Page 20 of Always Watching
How do you explain the fact that you saw someone for the first time while they were jerking it, and somehow you knew they wereyours?
After shooting Dad another“things are fine”message, I toss my phone onto the bedside table and stand. With Ranen still shying away from working, his cam room has become my temporary bedroom. He’d worried at first that I’d think it wasweirdto sleep on the bed where he performed, but I’d waved him off.
But after sleeping in here for over a week, the scent of him on the sheets has all but faded. I want to fix that problem. Now.
My eyes instantly find him when I step out of the bedroom—he’s at the breakfast counter, chatting away with his phone in his hand. I have to assume it’s his friend Olly, since he’s one of the only people I ever notice Ranen talking to. As much as I’d like to make him disappear so Ranen’s attention is completely focused on me, I have to remind myself that it’s not nice to kill everyone he knows just because I’m jealous.
Because fuck, I think I’m a jealous person. I’ve never thought about it before, never had a reason to explore the emotion… but it’s there, burning along my skin and threatening to make me…
Misbehave.
“Hey,” I say, and I watch his body tense for just a moment before it floods away and he turns to me with a smile. It’s like that every time I walk into the room and he doesn’t notice me. I wonder if he’s going to be jumping at shadows for the rest of his life, or if he’ll get over it once heknowsthe man who hurt him is dead—which he will be.
How could I show him a dead man without letting him know what kind of manIwas? I know myself well enough to know that when I kill him, I’llwantRanen to know it was me.
Shit, how do you have a relationship when you’re a killer?
“Hey, North.” He smiles at me, and I push my worry to the back of my mind.
Then a second voice spills from the corner of the room and I have to school my features into a neutral expression.
“Hey there, son. Didn’t know you slept in so late. Are you sure Ranen here isn’t the one taking care of you?”
My dad is standing at the stove, stirring a pot of something that smells suspiciously like his favorite soup recipe.
“What are you doing here, Dad?” I ask the question in a pleasant voice, but I know he can tell I’m suspicious—he’s grinning like an asshole when he hands the ladle to Ranen, whosmilesat him and turns to the stove.
“Well, your brother told me you were staying here.” Because ofcourseWylder dug into my business when I asked him to work some jobs for me. “I thought I’d bring yourfriendhere some soup, since you had me watching over him.”
Friend.
He says the word like it’s lined with secrets and lead, ready to sink me down to the bottom of the ocean if I’m fool enough to let myself get involved with someone who has no idea who I am—what I really am.
And somehow, he’s apparently here to make it worse.
“Boyfriend.”
I don’t miss the way Ranen’s eyes widen, and then his ears go red when he realizes I’m using the same lie on my dad that he did on his landlord. The red spreads to his cheeks, and I smirk. I like the blush on him so much more than the bruises.
Dad draws up short.
“Boyfriend?”
Well, shit. Is that okay? If it was fair for Ranen to say it to his landlord, it’s fair for me to say it to my dad, right?
Since when did I care if something wasfair, anyway? Still, I throw a look over Dad’s shoulder to Ranen, but he’s already turned back to the stove and is stirring the soup.
The way his mouth lifts up in an amused smile as he does tells me I’m probably not in trouble.
Probably.
It’s a good thing I don’t mind it, even if I am.
My eyes turn from him back to my dad, who’s looking at me with a strange expression.
“I didn’t know you were dating, North.” He only lets himself stumble over the fact for a second before a smile slides across his face that I recognize as a complete mask. “That’s good. You need someone to keep you grounded.”
Am I supposed to feel bad that I didn’t tell him about my fake relationship? It seems like an easier explanation than trying to tell him I saw Ranen and decided he was mine without getting any input from him first. And honestly, Dad knows me well enough that there’s every chance he’s realized the truth, anyway.
