Chapter 13
Devon
I texted Caydence and let her know there was a gift for her on the front desk and that she should open it before she came into the office tonight. I’m excited for this. I don’t think she knows just how much so.
I sit back with my feet kicked up, crossed at the ankle as I wait for her. I think she’s going to be both shocked and excited about my gift for her tonight.
I hear the elevator, and I sit back waiting. I can hear her walk through the room and then stop. Then I hear the scream, and I count down until she makes it into my office.
“Three, two, one,” I say when the door flies open, and she comes storming in.
“What the fuck is this? Is this some kind of joke?” she yells as she looks at me. I smile at her and shake my head.
“This is not a joke.”
“Is that … it’s a finger, Devon!”
“Yes, it is.”
“Why the hell is there a finger in a box?” she asks. “It’s not real, right?” She holds the box in her hand until she sees the smile on my face fade. It’s then that she realizes the finger is, in fact, real. She drops it and steps away as if she’s been burned by it.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asks as she steps back. I drop my feet to the floor and stand, walking toward her. When I reach her, I reach around and close the door, locking it so she can’t escape when I tell her the rest.
“Caydence, I told you once no one would ever hurt you again, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And I meant what I said,” I tell her as I walk over and pull the cover off the asshole I had kneeling on the floor. Caydence gasps, covering her mouth so that she doesn’t scream as she backs into the door.
“What the hell is going on? Who is that?” she asks in a panic.
“Caydence, this is Jeff. This is the asshole who slammed his car into you,” I clarify as I point at him. Her watery eyes move from the man on the floor to me, and that’s where they hold.
“What is he doing here?”
“He’s here to make things right. Did you know he was drunk when he hit you?” I ask her as I walk around him. She shakes her head, but her eyes are still as wide as saucers.
“Devon.” I raise my hand. She doesn’t need to speak right now, only listen.
“He could have killed you that night. He could have killed anyone, but the most important one was you. I couldn’t allow that to happen again, right? So I brought him here,” I tell her.
“To do what?” she asks shakily.
“Kill him.”
“What?” she yells this time. She can yell all she wants to; there’s no one here to hear what’s going on, and there’s no one on the other floors either. Only Sal at the desk, and he’s here to clean up my messes.
“He could have killed you, Caydence.”
“But he didn’t. Just … just let him go. I think he learned his lesson,” she blurts quickly as the man looks at her with tears of his own in his eyes.
“Stop looking at her!” I roar. He immediately pulls his gaze from Caydence and looks at the floor.
“Devon, you’ll go to prison.” Now I laugh. I’m not going anywhere.
“You have so little faith in me,” I tell her.
“If you kill him, that’s murder.”
“I know exactly what it is, Caydence. I also know that I’m not going to prison for it,” I confidently state.
“You can’t … just think about this, Devon.”
“I thought about it the whole time you were in bed healing from what he did to you.”
“And this is what you came up with?”
“I thought you’d like it. Isn’t that what you read in all those dark romance books of yours?” I ask her now. She looks at me, confused about how to respond to that. I know what she reads, and I’m doing nothing more than acting out what they do.
“Those are books, Devon. Fiction. Not real!” She yells at me.
“And yet you love them. You love the idea of the man killing for his woman. That’s no different than what I’m doing now,” I tell her.
“Are you kidding me? It’s not real! This … this is … he’s really here, Devon! You’ll go to jail.”
“I really wish you’d stop saying that. I’m not going anywhere,” I repeat.
“That’s how real life works, Devon. You go to jail for murder!”
“Come on, Caydence. Just calm down with the murder stuff, okay? He hurt you, and I’m going to hurt him. That’s it.” She covers her mouth yet again and looks as if she might be sick.
“I’ll be an accomplice. I don’t want to go to jail, Devon,” she cries now. I laugh. The fact that she thinks I would let anyone touch her is beyond funny. I wouldn’t let this bastard get away with hurting her, and she thinks I would let them take her to jail? How wrong she is about me.
“You aren’t going to jail. No one is going to jail.”
“So you’ll let him go?” she asks through her tears.
“I didn’t say that either.”
“Devon!”
“Caydence, come on. He hurt you. He could have killed you,” I remind her once again.
“But he didn’t. I’m fine,” she argues.
“What if you didn’t wake up? Huh? What was I supposed to do then?”
“I’m fine, Devon. Look at me,” she exclaims, throwing her arms out to the sides. I know she doesn’t want this to happen, but it’s happening anyway.
“You don’t have to look when I do it.”
“What?”
“You don’t have to look when I kill him. That might be too much for you anyway.”
“Are you serious? Devon, please. Don’t do this,” she begs as tears slide down her perfect cheeks.
“He could have killed you, Caydence. In fact, if I let him go, he’ll just do it again. Do you want that on your conscience when he does kill someone?” I’m trying my best to reason with her, but she isn’t getting it at all.
“Let him go,” she insists. I walk over and stand behind him, lifting his head by his hair and pulling the knife from my pocket. I press it against his throat as her eyes widen.
“Devon, please.”
“Don’t beg. Not now.” I drag the blade across his throat, listening as he gags and then falls to the floor.
Caydence screams, covering her mouth as she clenches her eyes shut.
I toss the knife onto the desk and walk toward her.
When I’m close enough, I grab her and pull her into my arms. She tries to push me away, but I don’t let her.
I keep her held close as she cries into my chest.
“You have to understand, I couldn’t let him live,” I tell her as she sobs into my chest.
I’ve done it. I’ve broken my little angel’s wings. I’ve ruined her pretty little heart by doing this in front of her, but she has to know there are no lengths I wouldn’t go to for her. Anyone who ever hurt her is going to pay for it, by my hand.
I keep her tucked into me, just holding her until her body becomes too heavy for even her to hold up.
She’s all cried out over this, and that’s when I lift her in my arms and carry her out of the office.
Her body is slumped against me as we ride the elevator down to the main floor, and I inform Sal that he needs to clean up the mess.
He nods his head in acknowledgment and gets on his phone to make the calls as I carry her out to the car.
I sit her in the seat and buckle her in before I get in and drive her home. Once we arrive, I lift her once again, carrying her inside and placing her in her bed. She’s cried herself out, and that’s all my fault, but that isn’t the end of my killing just yet.