Chapter 14
NATHAN
Ifelt like I was crawling out of my skin. Not even stalking an asshole who had gotten on my bad side and put himself on the top of my list made me feel any better about being away from my little bird.
It had been three days since I’d seen Aiden at the club and then had our disastrous dinner date. Part of me was still convinced he was going to change his mind. That he would show up on my doorstep at any moment to arrest me.
We hadn’t seen each other since we left the diner, where he had insisted we take separate ride-shares home. It had killed me, but I understood he needed his space. And I was willing to give it to him. For the moment. We had moved on to texting, but it wasn’t the same as being with him in person.
I’d never felt like this over anyone, like I needed them or even wanted them. He was like an infection that got in my system and I couldn’t get him out. But in a good way.
Maybe.
I still hadn’t decided.
The fact was, I’d never been on a real date before, but I hadn’t wanted him to know. But maybe I should have, especially with the whole stalking debacle. Logically, I knew the mechanics of what a date should look like—and yeah, the blowjob should have been how it ended, rather than how it started.
Sitting back in my truck, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what Aiden was doing. It had been hard, but ever since he realized I’d been watching him, I had promised him I would stop. It was the hardest promise I’d ever made. And keeping it was even harder.
Of course, he wouldn’t know if I broke it, but I wanted to earn his trust and keep it. I couldn’t risk it, not at this point. There was too much at stake.
The way he eventually started smiling at me, sending me bashful looks from under those gorgeous eyelashes throughout the evening, it gave me hope that perhaps I could find a way to redeem myself, even if I didn’t really deserve it. But he’d never know that. Not if I had anything to do with it.
Talking and trying to get to know someone had never been my strong suit, so I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to ask Aiden during our date turned interrogation turned maybe-date.
The stilted silences let me know he was just as unsure as I was.
But it didn’t make me feel better. I wanted to get to know him, but I didn’t have any experience to fall back on.
The blare of a horn from down the street brought me back to what I was supposed to be doing. I shook my head to try to clear away my thoughts of Aiden, but he was never far away.
When I saw the vehicle had nothing to do with the man I was after, I picked up my phone and scrolled through my messages with Aiden, trying to think of something to say.
I was desperate to know more about him, but social etiquette had never been my forte.
I had never quite figured out how to relate to people or seem interested in their lives.
He carried most of the conversation, even when it wasn’t him demanding answers regarding my extracurricular activities, and told me about his favorite movies and music.
I was surprised when he had even asked about mine in return.
Though he was slightly appalled when I said I didn’t watch much television or listen to a lot of music.
So I scrambled to think of an artist I’d listened to and by the look on his face, I was sure it was at least a decade too old.
That was why I had been texting him since I’d woken up the following morning, asking him stuff from a list of questions the internet told me were good things to ask a potential partner when first getting to know them.
The problem was, I already knew Aiden, at least the important parts.
He just wasn’t aware of how much I already knew.
My phone buzzed, and I looked down with a goofy smile at his outrage over what he liked to describe as my lack of culture. I thought he was being a bit dramatic, but I’d never tell him that, especially since I was glad he was talking to me at all.
Aiden
I can’t believe you’ve never seen it. It’s iconic, man! They start off all cute and furry and then they change into little monsters that want to destroy and kill. lol.
We have to fix this one day.
Sure. Just tell me when and I’m all yours.
I let out a sigh as the man I’d been waiting for decided to make his appearance at that moment, exiting from an apartment building too nice for the likes of him.
His timing took me away from my little bird. Seemed like he really knew how to piss me off.
The man seemed to be in a hurry as he got in a late model truck and took off down the street, barely taking the time to even check for oncoming traffic before he’d pulled out into the street.
It only took a few moments for me to get the car into gear and round the corner to catch up to Clint Davenport. I knew thinking about Aiden would distract me and I couldn’t afford a distraction when I was stalking my prey. That was how mistakes were made and people got caught.
And I had no intention of ever getting caught.
Especially when I had my little bird to think about and protect.
Aiden
Do you have any brothers or sisters? Nieces and/or nephews?
No, I’m an only child. No real family left, since my parents are gone.
Apparently, I had no willpower when it came to this man.
What I couldn’t tell him was that my parents had been too afraid to have any other kids after they realized I wasn’t like other children. I never did find out if it was because they were afraid they’d be like me or if they were afraid I’d hurt them.
Either way, it was probably the right call on their part.
One of the few right things they did.
My foot tapped on the floor, a strange sense of anxiety shooting through me as I tried to decide if I should leave it at that or tell him more. It was almost too easy to talk to him and tell him what I was thinking.
It was dangerous.
Because while my parents had been good people, as far as I could tell, their fear of me had made my life isolating. I didn’t have friends or learn how to mask most of my behaviors and idiosyncrasies until I was older. It made things difficult for me as a child.
Though, it made being gay easy. I didn’t have to worry about passing on any genetic predispositions to a child. And I never thought I would have a long-term partner that I would want to have a child with to worry about surrogacy and which of us would be the donor.
But I found that Aiden made me think about a lot of impossible things.
Aiden
Oh, that sucks. I’m sorry. What happened?
Forget that. You don’t have to answer that, if you don’t want to.
It’s fine.
They were in a car accident. Hit by a drunk driver when I was 24.
Aiden
Did they catch the guy?
The police were never able to find him.
Of course, I didn’t explain that the police would never be able to find him because I found him first. I may not have many feelings, or feel things the way other people do, but a part of me had still cared that they were my parents and that some asshole had taken them from me.
They’d been my shield against society, and the law, and once they were gone, there had been a lot of hard lessons I’d had to learn on my own about how to use my family’s name and money to keep myself out of trouble.
It hadn’t always been easy, but I had always been resourceful and I’d do whatever I had to do in order to keep myself out of prison.
Or worse.
I didn’t want him asking too many questions about my family.
It wasn’t that I wanted to hide who I was, but it wasn’t something I wanted to get into.
Considering I’d given Aiden my real name at the wedding, he could have easily looked me up.
I was surprised he didn’t. Part of me wanted to ask why, but I also didn’t think I should press my luck.
Then again, he could have been doing what I had been doing, and asking questions he already knew the answers to. Maybe he had even been trying to catch me in a lie.
Or he wanted to ignore all his instincts when it came to me, same as I was doing for him.
From a block away, I watched as Clint slipped through the doorway into his run-down house that had seen better days.
The porch sagged under his weight and I wondered how he hadn’t gone through any of the rotted boards yet.
I’d rummaged around the inside a couple times already, and I knew it didn’t fare much better than the outside.
The cockroaches were right at home.
I waited back a few minutes before I wandered to the vacant house across the street and snuck into the backyard to minimize my risk of being seen.
It had been condemned months ago, so I snatched it up through one of my shell companies when it went up for auction.
Eventually, it would be one of my renovation projects, but for the time being, it was the perfect place to set up surveillance on my next victim.
Most of the house remained as-is from the purchase. One of the few exceptions was I had a generator hooked up to supply power to the wall of monitors I set up in one of the upstairs back bedrooms that I turned into an office. That was where I could sit to be close while monitoring Clint.
Just in case he got any funny ideas.
Aiden
So… tell me more about your job as a developer.
I let out a sigh. Answering questions about myself had always been hard. Mainly as I tried to figure out what answer it was that people were looking for. But I had to be careful with my lies to Aiden. He’d already shown me that.
Not to mention, there was a weird, uncomfortable feeling in my chest every time I did it.
That was something I refused to look at too closely.
Well, I already told you I’m a land developer. I buy cheap properties that no one else wants and I renovate them or do what I need to in order to change their zoning, then I sell them for a lot of money.
Pretty boring, actually. But the money is good and I get to travel when I feel like in order to check out properties.
Aiden
Do you like it?
I sat back in the chair as I stared down at the phone clutched in my hands. It tapped nervously against the small desk against the wall with the screens, and I frowned as I considered his question.
No one had ever asked me that question before. I’d never asked myself that question before. There was a convenience to it and it afforded me a very comfortable lifestyle. Plus, it was what my father had done, to some degree.
It’s a job. I enjoy it probably as much as I would enjoy anything else. But it definitely has its perks.
Having multiple shell corporations to buy up land came in handy.
I had various safe houses set up around the city and even outside the city limits, where there were off the books—as all my residential properties were because nothing would ever be traced back to me—and usually had either a room or two, or the basement, outfitted for habitation in case I needed somewhere to lie low.
Then there were places like the one across from Clint where they were monitoring stations.
Some of those even came in handy for the kill.
And the best part was then they’d shuffle through the hands of a few of my other unofficial corporations before they finally landed with me and then be slated for remodel.
It was a surefire way to keep my hands clean, relatively speaking, and make sure all the evidence was destroyed and cleaned up.
I glanced up at the monitors in time to spot Clint hastily exiting his house.
Shit.
I need to go to a meeting now, little bird. But I will call you when I get home, okay?
Aiden:
Sure. I need to get back to work too.
Talk to you later.
It didn’t escape my attention that twice we had talked about my job and we had yet to talk about his. Not since the wedding reception. I wondered if I was supposed to bring it up.
Would it be too on the nose? I’d looked him up, of course I had, and he was a damn good detective with an impressive record. Not that he’d ever be able to catch me.
But it made me wonder if he was suspicious of me at all. Given that he knew I’d been stalking him, I had to assume he must have caught at least a red flag or two. But he never mentioned anything after his initial confrontation. It almost made me even more uncomfortable.
I let out a sigh as I snuck through a few backyards to get to the car I had stashed a block in the opposite direction of where I’d come from when I’d followed Clint back to his house.
Part of me knew it would be easier if I killed Aiden, but I’d already established I couldn’t do it. He was the only one who had ever escaped through my fingertips.
Not that he went very far, as I still had him in my grasp. Just in a different way than I intended.
It was why I found myself sliding into my car and following the man who dared to put his hands on what was mine.