As my father and I watched Lindsay’s body burn to ash, I had only one regret…
That I didn’t drag out that panicked spark in her bright eyes a little longer.
Too bad I didn’t have a knife on me now. I would have liked to watch this guy’s blood pool on the floor.
Oh well.
I sighed internally and quietly rolled a suppressor on the barrel of my pistol. Chase wanted quick and clean, so that was what he’d get. At least he didn’t ask any questions.
Lou, on the other hand…
After Lindsay, he really took an interest. For weeks I was pulled into his office and badgered with questions. Most of which I had no problem answering. I got it. Lou made his living understanding people’s minds, so talking with him didn’t bother me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t answer his biggest question.
Why?
I had no idea why, but I did have a theory.
Every species on the planet had a predator, except for humans.
Wolves were reintroduced to Yellow Stone National Park because prey had taken over, putting the ecosystem at risk. Men like me were the equivalent of those wolves with one major exception.
We didn’t clear the population out of need or hunger. We enjoyed doing it, and the prey came right to us. Take Bundy, for example. All he had to do to get his toy for the night was flash a smile.
I couldn’t be bothered playing pretend, yet the girls kept coming, which was a prime example of the stupidity of the human race. They were the lemmings diving off a cliff, worthless in every way other than the slight satisfaction their death might bring.
Like the asshole currently in my sights—there was no need to kill him. I knew nothing about him other than that his name was Ricky, and Chase wanted him dead. Didn’t care to know anything else.
Ricky was just another life I got the privilege of ending. He was nothing more than another number to add to my book, a foil flower to add to my collection. If anything, he was more of an annoyance.
I couldn’t even take my time and enjoy his end. Slice him up and torture him a bit like I wanted. Doing that would be a lot better than this shit. Maybe I’d shoot Chase when I was done here for wasting my time.
Might as well get this done.
I stepped forward and paused when moonlight glinted off one of the candle sticks on the altar. The way it slid down the clean silver edge reminded me of another church I’d been to two years ago. That building was in much better shape than this one.
Actually, this church was one step above a hole in the ground, which was saying a lot considering the neighborhood around it. Pretty sure the house across the street was a crack den, and the one next to that was abandoned. On the upside, I couldn’t ask for a better place to off someone.
My vision blurred as a girl with her head delicately bowed appeared on the pew next to Ricky. My gaze trickled over the long dark locks flowing down her back like the softest waterfall as I was brought back to that day.
I even had the same pistol in my hand.
Held it up to the back of her head with my finger on the trigger. Then I saw the book Marnie Dupire had tucked into the Bible she was pretending to read.
Ulysses was a hard book to get through—I had to read that shit for school—and there she was reading it for fun. Who the fuck did that?
It was that intrigue that saved her life that day.
I ducked back into the shadows and followed her around. I needed to find out what else she was hiding. Oh, and my Little Bird was hiding a lot. Shit that no one would really care about, but still.
I’d get it if she were jacking cars in her spare time or something like that…but superior intelligence? Hiding that, I didn’t understand.
The girl could’ve given Finn a run for his money. I knew this because I’d found an IQ test she’d taken tucked away in her desk drawer, but she was wasting her potential in a public school. What possible gain could she get from doing that?
Marnie Dupire had every advantage right there, just waiting for her to reach out and take it. Yet she stayed tucked in the shadow of her slut sister.
There had to be a reason, and I was going to find out what it was. At least, that was my intent until the night I stood outside her bedroom window and watched her touch herself.
That was when my plan changed.
