Chapter 16 #2
Another annoyed groan escapes him, "Ugh.
Steele. Yeah, he was like three steps behind us on an investigation and got there just in time to either turn us in or turn us into his bitches.
But even he knew it couldn't go on forever.
Hopefully him being on our asses is a thing of the past now that you've been caught and it would be too public for him to be seen even speaking with you. "
"How did you manage to stay out of prison when..." I'm not sure how to ask this since I have no idea what actually happened.
He shrugs, "I wasn't too worried. I knew we had cleaned up the cases immaculately, left behind no trace.
And towards the end, you were little more than a recluse so I hardly saw you.
They could barely tie us together since we manipulated the official documents of the business to keep it all separate.
I did think you'd stay locked up, but that's because I thought you'd probably lose your shit and kill someone just trying to escape.
And then..." he gestures in my general direction, "this. "
This being my complete loss of every memory containing him and anyone else who might have been involved.
"What about the tattoos?" I ask. "Where did they come from?"
He shrugs, "Don't know. Honestly, I was just as surprised to see them as you are now.
I know the bat was first. You were having a complex about the scar on your neck ruining your sparkling, handsome facade.
At that point, we were already garnering a reputation for being a silent killer that came and disappeared in the dead of night, bleeding people dry.
The bat wasn't exactly a stretch from there. "
My phone alerts me to Brigit's front door opening, and, against my attempt at having better judgment, I have to look.
The view from her main entryway brings me right to her, overlooking my beautiful little obsession as she bends down to pick up a delivery dropped right to her door.
"Are we back to stalking?" Skyler asks, peeking over my shoulder. "I thought maybe you'd graduate from that now that you've actually earned her attention."
Shoving him away, I remember his other drunken confession that he knew I was following her the whole time. "I'm not stalking. I'm just keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't turn me in."
The look on his face makes it clear he believes my bullshit even less than I do.
"Shut the fuck up."
"I didn't say anything," he stands from the chair, stretching like we actually just finished a hard day's work and didn't just lounge and drink for an hour. "What is cutie patootie Brigy up to?"
I shouldn't humor him. It would only encourage his ceaseless tormenting. "She just got a delivery."
"Another slutty dress?" his brows bounce with cartoonish salaciousness. "I'm not fighting this weekend so you'll have to be okay with someone else being her source of entertainment."
"You're not fighting?" I raise a brow.
He shakes his head, grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair, and sliding into it. "I don't fight when Stella's gone. Wolfy can do a lot of the upstairs managing when necessary, but he isn't quite ready to do it all without me."
As Brigit begins unboxing her stuff, Sky squints at my screen, "Huh."
"What?"
"That's from the same security company we use at Mingle," he points at the small logo on the box. "Looks like Brigit's trying to lock your ass out."
No, she's not.
I watch carefully as she frantically opens boxes and searches through the instructions.
She'd been pacing across her apartment for the last few hours since she got home.
Cleaning and recleaning her kitchen counter.
Checking her watch. Checking her phone. Checking her computer before slamming it closed. Something has scared her.
And there's not a chance it's me.
If she were afraid of me, she would have been doing all of this the other night, the second she got home. Or last week or the week before that.
At any point since I showed up, she could have hit that order button, and her arsenal of security measures would have arrived within a few hours.
But it wasn't until she left this morning and came back that she suddenly felt truly unsafe.
"Let's get out of here," I shove the phone in my jacket pocket, all but jumping out of my chair. "Something's wrong and I need to drop you by Mingle before I go see what's going on. Something scared her and I need to figure out what."
His eyes narrow in humored disbelief. "Of course something scared her. She has a tattooed psychopath stalker whose favorite pastime is watching her like a creep and breaking into her apartment.”
I shake my head, leading the way out of Balor without waiting to see if he'll catch up.
He jogs to keep up with me as I talk over my shoulder, "This is something else.
She might be afraid of me, but she likes that fear, loses her senses to it.
The kind of crawling out of her skin, frazzled fear radiating off of her now.
.." I don't know how to explain it, how to just make him understand that I can feel her terror through the camera, even though I hardly know her.
Something deeper than memory and stronger than knowledge drives me forward, an instinctual need to seek out whatever is causing her such distress and snuff it out to free her from its influence.
I am the only person allowed to make her afraid.
The drive back to Mingle is shortened by my disregard for the speed limit, much to Skyler's dismay. By the time I drop him off at the front door, all the color has long since drained from his face, replaced by a sickly green.
Without so much as a wave goodbye, he throws himself out of the car, slamming my door behind him to escape the steel "hell on wheels" as he called it.
He tried to crack a joke about me driving like a bat out of hell, but it fell flat when he couldn't even get the words out without his stomach churning.
Of all the crimes we've committed together, my speeding is the one that makes him sick.
It would be laughable if I weren't half pissed and half worried about whatever the hell is going on with Brigit that has her tearing through her packages like she might find salvation in them.
Rounding the corner and pulling into the public parking garage across from her building, I slow just enough to not look suspicious, watching for a second as the sun begins to descend, casting shadows across the ledges I'll need to climb to get into Brigit's unit.
I count the seconds as I plan my ascent, my breathing calm and collected, but my heart pumping with the adrenaline that fills my bloodstream whenever I'm doing something dastardly.
As of late, it's just been this. Sneaking in to see my girl. But I can't help but wonder if this is how I was before, when I was breaking into homes with a different motive. Did scaling walls before a kill make me feel this wired and alive?
I don't need to have my memories back to know the answer is yes. The high of this power, the thrill of possibly getting caught, it would all only be heightened by the promise of violence and severing someone from this earth.
Once again, I'm trapped in my head, disgusted by my thoughts, my own drive to harm slithering under my skin like an addiction I can't kick and didn't sign up for.
Jumping to grip the bars above, dragging myself up until I can step onto the next ledge. Up and up until I'm standing just outside Brigit's sliding glass door, ready to open it.
Before I can, the curtains rustle, and the door opens, bringing me face to face with just who I'm here to see.
Her chest expands, an instinctual scream building in her lungs.
Before it can escape and alert everyone in the vicinity to my presence, I cup my palm over her mouth, wrapping my other arm around her waist to push her back inside and press her against the wall just to the side of the door.
Her eyes burn with fury, and I can't help but delight in that expression. She's not scared, not really. Or she wouldn't be brave enough to glare daggers at me.
I release her waist, keeping my palm across her lips, gently sliding the door closed and locking it without taking my eyes off hers.
Fucking hell, those eyes. Like diving into glittering pools of rich coffee.
Her beauty is always apparent, even through the tiny screen of my phone, but in the few moments I've been lucky enough to see it up close, it makes my heart ache to think of all the time we've missed.
All the time I could have spent telling her how stunning she is and how lucky I am to even exist in the same universe as her.
Holding up a finger to signal for her to be quiet, I finally release her mouth, letting that hand land on the wall behind her.
A sigh of relief at being in her presence again escapes me, "Hi, Bunny. I missed you."