Hours go by, or perhaps just minutes. Time holds no meaning. Eventually, I drop to the carpet in defeat, the key nowhere to be found. I lay there, unblinking, unseeing. Minutes tick by on the clock, the room darkens and lightens, then darkens again. The shadows keep me company, slowly thickening until the room is nothing but an oily blackness, and I escape into it gladly, letting them pull me under. Down, down, down into the place where memories don’t reside.
Chapter 14
Trey
Ican be a patient person. When I want something, I can wait years for it, all the while working in the background, planning and pulling strings to make sure things come out in my favor.
Tessa is a testament to that—twelve years is a long time to hold on to an obsession.
But it feels different with Rebecca. My heart breaks listening to her story, while at the same time, rage has my muscles tense, my jaw clenched so tightly I can hear teeth cracking against the strain. A primal need to protect her claws through me, and I want nothing more than to hunt down every man that has ever touched her. I want to bang my chest, stomp off into the wilderness, take down her enemies and lay their heads at her feet.
This is how I know that Tessa and the ones before her were merely that—obsessions. I lost my way trying to force something to be between us that was never meant to be there.
This all-consuming feeling that has me hard one second and bloodthirsty the next, that both keeps me from sleeping and yet invades my dreams, is something I have never experienced before. No one else exists now, but for her.
If she wants to run, I will run with her. If she wants to hunt down and slaughter the men that hurt her, I will hand her the weapons she needs. If she needs to drench herself in blood, I will stand at her side, a bloodstained demon to protect her back.
Rebecca sighs as she turns towards me. “I think there’s something wrong with me, Trey,” she whispers, wiping the final tears from her cheeks. “I—I know they are gone. I do. I just—” she stops, unable to put her thoughts into words.
“You weren’t able to let go. You needed them to still be alive, so you created a world where they were.”
Her hand squeezes mine as she nods. “I kept the camera shows running, organized more auctions and sales. I need them to pay, Trey. I want them to know fear. They can’t keep doing this to more children, I can’t let that happen.”
“They won’t,” I promise her, conviction clear in my tone. “I’ll help you, okay? We’ll take them down.”
Checking my mirrors, I put the blinkers on, crossing lanes to move towards the next off-ramp. “When was the last time you ate something?” I ask, realizing that we’ve been driving for a couple of hours.
“I’m not sure.”
“Hungry?”
She nods, sliding a bit in her seat to be closer to me, resting her head against my arm.
“Okay, there are some fast food places just ahead. Anything in particular?”
“Fast food?” she asks back, brow furrowed.
When the fuck did I start finding shit like frowns cute? I might start panicking if I didn’t already know that I’m a goner.
“McDonald’s? KFC? Taco Bell?”
I risk a quick glance down at her, and she’s looking back at me with confusion. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve had that. Maybe before, but not since I came to live with Momma and Papa.”
Making a note to find out more about her history, I turn into McDonald’s. You can’t go wrong with a burger, fries, and thick milkshake, right? I park while we eat, doing my best to ignore the little food orgasms Rebecca seems to be having, if her soft moans are any indication. She licks her fingers when she’s done, leaning back in her seat with a satisfied grin stretching across her face.
“What will we do now?” she asks as I place all the packaging into the bag, tossing it in the backseat.
Turning to face her, I take in her sparkling eyes and feel myself wanting to just dive into them, into her. My cock wakes at the memories of being deep inside her warmth, and I lean forward, brushing my lips lightly against hers before I settle back.
“We’ll get a room for the night, and tomorrow we’ll go shopping to get you some clothes. Have you already taken care of Earl on one of your killing sprees, or is he still out there?”
She giggles over the killing spree comment, before going serious. “No, he’s still out there. He would have been one of the ones investigating the deaths, and I’m sure he would link it back to me. I kept expecting the police to show up at the door, but they never did.”
“Probably because his DNA will be all over the house.”
“What’s DNA?”
Fuck, how do you explain that? “Every person has like, umm, a secret code inside them. It’s what makes you, you. It’s in your blood, spit, cum, hair, and tissue. If you leave bits of yourself somewhere, the police can test it and find you because of the code.”
