Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
BLAKE
I have to hand it to Falin, she picked a winner this time. “That was incredible,” I tell Damon, lowering my voice to add, “I’m super turned on.”
“Yeah? Let’s get out of here and take care of that.” He circles my waist and pulls me in close. “Where’s Falin?”
“No idea, she was just hitting the bathroom quickly before we leave. Let me call her.” As I pull out my phone, I spot Falin in the crowd of people. “There she is, she’s headed this way.”
“And she’s not alone,” he says.
She’s arm in arm with the skeleton man himself, while Jasper and Leon follow closely behind.
“Did you know they were coming?” I ask Damon. He bites his lower lip and gives me a guilty look. “You did! Were they here the whole time? Honestly, I don’t mind. It’s Falin who was all… this is girls night . Apparently she’s changed her tune from the looks of it.”
They close the distance between us and Falin pulls me from Damon’s arms. “This is Blake, it’s her birthday.” She spins me around for the skeleton guy. “Blakey, this is Ian. He invited us to their after-party and I said we’d love to go.”
“Um, hi,” I say. “Great show… Especially loved The Haunted Marionette. Creepy.” I shuffle my feet and try to think of a way to gracefully turn Falin’s offer down.
“That’s my sister, Meg. She’s crazy good, right?” Ian asks. “You’re all welcome. We usually hang out in the tent, party for a few hours after each show.”
Damon meets my eyes and I silently convey my desire to do anything but that. “Thanks for the offer man, but I have some plans for my girl’s birthday.”
Falin opens her mouth to argue but I stop her with a hand to her chest. “You had me all day. Why don’t you stay and have some fun?” I turn to Jasper and Leon with wide eyes. “The guys can stay and look out for you, right?”
I can see the miniscule changes in Falin’s face that tell me she’s relenting. She huffs and squeezes my hand. “Okay, you two have a good night. I’ll need details in the morning.”
Laughing, I hug her goodbye and thank the guys for staying. Jasper shoots daggers at Ian but follows him and Falin back into the tent.
“You good?” Damon asks Leon.
He nods, one hand in his jeans pocket. “I’ll keep an eye on those two. Get home safely, and Blake, I forgot to give this to you earlier.”
Handing me a piece of paper, he turns and strides away before I can thank him. Damon’s smiling down at me, like I was just given a rare gem. He turns his phone’s light on and points it at the paper. “Open it.”
I unfold it and reveal a gorgeous drawing of me done in black ink. The likeness is incredible… I’ve never looked so beautiful before. I swallow the lump in my throat. “He drew this?”
“Looks like you’ve won Leon’s heart.” He plants a kiss on my forehead and takes my hand. “Not an easy feat.”
“I love it. We’ll have to buy a frame tomorrow.” I’m overcome with a wave of joy. To have so many people care about me and shower me with love isn’t something I’m used to.
“Anything you want,” he says. “Come on, I have a surprise.”
We drive with the windows down, my exposed skin bathed in cool night air. Damon’s hand rests on my thigh and mine is tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. Warmth blooms in my chest despite the goosebumps pebbling my arms. I have no idea where we’re going, but I know there’s no one else I’d rather be with.
We turn onto a dark, dirt road. Loose rocks ping underneath the car as Damon expertly avoids mounds of dirt in random spots. I watch the stark trees blur from my window as the car jostles me from side to side. The headlights illuminate a clearing in the distance, set up with a fold out table and a few camping chairs.
Damon parks and opens my door, leading me by the hand to the set up. “I found this place when we first moved here. It was a fluke, really. I needed some space from the guys, too much shit going through my head, so I took a long drive and somehow ended up here. Come sit, I’ll go grab some stuff from the trunk.”
I let my head hang back to admire the scattering of stars in the clear sky. Moonlight shifts through bare branches, providing the perfect amount of light. Damon comes up behind me and wraps a warm blanket over my shoulders. “Mmm, thank you.”
“I’ll start a fire,” he says, plopping some logs down next to a ring of rocks. Within a few minutes crackling embers burst to life, throwing delicious heat against my chilled limbs.
Damon’s quieter than usual as he watches the sparks pop in the fire’s glow. I wish I could read his mind. See what’s causing the lines etched in between his brows. Is he worried about me? Or Jasper’s sister? What kind of plans is he making deep in the recesses of his brain?
“Ready for your present?” He rolls a branch between his palms and pokes the burning logs.
“You really didn’t have to get me anything else.” Although my curiosity is piqued.
“I know, but this is special. Hold on, I’ll get it from the car.” Standing, he drops the branch at his feet and passes me, wringing his hands together like he’s nervous. This is a different side of Damon. It’s endearing. Seeing his vulnerability makes him feel less all encompassing somehow. Like he’s an actual human, with actual feelings.
He kneels in front of me, so we’re eye to eye and I can’t help but reach out, laying my hand on his cheek. “Are you nervous?”
His tongue darts out to wet his lips. “Yeah, I guess I am. I’m worried you’re going to run when you see this side of me—my shadowed edges and broken pieces. But I want you to know every twisted, dark inch of my soul, Blake. With this gift, I’m showing you exactly who I am and what I’ll do for the people I love. I just—I can’t lose you. I won’t.”
I pull his head into my lap and gently stroke his hair. My heart’s a thunderstorm rolling in my chest. I have no idea what he’s about to show me, but I know it’ll be something we can’t come back from. “Freddy,” I say to lighten the mood. “Look at me.” His eyes meet mine, like burned copper in the fire’s light. “I’m not going anywhere. As much as I’ve wanted to deny it, you’ve awakened something in me that I’ve kept hidden behind a wall of busy. I’ve used my packed schedule as a shield because I’m too damn scared to open my heart. It’s been easier to hide my grief, keep going and going, a wave of constant motion. Every commitment, every task, every unnecessary hour of studying are just more ways to drown out what’s deep inside.
Loneliness.
Heartache.
Insecurity.
But when I met you, saw the darkest parts of you, I knew I wasn’t the only soul who felt the same ache and pain. We may be different on so many levels, but in here, we’re the same.” I rest my palm against his heart, feeling its steady rhythm. “I’m not going anywhere, okay? But this isn’t me pressuring you to do anything differently. I’m happy like this, right now, under the stars with you.”
He cups my cheek as he inches forward, claiming my lips with a searing kiss. He pulls back, brushing kisses down the slope of my neck. “We were made for each other. I’ve never known something more than I know that. You and me, we’re it. We’re forever, Blake.”
“Yes,” I murmur as an ache grows in my core. “Forever.”
“Remember you said that,” he says, planting one more kiss along my collarbone, and brushing my hard nipple with the pad of his thumb. He sits back on his knees and pulls his phone from his pocket. “When I asked you about Trevor,” he begins, causing the blood in my veins to run cold. I focus on his lips moving, forcing myself to stay present. “Blake, I found him. I-I couldn’t let him go on living a normal life after what he did to you.”
“What did you do?” I ask, my voice trembling.
“We ruined him, baby. He was working at your old high school, day to day around kids the same age that you were. We made sure he’ll never work around kids again. Here, take a look.”
My stomach churns, but I take his phone with shaking hands and can’t believe what I’m looking at. It’s Trevor, much older and thinner than I last saw him, propped up against a gym locker. He has a sign settled in his lap that reads: My name is Trevor Matlin and I’m a pedophile. An abuser who preys on young kids. I blink and read it again while tears form in the corner of my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“Leon posted this to all the social media accounts in the school district and sent it to every email account in their database. He’s cooked. There’s no way that man will get away with what he’s done. And if that’s not enough, I have something else. Your real gift.” He stands and pulls me by the hand. “I set this up last night while you and Falin were asleep. Didn’t want you to see it and ruin the surprise.”
We walk deeper into the clearing, the only light guiding our way comes from Damon’s phone and the slivers of moonlight cutting between branches. He stops and points ahead about ten feet in front of us. I narrow my eyes and make out a human torso. “Is that a dummy? Like the kind they use in karate classes?”
“Something like that,” he says, taking both my hands in his. “I wanted you to have some closure. A way to channel some of that festering pain and when you said the thing about the tattoo, I knew what I wanted to do.”
He leads me forward, closer to the dummy. I can hardly hear my footsteps crushing dried leaves over my harsh, rapid breaths. “Oh, my God,” I choke out. Stretched and pinned like some kind of twisted canvas, is Trevor’s flayed skin. His barbed wire heart that’s haunted my dreams since I was fourteen hangs dead center on the dummy’s chest. “That’s—that’s what I think it is?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, we didn’t kill him, although I wanted to. If I could have carved out a pound of flesh for every year of peace he stole from you I would have, but Jasper made sure I kept my cool.”
This is what he calls keeping his cool?
“I don’t know what to say,” I whisper through chattering teeth. Seeing that photo, the flesh of the man who took everything from me, it’s too much. I turn my back and bury my face in my palms, forcing slow, deep breaths in through my nose. Damon rushes to me, pulling me into his warm embrace. I draw in his scent through my nostrils—mint and wood smoke. It helps to quiet my unsettled thoughts.
“Shh, it’s alright, baby. I’m here, I’ve got you. I’ll never let anything happen to you again.” We stay cloaked in the comfort of each other’s bodies, rocking side by side for a long time. Long enough for my breathing to slow and the storm clouds in my head to dissipate. He steps back, his hand still firm on my shoulders. “Do you trust me?”
It only takes a moment for me to think that question over before I nod slowly. How I’ve come to trust the man who first kidnapped me at gunpoint is something I’ll one day ponder on a therapist’s couch, but right now, tonight, he’s one of the only people I trust.
He reaches behind his back and pulls out his pistol, keeping it aimed at the ground. “Have you ever handled a weapon before?”
I shake my head. “Never.”
“Would you like to? I also have this.” He pulls out a switchblade from his pocket. “I think it would be freeing for you to get it out. If you want to?”
My eyes dart between Damon’s hands and the dummy. I force myself to look at that tattoo, feel the pain and remember the tears shed. Rage boils deep inside me like a powder keg ready to erupt and with a shaking hand, I grab the switchblade from Damon.
My eyes are fixed straight ahead, as my feet travel the distance like disembodied parts. My muscles shake with barely contained energy, one small out of place motion and I’ll combust. I clench my fist around the knife’s handle as the skin of the monster who ruined me comes into focus. All sights and sounds around me dull, and I let loose a scream from the recesses of my chest. My arm flies up and slams its way down, piercing the dummy again and again. “You piece of shit! Don’t you know the word no? Why? Why me? Why did you do it? I loved you! I fucking loved you!” I scream and sob, impaling the knife into his skin until I can’t see through the tears in my eyes.
Damon catches me as I’m about to collapse, wrapping his hand around the knife and tossing it aside. He cradles me in his arms and carries me back to the fire, murmuring words of praise with each step. “You’re incredible. I’m so proud of you, Angel. Shh, it’s okay.”
Time passes in his arms until I’m finally calm enough to speak. “That was cathartic,” I say, lifting my head from his shoulder. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t want to force you to do it, but I was hoping you would.” He glances toward the clearing. “You did a number on the dummy over there. Doc stabs like a champ.”
Wiping my eyes, I manage a small smile. “I guess I’ll be able to cut it as a surgeon.”
“Nice pun,” he says. His long fingers stroke the escaped pieces of my hair.
“I just hope Bryan wouldn’t be disappointed in me,” I say, glancing up at the night sky. “I never told my family when it was happening. Bryan loved Trevor too much. They were together all the time, even had plans to get a place. All that changed when Bryan started using. I’m not even sure if Trevor stuck around. I kept myself away from home as much as I could. Extracurriculars, babysitting jobs, volunteering on the weekends. Anything to keep me from facing him or seeing the disappointment in their eyes. It’s funny how you can be infatuated with a person one day and the next…” I trail off. I’ve said more than enough already.
“You can talk to me about it anytime, okay? All of it. Bryan, your mom. You don’t have to carry your grief alone anymore.” I imagine chipping off pieces of my grief like peeling wallpaper and pasting the pieces onto Damon like a collage.
“It’s been a heavy burden,” I say, releasing a breath.
“I understand. I lost my mother when I was in high school. Jasper and his family were there for me, helped me through it, but I don’t think I’ve ever fully processed her death.”
“You were so young. I’m sorry.” The quiet is thick between us. “What about your father? Was he around?”
Damon chuckles. “Nope… I’m just another sad bastard with daddy issues. It’s fine, really. My mother left me with the Shea’s for over two years before I got the news of her passing. It was bound to happen. I think deep down I was always waiting to find out.”
“And then not long after, Jasper’s sister was taken?”
I watch the shift in his features, the wrinkle in his brow, the worry in his eyes. Losing Bailey has hit him harder than losing his own mother. From what I’ve learned about his relationship with Jasper’s family, I can understand why.
“Yeah, she just started college as a freshman. She went out with friends one night to a party and never came back.” He swallows hard, and continues to wrap his fingers in my hair. “I try to have hope that she’s still alive out there somewhere but every day it’s harder and harder to hold on. And fuck, I thought we had a solid lead when we came here. But clearly we’re not cut out for this detective shit.”
“Don’t lose faith,” I say. “I don’t know what I believe in, whether there is a God, or universal being, or a giant unicorn dictator up in the sky.” Damon smirks and some of the tension leaves his face. “I know you were brought here for a reason.”
“Maybe that reason was you.”
He fixes his gaze on my lips as he shifts me against his lap. I already feel his hard length pressed against me. My eyes drift closed and anticipation fills my veins.
But our moment is cut short by Damon’s phone ringing like a jarring alarm in the quiet of the night.
“Ignore it,” I say, bringing my hand down to cup his erection. He hisses and pulls me in for a kiss.
Finally the ringing stops as our kisses grow hungry. I tug my fingers through his hair, eliciting a moan.
Again, the phone rings, causing me to jump back.
“Fuck, let me see who it is.” Damon sucks in a breath and pulls the phone from his pocket. “It’s Leon. I’ll just be a second.”
“Go ahead,” I say, about to push to stand until he circles my hips and keeps me firmly planted on his lap.
“Leon, what’s up?” He leans his head back and groans. “Are you sure?” “Okay, we’ll head over now.”
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Leon got an alert from the cameras and it’s going to take him a while to get out of there. They need a ride or an Uber. He wants us to go check it out. I’m sorry, we can continue this at home.”
He walks me to the car and goes back to extinguish the fire and gather all our things, including the decimated Trevor dummy. Something about the urgency in Leon’s request has me on edge.
“You think everything’s okay?” I ask, once we start driving. I can’t help but notice Damon’s tight grip on the wheel and sharp, focused gaze.
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s fine.”
The tightness of my chest says otherwise. I rest my hand on Damon’s thigh and tell myself not to worry.