Chapter 24
ADRIEL
She sits beside me, her knee bouncing up and down as she stares out the window of my car while I steal glances at her. This beautiful creature I can’t seem to stop thinking about.
I couldn’t help myself. Needing to see her. Needing to break into the party and watch her. I knew she couldn’t see me. Until I wanted her to.
Until I couldn’t stand another moment not being with her.
The last thing I wanted to do was see my mother or the rest of her family. But none of that mattered. Not when Kayla is all I want.
My pulse picks up when I picture her seeing what I have in store for us. She will love it. She will savor it the way I do. Together, we’ll raise hell on those who deserve it. The way I promised her we would. One unified force; that’s what I want for us.
I drop my palm across her leg, right above her knee, and squeeze. And that single touch alone makes my heart beat faster, like it awakens for her alone.
Her chest expands with a shallow breath and she looks at me, those eyes like soft glistening stars across the sky. I’d give her the moon. I’d give her anything she wanted just to stay with me. To kill with me. To hold me the way she does.
I’d like to say I’d be a bigger man and let her go if she wanted to leave me, but I can’t. I won’t be able to. Will stop at nothing to keep her until my dying day.
“Don’t be nervous,” I say, rubbing my fingertips up and down her thigh, smirking under this mask when her cheeks flush.
“I’m not.” She tugs on her bottom lip, making me want to be the one to do it.
We pull up to a residential block on the outskirts of New York City. Nothing but darkness and silence.
“Where are we?” she asks, getting out of the car while I do the same, coming to stand beside her.
Her hand reaches for mine, and she holds it tightly, twining our fingers. My chest cinches, and I can’t even explain what it feels like to have her take my hand this time, to hold it like I’m hers and she is mine.
Is this what normal relationships are like?
But as I say that to myself, a laugh cuts through. Because I’m pretty sure normal couples don’t go killing together.
“What’s so funny?” she asks.
“Nothing. Come on, let’s go inside.”
I pull her with me, and she matches my steps as we enter the back gate, nearing the door.
“Whose house is this?” she whispers, clasping my hand tighter.
“A man who does awful things.” I stop and clasp her face with both palms. “I told you we’d hunt together. We’d kill together. Do you still want that?”
Her eyes expand. “Yes. More than anything.”
“Then let’s go hunting, little wolf.”
The door is open, and I let her in first before following her. The man inside is already tied to a chair, gagged so no one hears his screams.
When she finds him there, her eyes jump between us. “What has he done?”
“Well, Ivan here has been a very bad man. Haven’t you, Ivan?” I kneel to pick up a stake, like the kind you use to stab a piece of meat.
I trace it across his bare, hairy chest, chuckling when he jumps in his seat as I roll it down to his balls.
“He’s been hurting children. Little girls and boys.
He got out on a technicality. His lawyer has been paid top dollar to see him out of prison.
Most kids don’t want to testify. Too scared.
But there was one. She was nine, and she spoke against him, told the court how he hurt her.
But the judge’s hands were tied. His lawyer claimed there was something wrong with the chain of custody for a crucial piece of evidence, then told the court the child was lying because Ivan used to date her mom before the accusation and the girl wanted to get rid of him.
But see, I know she wasn’t lying. Was she, Ivan? ”
He screams through the gag as Kayla reaches down for a torch gun, flipping it on and creeping it closer to his eye.
“You vile piece of shit!” she hollers, her body vibrating with rage.
It’s like she’s back with her kidnappers, back in the hell she’s endured. Seeing her this angry, it should bring me some level of happiness to know we are the same. But it doesn’t. I hate that she knows what it’s like to live with a past that won’t ever escape you. I want more for her.
Yet this is all we have.
She lines the flames against his eye, and his wrenching screams rain through the night. It’s beautiful to see her work, and I can’t help the smile it brings out in me. Her gaze, it’s beastly as she watches him, her body trembling with chaos born from her scars.
The torch goes dead as my hand glides up her spine, fingers raking through her hair.
“You’re beautiful, Kayla. He’s yours. You get to play with him however you want. Do your worst.”
I hand her the stake in my grasp and settle on the chair across from him, allowing me the perfect view to watch.
She gives me a long look, her face upturning with fury before she’s on him, the stake penetrating him through the side of his stomach, the torch now at his feet. She lets herself go, roaring with her rage while she mutilates him, piece by piece.
The blood drips to the floor, creating a pattern like artwork. Her art.
Somehow, the bastard still breathes, and if I cared, I’d feel bad for him. But I’m glad he is, glad he gets to suffer like he made those children suffer.
She picks up the torch again, and his body quivers, tears rolling down his cheeks as he watches her turn it back on.
His sobbing wracks through him, and once the flames eat through his shriveled-up dick, his screams are like nothing I’ve heard before.
She selects a knife next and edges it across his throat.
“Go fuck yourself,” she whispers as she cuts across his flesh, crimson staining her hands with the color of retribution.
When he’s finally dead, she stands tall, staring at what she’s done, and for a moment, I think she’ll regret it.
Instead, she turns to me and smiles.
“So…” She swipes the back of her hand against her bloody cheek. “When can we do that again?”
KAYLA
I can’t believe I enjoyed that. The blood. The gore. But the more I do it, the easier it becomes. When I kill them, I’m able to focus on their actions rather than the fact that I’m a murderer.
Maybe it sounds like an excuse, but it’s valid to me. They’re animals, and some animals need to be put down.
I’ve been scouring the newspapers and the television for any reports of the murders I’ve committed, but so far there has been only one about Fred Avon.
An online newspaper mentioned him going missing.
Convicted and registered sex offender gone missing, it said.
But A has assured me we’re clean. That no trace of any of the bodies can lead back to either one of us.
Sitting beside him in his car, I pass glances at his large hand currently occupying my thigh, his fingers thick and masculine as they grip me like they own me.
A woman like me should loathe the idea of being owned by anyone, but with him, it doesn’t feel like a bad thing. It feels as though he’s rescued me, made me accept who I am now more and more every day.
After he cleaned the blood in the house, he took me back to his place so I could wash away the evidence while he got rid of the body.
When he took a shower, I had every intention of sneaking into the bathroom and seeing him. What the hell would he do to me? He’d never hurt me. I know that like I know the sky is blue. But when I tried to open the door, it was locked. Of course it was.
We drive silently back to my place, and as we reach my driveway, he stops the car and turns to me.
“You still have the necklace I gave you?” he asks, whisking me from my thoughts.
I grin. Fingering the pendant from beneath my t-shirt—well, his t-shirt since I needed to borrow one of his to wear back home—I tug the necklace up, showing him that I in fact kept my promise.
“It’s always with me. Never gonna take it off, remember?”
He nods. “Good girl.”
The pads of his fingers massage my inner thighs, and I squirm from the way my core heats from a single touch.
He groans as he registers my discomfort. “Go, before I do things I’ll regret.”
“I doubt either of us will regret a thing.”
“Kayla, after everything you’ve been through… Are you sure?”
Is he considering it?
But I won’t sleep with him with a mask on. I want to see him. Touch his face. Feel his mouth on mine.
“I know what I want and how I want it. And I want it all with you. But first…” I lower my hand on top of his. “I need you to trust me and show me your face.”
“Fuck,” he mutters, clasping the top of his head, the black hoodie he always wears around it.
“You need to get out of here, baby bird.” His tone grows huskier.
“I’m this close to saying fuck it all and burying myself inside your pretty pussy right here.
And that’s the last thing I wanna do because the first time I’ll have you is when I can spread you open and see every breathtaking inch of you. ”
My body grows ragged, a warm shudder of desire rolling hot through the apex of my thighs, needing him there.
“Go, Kayla. Now.” There’s demand in his voice, and everything in me wants to disobey.
“Fine,” I say. “I’ll go this time. But you’ll give in soon enough.”
“Fucking Christ,” he mutters.
Laughing, I open the door and smirk over my shoulder as I head toward my home. He stays there until I lock up, and then I hear his car go.
I look out the window and don’t see my new bodyguard anywhere. Last I checked, he was still at the party. So easy to sneak away from these guys. I was able to lose him in the crowd, and he definitely didn’t see me with A when I left. If he did, he’d have shown up at the house we were in.
I lock both of the bolts on my door and make sure to secure the back one too. I can’t be too careful, not with everything going on.
Heading for the shower, I turn on the water, the spray pounding against the tiles like heavy raindrops. I strip away my clothes, feeling as though I need to wash it all away, even though I did that already at A’s.
Maybe it’s all the blood. Maybe it affects me more than I want to admit.
As I enter, something catches my attention, a distant sound like someone dropped something on the floor.
My heart races and my chest grows rigid as I grab a robe from the hook and slip into it.
Taking a pair of scissors from the medicine cabinet, I open the door, listening for sounds.
Maybe it’s Terrence coming in to check on me.
Or maybe it’s just old wood or something outside. I can’t live in constant fear.
Once I’m in the living room, I scan the entire perimeter, not seeing a thing out of place.
“I’m being ridiculous.” I laugh to myself and head back into the bathroom, keeping my cell close just in case.
I shut the door and lock it for good measure before I take a shower. Of course there’s no one in the house. My fingers massage the shampoo into my scalp. It’s normal to be scared. Anyone would be.
After I wash away the suds, I rinse off and dry myself quickly, needing to get to bed. Yawning, I drape the robe back on and head toward the staircase leading up to my bedroom.
The stairs creak in an ominous tone and fear prickles up my arms like a premonition or a warning. But I know I’m only scaring myself for no reason. A is close. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
I quickly get dressed and return a few texts from my friends to apologize for leaving the party early and thank them for such an amazing day. I make sure to let Elsie know I’ll pick up my car tomorrow, that I didn’t want to drive when I had something to drink.
Dropping the cell on my nightstand, I flip my comforter and slip under the cool cotton. It feels good to be here, but it would be better if A was beside me, keeping me warm.
My eyelids are heavy as sleep comes quick before it consumes me, and I let the darkness win.