Chapter 20
TWENTY
Garett
A Few Days Later
She thinks she can run from me. She thinks she can hide from me. Like a scared animal, she fled and now is on high alert—constantly looking out for the predator in the shadows.
Watching on my phone as she found my control room was one of the most terrifying moments of my life.
I could only sit and watch as the carefully constructed facade of Gabriel Parsons crumbled.
I knew it wouldn’t last forever…but I thought I’d have more time.
I had always planned to tell her the truth once her husband was in prison, most likely after she was already knocked up with my child.
Then I had planned to tell her slowly, let her learn the truth with time.
I never intended for her to learn like that.
Of course, she ran. It’s what she always does when she gets scared.
One day, though, she’ll learn—there is no running, there is no hiding, there is only us.
She is mine and I am hers. We are twin flames of a shared soul, bound together by fate.
Persephone and Hades, a tragically beautiful pair that neither Earth nor Hell can separate.
There is nowhere she can go and nothing she can do that will keep us apart.
Allison Clarke is mine. Even if she’s currently fighting that fate.
Others might call me obsessive, possessive, unhinged. Frankly, I don’t give a shit. They can call me whatever the fuck they want. There’s only one person in this life that I truly care about, and currently, that person is holed up in a shitty motel.
She would come here. Back to where it all began, I suppose. Her unconscious mind calls to me through the pain, through the darkness, through the fear, begging me to save her. That’s why she brought us back here.
I’m not a good man; quite the contrary, actually. But for her, I would do anything. I would burn the world down to ashes if she asked me to, cut myself open just so she could see me bleed. I’d even frame a man for murder if it meant my princess could be free.
I don’t regret framing Brody Clarke for the murder of Ali’s coworker, Celeste.
He’s a shit-stain on the taint of humanity.
He deserves much worse than what I’ve done to him.
I can’t even say I regret what I did to Celeste.
It brought her to Luke, my best friend, and that seems like another wicked twist of fate.
His obsession for her is growing deeper and deeper the longer he’s with her.
I fear my best friend is just as fucked as I am.
No, if there’s anything I regret in this, it’s that I had to scare my girl. I never meant to hurt Ali, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And I certainly was desperate for her.
The door to the motel room she’s staying in slowly slides open and Ali pokes her head outside.
It took me some time to track her down once she fled.
My girl is smart, she covered her tracks—no phone, cash only, no car.
But she can’t hide from me, not for long, anyway.
I tracked her to this seedy motel a few days ago.
It boiled my blood to find out she was staying here at this shit hole. I built her a beautiful house, her perfect house, complete with the art studio she’s always dreamed of having. And she’s here. She should be at home, with me, in our house.
I’m bringing her back with me, even if I have to throw her over my shoulder and carry her kicking and screaming the entire way.
Satisfied that there’s no apparent threat outside, she slips out the cracked door and locks it behind her.
Her beautiful red hair is tied up in a ponytail and she’s wearing tight black yoga pants with a pale purple running top.
The clothes are far too tight and too revealing for a sketchy part of town like this.
It’s getting late in the day too, the low light of the sun barely illuminating the streets.
This is not the time or place to go out. It’s dangerous and she’s vulnerable.
Good thing she’s got her very own Devil watching over her shoulder.
She begins jogging down the street at an even pace.
She’s been running since she got here, at least, since I’ve found her.
I imagine it’s to pass the time and rid herself of some of her anxious energy.
But it’s driving me mad. She wears those tight fucking pants that hug her ass in the most obscene manner while she skitters off like a wounded animal.
She’s just begging for a hungry predator to chase her down and take a bite.
I wait until she’s at the end of the block before exiting my car and closing my door quietly so as not to spook her. Sliding the glowing red mask down over my face, I begin to follow her.
At this point, the mask is largely unnecessary. It’s played its role and my secrets have almost all been bared. But what can I say, I’m fucking sentimental.
The streets are mostly empty at this time of day.
There’s a few stragglers darting in and out of buildings with their heads down and their focus solely on their task.
No one seems to notice or care that a man in a mask is stalking a woman in broad daylight.
Fucking bystanders. Society has become so consumed with their desires they don’t even notice the evil that lurks around them in the real world.
This is why my girl needs me, needs my protection—the world is a dark and dangerous place full of Devils in disguise.
My footsteps echo off the empty buildings as she drags us deeper into the old part of town.
The buildings here are run-down—many boarded up completely.
The sun is barely breaking through the rain clouds above, bathing everything in a gray gloom that reflects the cold and depressing setting she’s put us in.
It’s currently not raining, but that won’t last long.
Not in Washington. Not this time of year.
I let her stay a block and a half ahead of me so she doesn’t hear me following.
I don’t need her knowing I’m here, not yet, anyway.
Within minutes, we’re surrounded by entirely empty ruins of what were once houses.
Thick fluffy moss hangs on the dirty stone facades.
Everything here is just bleak. Even in my memories, this place was drab and decrepit. It looks even worse now.
I turn a corner and swiftly come to a stop.
Allison is standing in front of a small run-down building which once held apartments.
I know because we both were stuck here once upon a time.
I can’t see her face, but I can sense the tears.
She’s no doubt reliving those moments, the fear, the pain, the emptiness.
She brings her left hand up and traces the palm with her right pointer finger.
I mimic the movement, tracing the matching scar along my palm—the scar I made when we were kids, living here together, as a sign of my promise, my oath, to her.
I haven’t forgotten the promise that I made.
I take a step forward, not watching where I’m going.
My foot hits a can, sending it skittering across the sidewalk.
The noise of the metal breaks through the eerie silence of the gray evening, echoing off the empty stone walls around us.
Her head whips backward, her vibrant green eyes finding mine.
Spilled tears trail down her cheeks, their unshed counterparts lining her lash line.
A few stray locks of hair have come loose and sweep across her face in the light breeze. She’s beautiful. My beautiful disaster.
“You!” she seethes as she stares at my glowing red mask.
“Why the fuck are you always here? Always fucking watching? Always following me like some stalker?” Her chest heaves as she lets loose, the fiery girl I once knew finally breaking through her polished and pristine facade. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
I don’t answer her. I cock my head to the side and take a slow step forward. She instinctively takes one backward, maintaining the distance between us.
“I know it’s you, Gabriel!” She yells the name as if we both don’t know it’s a lie. She knows that’s not my name. And I know she knows. Still playing silly games. “Just fucking admit you stalked me and lied to me!”
I don’t answer her. I cock my head to the other side. I watch the fury in her eyes melt into fear.
I fucking love her fear.
“This isn’t funny, Gabriel.” She stumbles backward as she ascends the stairs up to the front door. I chuckle behind my mask. Silly, silly, girl thinking she can run from me. “I’m not kidding!” She shrieks as her fear peaks.
Her breathing is heavy now, her breasts rising and falling beneath her thin exercise top. I know where this is going, what she’s thinking, what she will do next. The thought and the sight of her stuck on the precipice between fury and fear has my cock thickening behind my jeans.
“What do you want from me?” she cries out as she reaches the top of the stairs and places her hand on the knob. Her body is tense, her muscles pulled taught and ready.
I take a step forward. Then another. Her breath hitches and I revel in the sound. Once I’m close enough to taste her fear, I lean in. The red lights of my mask glow in her blown out pupils. “Run, Princess.”