Chapter 20
ADRIEL
She stares at me with this longing in her eyes, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it.
I don’t know how long I can go on this way, unable to control my emotions around her. I don’t even know what to call it except this need to make her smile. To let her eyes shine as brightly as they did when she killed those men. And fuck, did she make me proud.
She let them see what they did to her. She made them feel it. It’s exactly what I envisioned when I planned this.
“How are you feeling?” I ask her, my hands still clasped with hers.
And I don’t want to let them go. Not now. Not ever.
“Free.” She smiles tightly. “I never thought I’d get this chance. To hurt one of them. But two?” She shakes her head in disbelief. “You’re something else, stalker.”
I chuckle. “You’ve got a way with words.”
“But seriously, thank you.” Her mouth forms a tight line. “Words don’t feel like enough. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Seeing you smile is the only thank-you I need.”
Her eyes grow wet with unshed tears. “What now? What will you do with the bodies?”
“Ah, you haven’t yet seen the special place these assholes all go into. Let me demonstrate.”
I lead her to the far wall, pressing the button to reveal the furnace. When I open the door to it, her eyes snap wildly between me and the contraption.
Within my mask, my grin grows. “It’s a furnace.”
I flip it on, and the flames erupt like a sleeping beast.
“This is amazing,” she whispers. “I couldn’t even tell that was there.”
“That’s the look I was going for.” With my laughter, I savor her adorably bewildered expression.
I start for one of the bodies, slipping my hand under his armpits and dragging him across the floor. Hoisting him up by his waist, I push his head into the opening before lifting the rest of him. And when he’s all the way in, I shut the door.
“Wow. That’s all it takes, huh?”
“That’s it.”
She swipes a drop of blood dripping from her cheek.
“How about you get cleaned up? Then I’ll worry about the other bodies.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to go home with these clothes.” She grimaces, glancing down at herself. “Chris is gonna know what I was up to and immediately tell Michael.”
“Don’t worry about either of them.”
She furrows a brow. “What have you done?”
“Nothing for you to be concerned about. Now, how about this? I wash your clothes and you take a bath in the meantime.”
“And what do I wear after I’m done?”
“One of my shirts.”
The thought of that bare body in something I own, it smelling like her long after she’s gone… Fuck.
“Uh…” She swallows nervously. “If you’re sure that’s okay.”
“I’m pretty sure I can handle the thought of your beautiful body beneath my clothes.” My cock throbs.
“You should probably stop giving me so many compliments. It’s bad for your rep.”
I let out a laugh. This woman and her sense of humor.
“And what rep is that?”
“The scary, murderous kind.”
“I’m only scary for those I don’t like.”
Her lips perk up and her eyes enlarge.
My pulse only beats faster at the sight of her shocked expression. The thought of liking her shocks me too.
“Now, come on. I’ll run you a bath while I wash your clothes and get rid of the bodies.”
I head for the stairs.
“Run me a bath?”
I glance behind my shoulder as she gasps, popping her mouth wide in mock horror.
“You’re really not helping your persona right now.”
She’s covered in blood, but all I’m picturing is ripping off her clothes and thrusting inside her up against the wall, my fingers tracing crimson around her pink nipples.
My heart batters in my rib cage as I stare at her.
Those eyes gleaming. And before I can change my mind, I’m on her, hand wrapped around her throat, body backing hers up against the wall.
I lean in real close to her mouth and squeeze her soft, delicate neck. “How’s my persona now, baby bird?”
“A much-needed improvement.” She groans.
My dick grows hard at the sound, at the way she looks, all heavy-lidded, cheeks growing rosy.
She’s dangerous.
One wrong move, and I’ll step onto a grenade and she’ll blow me to bits. I’d probably like it too, which makes this even worse. This addiction. This woman. This light so bright, I can’t see beyond it.
Beneath my thumb, her pulse pummels.
“You’re making me think things I have no business doing to you, Kayla, yet I want to. You make me want to.” I drop my face closer, picturing the sounds she’d make if I fucked her. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Sometimes you should give in to those urges. Might make you feel better.” She bites the edge of her bottom lip.
And the thought of removing my mask, letting her see me, becomes too strong. It would make things easier. She would know who I am, and we could…
We could what? What the hell am I even thinking?
As I start to back away and tell myself how ridiculous it was to even consider being with her, my car alarm goes off outside.
My body instantly goes rigid.
Someone is here.
That was a calling card.
“Stay here,” I snap. “Do you understand? Don’t go upstairs.”
“What? Why?” Her face upturns with confusion. “Is something wrong? Alarms go off all the time. It was probably a bird or something.”
She has no idea the kinds of people I’ve encountered. That was not a bird. Or an accident. I intend to check my computers later to confirm that, but for now, I intend to stop that annoying alarm.
Luckily, I don’t live near others, so this won’t draw any unnecessary attention. The only nearby home is about a mile away.
“I don’t know what it is,” I tell her. “So, until then, you’ll stay here.”
I don’t wait for her to fight me on it like I know she wants to. I rush up the stairs and out of the house, reaching into my pocket to grab my keys to finally shut off that godawful sound.
But just as I start to turn toward the house, I notice something on the windshield. A small piece of paper.
I fucking knew it.
Quickly snatching it, I unfold it, reading the words over and over, my anger rising each time I do.
I hear you’ve been looking for me. But I’ve always been right here. Right under your nose. We’re not that different, you and me. But you seem to think so.
I’ve met your pet. I don’t know what you see in her. I was thinking of introducing myself properly. Getting to know her more. Becoming good friends. You know you can’t keep an eye on her 24/7. You’re bound to slip, and I’ll be there, taking her away from you.
-MM
While I’ve been watching her, he’s been watching me. I’ve been careless.
With a roar, I crumple the paper in my fist and stare out onto the open road, knowing the Midnight Murderer has found me.
Found my weakness.
And now he’s coming for her.
KAYLA
As soon as he walks back in, I know something’s wrong. His body is rigid and tense, his shoulders shuddering with hurried breaths. I stride up to him and place a hand on top of his shoulder, but he only turns around, clutching something in his fist.
I stare at his hand, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing,” he snaps, and the tone of his voice sends a shudder through me.
As though sensing the effect it had on me, he pivots and cups my cheek. “Let me get you a towel so you can take that bath. Take off your clothes in the bathroom and hand them to me.”
I nod, knowing whatever he’s holding has him really upset.
But I don’t pry. He isn’t the kind of man to open up that easy. But I will find out what he’s keeping from me.
One way or another.
ADRIEL
She’s in the bath I made her, rose petals and some jasmine thrown in the water. I picked all that up last week, just in case there was a reason for her to use it.
And here she is, in my home, naked in my bathroom. And all I want is to be with her.
But I’m not. I’m here, looking through the surveillance cams, rewinding all the ones around the vicinity of my home.
Someone in a dark hoodie left that note.
Average height. Average build. Literally nothing to fucking go on!
I slam a fist on the top of my desk and grind my molars until my jaw aches.
How the hell did he find me? How long has he been watching me? Watching her?
Fuck! He could take her at any moment. How the hell do I keep her safe?
I press another key on the laptop and watch the video over and over until I memorize his movements. Everything he does.
He didn’t come with a car. I tracked him for miles until I lost him. Smart not to have used one. Makes it harder to locate him. If I wasn’t enraged, I’d be impressed.
The rushing of water from the bathroom informs me Kayla’s done. She’s going to ask me questions, and I’ll need to keep avoiding them. Because I can’t tell her. She’ll get scared. And I don’t want her to be. I want her to feel safe, especially knowing I’m always watching.
Reaching inside a drawer on my desk, I retrieve a small square box. I intended to give her this sometime in the future. As a token of…I don’t fucking know. But I had it made for her, and I need her to have it.
Quickly, I turn off all the computer screens and lock the door with a key.
Wouldn’t want her wandering in here, seeing the videos I have of her.
She doesn’t need to know I planted cameras in her trees, her home.
That I’m always watching. Night and day.
I know everything she does. Every moan she makes.
When I’m not watching her sleep, sitting in her room, her quiet breaths lulling me into a calming state, I watch her from my phone.
Heading up a flight of stairs, I meet her in the den as soon as she comes out of the bathroom.
My shirt is draping her body, the hem flirting with her upper thighs.
Smiling softly, she holds a hairbrush in her hand, and I have the urge to run it through her hair, to have her in my lap as I brush it.
“Feel better?” I ask, grinning behind my mask too. She does that to me.
But that’s the fucking problem, isn’t it? She weakens me. Makes me careless. It’s the reason he found me. Found her.
“I do. Are you done with the bodies?”