Trey tilts his head, like a puppy not understanding that killing the family rabbit was wrong. “What I explained isn’t answer enough? We don’t pander to disease or infection. We cut it out. We get rid of it. You do it your way for the betterment of the world, and I do it mine.”
“Y-you’ve… done this before?”
Trey smiles. Hesmiles, and I am chilled to the bone and completely frozen.
“H-how many times?”
“Never enough, but as many as I can.”
Oh fuck.Fuck. Trey isn’t a secret agent.
He’s a fucking serial killer.
I don’t know what to say, but I can feel the lingering panic turning to tears. I can’t stop them. One streaks down my cheek, right over my scar, and I know Trey is going to wipe it away before he does. I know him, can anticipate him, and yet… can I?DoI? Do I know him at all?
“No need for that.” Trey strokes my cheek as expected. “You are safe. You are a light in this world, Walker, not filth like him.He deserved it, but he wasn’t going to have his due justice served to him without help, and if I hadn’t offered my help, innocent people would have continued to suffer for it. Do you understand yet?” He’s still holding me, still stroking my cheek, but his voice is empty again, cold, like anything beyond that detachment is the real act.
“I-I do.” I nod, probably too hastily.
Definitely too hastily, because Trey grins. “I know you’re lying, because you’re afraid of me now. But you have nothing to be afraid of. Not so long as you remain smart with your reactions tonight.” He stops his stroking of my scar to hold my chin and keeps my head tilted up at him. “You won’t say anything to anyone, will you?”
I shake my head just as hastily. I don’t know if I mean it, but I doubt I could say much to anyone right now.
“That I believe is the truth. For now. Get dressed. Wait for me in the main room. Have another glass of wine. Relax. And I will take care of everything. Butdon’trun. Okay?”
I take another slow breath and nod again.
Trey helps me to stand, helps me into the bedroom, and sits me on the edge of the bed. He goes out to retrieve all of the clothes we left in the other room. He doesn’t redress himself yet, but he hands me my clothes and stays with me until it’s clear I can move on my own as I start to put them back on. Then he drags the body into the bathroom and closes the door.
I don’t bother with my tie or tucking in my shirt. My tie is covered in precome anyway, so I shove it into my pants pocket opposite my inhaler and wobbly make it back to the beautifully decorated table. Along the way, I grab the remaining glass of wine from the coffee table, still mostly full.
I down about half of it before I sit.
I know I’m in shock, but all I can do is drink and stare at the door. How can I run? Part of me wants to, but Trey knows whereI live. If he stalked this man easily enough to kill him, he knows everything about me too. Most of it I told him. He knows the hospital. My favorite places. My favorite things. My ex…
I look to the window. It’s magical with the fairy lights around it, aimed at the city, at Curtis’s freaking apartment. Even without the camera setup there anymore, now I have to wonder for real… what had it been pointing at?
The playlist has stopped on the laptop, I know because I can hear… the faint but familiar enough to me sounds of a bone saw being used in the bathroom.
I down the rest of the wine and pour myself more. Then I start another playlist and turn up the volume. I’m still full of good food and wine and enough nausea that I could throw up any minute, but I hold it all down. I can’t keep more tears from falling though. I just try to breathe and sip my new glass a little slower, so I don’t black out for a different reason any time soon.
I hear the bathroom door open and close a few times while I wait—Trey getting supplies or something?—but when I finally hear the shower going, I know he must be finished. I don’t want to turn around and look in that direction though, because I don’t know what I’ll see. I don’t look at anything but the front door until Trey comes up beside me.
He’s returned in just his tux pants and shirt, dressed down like I am. “May I?” he asks with a nod at the wine glass. There isn’t as much of this refill gone yet.
I nod and pry my fingers from it.
“Thank you.” Trey tips back his own clean gulp. “The body is ready for disposal. It’s in bags, multiple. I will take care of it, but I need to do so now, which means I need to leave for a while.”
I snap my eyes to his. They really are black. With the reflection of the fairy light making his pupils glow, he could be a demon here to collect my soul.
“Do you wish to ask me something, Walker?” queries the spider of the fly.
I do. “Did you… kill Curtis?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
