Chapter 41
CHAPTER 41
ZYRAN
It took a long time to wash all the blood from our skin, mostly because we couldn’t keep our hands off each other, but nearly an hour later, we left the bathroom to change into some clean clothes before going back downstairs.
Kiara looks at John again and sighs. “We’re screwed. I’m so glad Grandma’s not here to see this.”
I chuckle, pick her up, and carefully step over the body so she doesn’t have to. When I set her back down, she grabs my hand and looks up at me. “I’m serious, Zyran. What are we going to do?”
I lift her hand to my lips and press a soft kiss to her knuckles. “ We aren’t going to do anything. I’m going to handle this like I told you I would, and I don’t want you worrying about it anymore. Okay?”
She nods and tries to smile, but I can see the uncertainty in her eyes.
“Kiara, I’ve ended the lives of fifteen men in the past year and have gotten away with it. What’s one more body to add to the count?”
Her eyes widen. “Fifteen? You’ve killed all of my dates?”
I furrow my brows in confusion. “Yeah? Why are you so surprised?”
She shrugs and wraps her arms around herself. “I don’t even know.”
I take a step closer to her and pull her against me. “You aren’t thinking about making me leave again, are you? Because I can guarantee you that you won’t be able to get rid of me so easily this time.”
“Being with you is going to take some getting used to,” she says quietly.
For some reason, her words hurt a little. I understand why she feels the way she does, butthe last thing I want is for her to be afraid of me. That’s something I can’t handle.
“Why don’t you go sit on the couch and rest?”
Kiara looks at John again. “You just want me to leave so you can clean up this mess?”
“Yes,” I answer honestly. She’s seen enough—I don’t want her to watch the clean-up process. It’ll get pretty messy.
And gruesome.
She lets out a breath and walks down the hall to the living room. A few seconds later, she turns the TV on and blasts the volume.
Looking down at the bastard’s corpse, I let out an irritated huff. All I want right now is to be balls deep inside Kiara again, but instead, I have to clean up this massive mess I’ve made.
I think this might be my last kill for a bit. While I’ve grown to enjoy the act of murder, the clean-up afterward is an inconvenience.
Unless, of course, someone threatens my butterfly’s safety.
Then I won’t think twice about slicing their throats.
***
It takes over an hour for me to dispose of John’s body and clean the blood off the floor. The runner in the hall is ruined, so I wrap it in a few trash bags and put it into the bed of my truck to throw out, too. But now there’s a huge blood stain soaked into the wood, and it won’t come out.
“What are we going to do?” Kiara asks suddenly from behind me.
I turn around and tap her nose affectionately before scooping her up into my arms. “Again with the ‘we’.”
Kiara rolls her eyes but buries her face in my neck. “I don’t think you understand the severity of this situation,” she says quietly.
“I do, and I promised you I would take care of everything, right?” She nods. “Okay, so stop being so worried and relax. Are you hungry?”
She pops her head up and looks at me. “After what I just witnessed? Absolutely not. And it’s insane that you can even think of food right now.”
I chuckle and set her down in a chair in the kitchen. I’m about to rummage through the fridge when I remember something.
“I have something for you,” I tell Kiara, leaving the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” she calls behind me as I open the downstairs closet door. Pushing aside the junk she’s been throwing in there, I push my way to the back, where the small door leads to what has essentially become my home for over a year.
Once I enter the small space, I turn on my battery-operated light and grab the large gift bag I’ve been holding on to off the floor by my sleeping bag.
“Zyran?” Kiara comes in and looks around the small room, a mixture of confusion and amazement on her face. “What the hell is all this?”
There are pictures of her everywhere —covering nearly every inch of wall space and even scattered across the floor.
She picks up a picture of her and Yolanda at the club the night I saved them from those assholes they were with. At the sight of her friend, Kiara’s bottom lip starts to tremble from the urge to cry.
“I miss her,” she whispers, wiping her face.
I nod. “I know, baby. But she’ll eventually come around like you did with me,” I say hopefully.
A part of me doesn’t want Yolanda to let Kiara back into her life, because I want her all for myself. It’s nice not having to compete with someone else for her attention.
Kiara sets the picture back down and leaves the room. I follow her out and close both doors behind me.
“So… you were living in there?” she asks.
I nod.
“For how long?”
“Over a year.”
Her eyes widen, and I can see the moment everything clicks into place on her face. “That explains the noises I’d been hearing. I thought it was Grandma and Grandpa, but it was you.”
I nod again. “Does that bother you, butterfly?”
She thinks for a moment, then she shakes her head and says, “No. Surprisingly.”
I smile and hand her the gift bag. Her small hands shake as she takes the tissue paper out and pulls out a framed picture of her with her mother and grandparents. I don’t know exactly how old she is in the picture, but she was probably in her late teens, since that’s when her mother passed away.
Immediately, she’s so overcome with emotion that she almost falls to her knees, but I catch her before she can. She wraps her arms around my neck and grips me tightly.
“Thank you so much,” she whispers in between sobs.
I smooth a hand down her hair and back and place a soft kiss to her temple. “There’s something else in the bag.”
Pulling away, I take the picture from her so she can pull out the two brand new bottles of perfume I bought her.
She smiles as she takes the cap off one and sprays the side of my neck. Burying her face there, she deeply inhales the scent on my skin.
“It smells better on you,” she mumbles, wrapping her arms around my waist.
I pull her closer and nuzzle my nose into her thick curls. I don’t know how long we stand there for, but neither one of us makes any attempt to pull away. Even through our layers of clothing, I can feel her heart beating in tune with mine.
This is where I belong—right here with my butterfly. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with Kiara. To maybe start a family with her—if she wants one—to grow old and gray with her, and in our final moments, breathe our last breaths together. No one else can complete me the way she does.
She’s it for me. Today, tomorrow, and every day after that.