Chapter 12 #2
That afternoon, Elena puts her bag on the counter with a thump, her expression shell-shocked. Her shift wasn’t supposed to end until nine this evening, but it’s only five.
“You’re home early,” I say while chopping up carrot and apple pieces for Rosie. My daughter is in her high chair, eating buttered pasta with her fingers.
“My boss was just arrested,” Elena says, her voice filled with disbelief.
I stop chopping and stare at her. “You’re joking. Why?”
“Apparently, a gang was using the place for money laundering, and they even found drugs in the safe in his office. Can you believe it?”
“I’m shocked.”
She pushes her hands through her hair and paces up and down, describing the police swarming the diner an hour ago during the mid-afternoon lull.
I put some of the carrot and apple pieces in front of Rosie. She picks up a carrot stick with buttery fingers and smiles at me. While Elena’s back is turned, I wink at my daughter like she’s my co-conspirator.
Earlier today, I asked Rosie if she’d like Elena to be her new nanny and Daddy’s new wife, and she seemed enthusiastic about the idea.
Maybe she was just excited to play with her blocks, but I like to think it was really the prospect of a beautiful, loving mother and several new baby brothers and sisters to play with.
“And now the diner is closed,” Elena finishes. “Who knows if it’s ever going to open again. I can’t believe everything that’s been happening lately. I can’t keep up with all these disasters.”
I wipe my hands on a towel, pretending to think.
“You know, Elena. I’ve been looking at nanny applications today, and I have to say, I wouldn’t trust these people within a mile of my daughter.
Their experience is sparse, and when I looked into their references, most of them are fake or exaggerated.
” I come around the counter toward Elena.
“All Rosie did this afternoon was ask for you.”
“Lay-na,” my daughter repeats, chewing on a carrot stick. I have to fight a smile. My daughter could be a paid actor she’s playing her part so well, but she just adores Elena as much as I do.
Bewildered, Elena looks from my daughter to me. “What idea, Mr. Grant?”
“I’m asking if you’ll be Rosie’s nanny. Live here and take care of her.”
“Live here? Be Rosie’s nanny?” She sounds incredulous.
“It makes sense, doesn’t it? You need a job and somewhere to live. I desperately need a nanny I can trust. It feels right.”
“But Leon lives here. I know you probably asked him to stay away for a few days, and that’s very kind of you, but he can’t stay away forever, and I definitely can’t live with him.”
“Leon has decided to live at his mom’s for the time being while he looks for his own place.”
“Well, I don’t know if I have the experience…”
My girl is doubting herself again. I wish I knew who damaged her self-esteem so badly. “How about a two-week trial? If you don’t think it’s working out, your apartment should be livable by then. What I pay a full-time nanny is decent, I think.” I tell her the monthly rate.
She shakes her head. “That’s way too much.”
“That’s what I paid Mrs. Kerr.” When I fired Mrs. Kerr, I sent her a polite email thanking her profusely for her services, giving her an excellent reference, and six months’ severance.
No doubt she was confused why I suddenly didn’t need her anymore, but she’s a good nanny, and she’ll find another position.
“I’ll increase your pay on the occasional nights I’m out playing poker, but other than that, I’ll be the one getting up at night for Rosie.
I don’t expect you to work around the clock. ”
I can see Elena’s mind racing. This has all happened so fast. She’ll be the live-in nanny to her ex-boyfriend’s father. A man who killed four men for her. A man who kissed her. She thinks it would be a bad idea to say yes.
I wouldn’t say yes. This is obviously a trap, but I’m counting on her not noticing the door to her pretty cage closing around her.
I have one more card to play. My ace of spades. Three nights ago, she told me exactly what she needed to hear to convince her to do whatever I want.
I have no real family. Nowhere I really belong.
I put a finger under her chin, raise her head, and look deeply into her eyes.
In my deepest, most velvety and comforting voice, I say, “I trust you, Elena. You’re smart, responsible, protective, loving.
The best person I could ask for to look after my daughter.
In fact…” I smile at her. “After all you and I have been through together, you feel like family.”
Elena’s eyes grow misty. I’ll be her refuge through this storm and put four safe walls around her.
Trying to hide that she’s on the verge of tears, she blinks rapidly and says, “Thank you, Mr. Grant. I’d love to be Rosie’s nanny.”
The night is dark as I sit in my car, dressed head to toe in black. I check on Rosie and Elena one last time. Rosie is sucking her thumb, deeply asleep. Elena has fallen asleep on the sofa watching TV.
I zoom in slowly on her pretty face. What a pleasure it is having Elena so sweetly tucked inside my home while I’m out getting blood on my hands. My sweet girl has been having a difficult time of it, but I’m fixing everything for her.
I’ve already selected who I’m going to kill tonight.
Three people who have all the appearances of normality, but with the blackest of hearts.
Over the years I’ve heard rumors about a family who opens their hearts to homeless people and gives them a place to stay, takes out life insurance policies on them, and then murders them.
Why the police haven’t done anything isn’t a surprise as I’ve seen patrol officers go out of their way to kick homeless people in this city.
It’s always been in the back of my mind, the identity of this coldhearted and greedy family, and recently I found out who they are.
I’ve studied the property. This is a home invasion. Everyone dead in their beds before they know I’m there. Something more challenging this time, and I must be clever about it if I don’t want to end my days behind bars. Killing people the way I want to kill them is going to get me noticed.
Not clean, untraceable underworld executions.
Brutal.
Bloody.
Violent.
I reach over to the glove box and pull out something that I spent the afternoon working on. A molded mask with eye holes that covers the entire face. It was white, but I painted it a shiny patent red.
Blood red.
I smile as I caress the mask’s cheek.
I’ve always liked the color red.
Three hours later, I strip off my black clothes in the garage, and lock them away in a chest. They feel stiff from dried blood, and I’ll have to incinerate them when I’m alone in the house.
I put on the clothes I left the house in to go to my “poker game”, and check my reflection in the downstairs bathroom. No blood on my face or in my hair.
I meet my gaze in the mirror and smile. I hope it will always feel this good to kill.
Adrenaline is sparkling through my veins as I head through to the kitchen, reliving the night’s events.
Three kills, silent and deadly. I found a hammer in the victims’ garage, and messy, violent blows to the head subdued them.
Ligatures around their necks finished them off.
I instinctively used a constrictor knot for the strangulation in the cut-through, a knot that is easy to tie and difficult to undo, so I used it again.
I want there to be a connection between the killings and for the police to know it’s me.
When I enter the kitchen, I stop dead.
Elena is standing on the other side of the kitchen island, lowering a glass from her lips and swallowing a mouthful of water.
I didn’t bother turning any lights on when I entered the house, and neither did she when she came downstairs.
Her dressing gown isn’t tied, and I can see her nipples through her tiny white camisole.
Neither of us say a word.
Elena licks a droplet of water from the corner of her lips, and then runs her lower lip through her teeth.
Her gaze drops to my chest. My forearms. There’s a subtle invitation in her eyes.
I place my hand on the counter, and my fingers trail over the marble as I pace slowly around the kitchen island toward her.
Her head tilts back so she can meet my eyes.
She’s barefoot, and I’m in boots, and I tower over her.
The urge to seize her by the throat and kiss her is almost overwhelming. She can feel me wanting to do it. I can tell from the sparkle in her blue eyes that she’s hoping I will.
This is not how things were supposed to go. I had planned to slowly and sweetly seduce her over a number of weeks until she fell irrevocably in love with me, not grab her and kiss her after coming in from three kills .
My blood is alive with violence, and I won’t have any self-control if I kiss her now. But I can’t walk away from her either.
“You shouldn’t look at me like that, Elena,” I growl.
“Like what?” Her words are innocent, but her eyes are heavy-lidded with desire.
“Like you want me. It’s a bad idea for me to get my hands on you right now.”
A bright, energized look comes into her eyes. This girl wants me as much as I want her. She reaches out and slowly traces her middle finger lightly down my chest. Desire plunges through me, blood rushing straight to my cock as her touch dives down my body.
When her fingers reach the button at the waistband of my jeans, I seize her wrist tightly and snarl in her face, “Go lock yourself in your room, because if I find you anywhere else, I won’t be able to stop myself.”
Still she doesn’t pull away from me, though some of the interest in her eyes is bleeding into boldness. Her other hand moves toward me.
I thrust my face toward her and growl, “I said run .”