Chapter 6
NATHAN
My fingers drummed a sharp staccato beat on my desk as I stared at the open browser screen, contemplating my next move. Restlessness and uneasiness coursed through me that I wasn’t used to dealing with. Too many things started to take root that I didn’t know how to process.
Things were planned. I executed those plans, which sometimes ended with me taking the life of another human being. Other times, it resulted in me taking over properties and rehabbing them for various purposes or resell.
But my plans were linear. And things never strayed from the plans.
Except threads seemed to be catching and starting to unravel. Just slight pulls. But if I didn’t deal with them soon and get everything back in order, then it would lead to chaos. The very fabric of my thread, my sanity, would be undone. And that wouldn’t be good for anyone.
By all accounts, Aiden should be dead. It had been a risk, leaving him alive.
Just because he didn’t recognize me at the hotel, didn’t mean he never would.
Not to mention, he’d been on my list too long to be left alive.
Eventually, my brain wouldn’t be able to handle the fact he continued to breathe.
I’d already allowed him to break my ritual. He’s already upended my life into chaos.
But he’d moved and I’d had to let him go. And now, fate had brought him back to me. Except, he felt different than all the others did. Like fate had different plans for him, for me, for us. The need to claim him and make him mine was still there. It just was different.
Part of me wanted to insert myself into his life. To become invaluable, make him crave me, depend on me, need me. Because fuck knew I needed him.
My head turned to look at my phone, but I refused to go through the pictures again. I’d already memorized them. But the pull to look at the one I knew I shouldn’t have taken was strong, too strong.
I didn’t know what had possessed me to take the photo of Aiden asleep in that bed. He was on his stomach, his perfect ass up in the air as though it were an offering to me. The blanket had been thrown down, barely covering one bitable cheek.
The truth was, I hadn’t wanted to leave him. I’d felt an urge to crawl back into bed and wrap him back up in my arms, and that wasn’t me. So, the photo was the best I could do so that I could keep him with me.
But that was a lie. And I knew it. Because my little bird was under my skin. And he was mine and I wouldn’t let him go. Couldn’t let him go. I’d find a way to get to him and make him mine, whether he liked it or not.
Though, I’d prefer it if he did like it.
Except, he was a cop.
I blew out a breath.
That made things a hell of a lot more difficult for what I had planned.
Tearing my eyes away from the phone, I looked back at the computer screen that continued to mock me. The cursor blinked, daring me to type in my search query. My leg bounced as I typed in the name of the hotel I’d been at the night before and pressed enter.
I couldn’t breathe as I waited for the results to load. But as I scrolled through, there wasn’t a lot to be found. I clicked at the top of the news section and let out a sigh of relief to see that while there were articles about the man I’d killed, they were only about his disappearance.
My head fell back against my chair as the tension drained from my body.
I still had to worry about Duncan. My brain wouldn’t let me let him go, especially considering I’d let Aiden live.
And that would make things more complicated with my little bird, to have two people disappear or be murdered who were connected to the hotel where we had met.
But a disappearance? People disappeared all the time. They were unhappy with their lives, jobs, relationships and just left without a word. Of course, there were times when people like me came around and something happened to them and no one knew.
I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that no one would ever find the young man I’d killed. Especially considering the hotel had been crawling with cops and I’d let Aiden distract me, which meant I didn’t get a chance to get back to him and move him before morning.
Duncan had been too much on my mind, and my plan for him.
He’d distracted me that I hadn’t even considered that the hotel would realize they had a staff member missing or that he would have family who would miss him and file a police report.
Let alone take the time needed to map out the security cameras and their angles in the corridors.
For all I knew, they could have caught me with him and then I’d really be fucked.
The itch, the overwhelming, consuming need to slide my knife through flesh hit me like a freight train. I wasn’t sure if it was because I hadn’t taken out my intended target the night before or because so many things seemed to be spiraling out of my control.
I needed to find a way to rein it all in or things could end very badly for the people around me. People I had no intention of hurting.
But, for now, I did have a name on my list who could sate the beast within me.
After ignoring my phone for so long, when the text tone went off, it made me jump in surprise. I sucked in a breath and let out a low chuckle as I picked it up. As soon as I read the message, I let out a groan and wished I’d decided to ignore it.
Christian
When are you going to spill on the new guy?
Fuck. Why did I ever tell Christian anything? I still didn’t know what had possessed me to tell him I’d hooked up with someone the night before. It was none of his business.
But I knew why. He’d started to get clingy. To hint about picking up where we’d left off and that was never going to happen. And I’d been desperate to find a way to let him down that didn’t involve a knife to his gut.
There’s nothing for you to know.
You have a job to do, so do it. I expect a full report on the zoning for the condos by the end of the week.
I hoped he got the hint and left well enough alone.
He was decent enough of a friend, I supposed.
Not that I had much experience in that department.
Even if I thought Christian wasn’t trying to get in my pants and had a genuine interest in where things with Aiden were going, I didn’t think I could give him any information.
Mostly because I had no idea myself. He had me all up in knots, though. That much I knew.
Fucking Daddy.
I leaned back in my chair and looked up at the ceiling, searching for answers when I wasn’t even sure what the questions were.
I had no idea what had possessed me the night before.
I’d never been into any sort of Daddy kink or age play before.
I still didn’t think I would be into any age play.
But something about being my little bird’s Daddy, it sent a shiver down my spine.
With a shake of my head, I dispelled the memories from the night before and got back to the work I needed to focus on. I hadn’t been in the right headspace when I’d killed the guy at the hotel and I needed to know if I should be worried or not. Especially considering I fucked a cop right after.
After shutting my computer down, I grabbed my syringe, bindings, and a blade. On the way out the door, I set the automation on my home security to engage and lock up, along with setting a sporadic light automation so it would seem as though someone was home and moving throughout the house.
One could never be too careful, especially when they were a serial killer.
Getting into my car, I set my GPS to Duncan’s house, where I knew he’d be for the night. When I pulled up, I was happy to see the living room light was on and the television was flickering. I couldn’t see him from where I was at. The couch looked empty, but he must be in there somewhere.
I settled in, pulling the binoculars from the glovebox, and waited for the perfect moment.
My mind wandered as I waited for Duncan to come back into the room, wondering how Aiden felt about stakeouts.
A lot of cops didn’t like them because they were boring, but I didn’t mind sitting and watching my prey.
It gave me proper time to learn about them and plan my next move.
With a grimace, I couldn’t help but hope Aiden was not a snacker.
I hated having food in my car. It made the car so unclean and unsightly.
Not to mention, then you risked leaving evidence behind when you had Twinkie crumbs that you’d bitten into, being left next to the dead body you left on the kitchen floor.
Movement in the window caught my eye, drawing my attention back to Duncan’s house. I picked up the binoculars and watched him pace back and forth in front of the couch with his phone pressed against his ear. His face was scrunched and his fist was balled at his side, like he was stressed.
A low, possessive growl rumbled in my chest as I wondered who he was talking to.
I might not have any further interest in him sexually after finding my little bird, but he was still mine.
Yet, whoever he was talking to seemed to be someone he was intimately familiar with, enough at least to have what appeared to be a distressing phone conversation with.
I wondered if it was about the missing hotel employee. Briefly, I wondered if it was about me. How I’d shown up at the hotel, at the wedding he’d been bartending at, but then had completely dismissed him and flirted with and took another man back his room to fuck.
Normal people got upset over things like that, didn’t they?
That seemed plausible, but I didn’t think he would be that upset about not getting to sleep with me, considering how often we’d skirted the topic in the past. Maybe he was feeling as possessive over me as I was of him.
Or, it had nothing to do with me and I was being a narcissistic asshole.
It was a toss-up, really.