, he hasn’t been behaving normally. You being the link to his recent behavior is why I find myself on your doorstep.”
“What agency did you say you worked for again?”
“I didn’t.”
“Can I see your badge?”
He sighs. “Listen to me and listen to me good, Ms. Allen, if you can’t rein Koen in, I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands.”
“As I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen or heard from Mr. Grady since he was arrested, and I was brought home.”
He nods, shaking his head and standing. “You’d make a hell of an agent, you know that?”
Grabbing his sunglasses off the table, he turns for the door, which starts up Bear’s growling all over again.
Looking back at me, his face changes. “Give him a message, will you? Tell him to get the fucking job done, or I’ll take away his toy.”
I’m shaking by the time the front door shuts. I don’t immediately move, ensuring I hear the agent’s car pull away from the house before I scramble to the living room and call Allison.
I frantically relay every bit of what happened, and she listens before losing her shit on the other end of the phone.
“Who the fuck is this guy? First, he evades all charges and is released before being completely wiped from the system. Now, this? Something isn’t right.”
“I know,” I tell her, sniffling.
Peeling back the curtain, I peek outside.
He’s gone.
Bear leaps onto the couch, spinning in circles before lying down.
“Did you tell Koen?” she asks.
“He texts from a blocked number. I don’t know how to call him.”
“Sure you do.”
“If he’s the reason this agent or whoever he was came here, you really think it’s the best idea to play into his hand and contact Koen?”
“If this asshole weren’t afraid of Koen, he wouldn’t have come. He showed his hand. That fucker is nothing if not obsessed with you. I bet if you called, he’d come running.”
A giddy thrum flips through my stomach at the thought of not being alone in this.
I place Allison on speakerphone before opening the text thread Koen used to taunt me last night.
I need you. It’s an emergency.
“Okay, I texted him. I still don’t—”
The front door opens and cuts off my words, and a very angry-looking Koen steps through.
“What? What’s happening? What was that sound?” Allison asks.
“Koen’s here. I’ll call you back.”
I hear her chuckle ‘I told ya’ before she hangs up the call.
Koen rushes me, his hands traveling my body as if he’s looking for wounds.
“Did he touch you? I didn’t see the entire transmission. I came straight here.”
“No. He didn’t.”
He turns, scrubbing his hands over his face before kicking the recliner near Bear’s cage.
Bear lifts his head off the couch, realizes it’s Koen, and lies back down.
There’s something to be said for how Bear responds to Koen versus how he responded to Agent Helms.
“Was he your boss?” I ask him.
“In a way.”
“And you’re on a job that you haven’t completed?” I ask.
He turns, narrowing his gaze at me. “What did he say?”
“He said for me to tell you to finish the job or that he was taking away your toy, which I assume means me. He also asked me if I knew where you were. It was risky for you to come here.”
“I know it was.”
“Then you should go. Now. Before he figures out you’re here.” I rush him, pushing him toward the door.
His massive frame barely moves, and his spiced scent washes over me, making my pussy throb in remembrance of last night.
Instead of leaving, he shuts the door he left ajar, palming my throat and slamming my back to it. “Are you worried about me, poison? He can’t kill me. You already did that.”
“No, I didn’t,” I croak, grasping at his hand for air.
“You did. I died that night. I was reborn.”
This stops my struggling, and I stare up at him.
“I was changed as I watched you drive away. Changed forever.”
He leans down, his scent traveling with him and crowding my common sense, causing it to grow weary. “Answer the question. Are you worried about me, poison?”
“Yes,” I whisper as he brushes his lips against mine.
“That makes me hard. Feel.” He places my hand over his length.
A second pulse throbs between my legs, and even though I try to remain level-headed and remind myself I was just threatened, my good sense is gone.
“You did well,” he praises. “You brought him inside because you knew I was watching, didn’t you?”
I nod, unable to speak, as he teases me. Electricity is burrowing through my bones where an ache has settled, one that only one man controls.
He probes his tongue inside my mouth, teasing mine with a few flicks before pulling back.
It’s like he was tasting me.
“Did you have your coffee this morning?”
I nod lazily, my heavy eyelids under his control as I look up at him.
A sick grin splits his lips. “Did I taste good?”
This has me confused enough to break out of the haze of lust. “What?”
His hand unwinds from around my throat, his index and middle fingers tipping my head back. Leaning close, he whispers, “Did my cum taste good, pretty poison?”
“What do you mean…. Did you cum in my… How?”
He grins. “Don’t ever underestimate me. Don’t ever try to lock me out again. You are mine.”
Licking my lips, my eyes travel past him to the two coffee cups on the table as a laugh bursts out of me. “Oh God.”
This has Koen straightening as he turns back and follows my gaze. “What has you so…”
I can’t stop laughing, and I wipe away tears that have fallen from my hysterics.
“Pretty poison, did you treat Agent Helms to a cup of coffee this morning?”
“With extra creamer,” I reply.
Koen’s laugh is loud and melodic before he lifts me off my feet.
I wrap around him, nuzzling into his cologne-scented throat and breathing him in as he walks me to the kitchen counter and drops me down.
Brushing my hair back over my ears, he looks down at me, his dark eyes seeming full of emotion, though I’ve rarely seen him show any at all. “You’re not safe here anymore.”
“I can’t have you stealing me away again, Koen. I can’t go through that shit again. Neither can Allison.”
“I know.”
“What are we?” I ask him, unable to help myself, even if it makes me feel like a high school girl, trying to get her crush to admit his feelings.
Koen doesn’t need to admit his. I know he’s obsessed.
I know he’s mine.
“We’re inevitable.”
Something about that has my eyes filling, but I don’t allow tears to fall.
“Come with me. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I thought you wanted to kill me?” I taunt.
His kiss is demanding, his lips crashing to mine in a fiery heat that could take this entire fucking world to its knees. He pulls back, breathless. “I still might.”
“I’ll get my things.”
“I’ll get Bear.”
I don’t know what fucking delusion I’m choosing to believe right now, but I’m going to trust that he won’t kill me, and his obsessive nature will demand he keep me alive and safe.
I shoot off a text to Allison so that she won’t call out the troops, and then Bear and I load into Koen’s truck, headed right back to where I just got free of—this time, going of my own volition.
Hey. Going dark for a bit with Koen. I’ll get in contact when I can. Keep an eye on my place.
Got it. Be safe, G. Love you.
Love you, too.
Koen’s hand reaches over my lap, opening palm upward. “Give it.”
I sigh, handing it over.
When he opens the window and tosses it out on the highway, I shouldn’t be surprised.
“Hey!”
“I’ll get you another. That one’s no good now that eyes are on you.”
“I’ve always had eyes on me.”
His dark eyes bounce over towards me. “You listen to me, you live. It’s as simple as that, Greer.”
I nod.
I’m already close, sitting in the middle seat of the truck, while Bear hangs his head out the passenger window, so it’s easy to drop my head onto Koen’s massive shoulder.
“Thank you for coming.”
He says nothing, as if my softening to him is something he can’t handle or process, but his hand leaves the wheel once more to come down on my thigh, squeezing.
Something in my chest uncoils to be with him. There are things far darker in the world than Koen Grady, and it seems using him as my personal shield is my best option for staying safe.