by Nicole Thorn
****
I didn’t stay in her bedroom long. I sat on the couch, watching her fall asleep. The perfect silence let all of my thoughts sit in peace for the first time. Just me, her, and a dark room. It felt like enough.
Once her chest began to rise and fall at an even pace, I left her and went back to my car. I felt perfectly happy to sit there and watch over her. I couldn’t think of another way to be sure that she’d stay safe from the monster who lived to kill. He would come back. When he did, I would kill him.
Lynnie marched out of her house hours later with breakfast. I felt guilty and honored at the same time.
“Howdy, copper,” she said, greeting me and handing over a plate containing an egg sandwich. “How was your night?”
I took the food and leaned to my right, opening the passenger door for her. She smiled and skipped over, sliding in. She crossed her bare legs, shown off by short shorts. She had on a t-shirt and my police jacket over it. I hadn’t asked for it back, and I certainly wouldn’t do it now. I’d have to come up with a good excuse to tell the sheriff when I asked to order another one. Maybe I could tell him someone stole it. I wouldn’t have been telling a total lie.
I took a bite of the food she gave me. “It was fine. I had a book to read. Red Dragon.”
She seemed pleased with that answer. “I love that series. Have you read it before?”
“Couple of times.”
She sighed to herself, leaning back and putting her feet on my dash. “So what are we doing today?”
“Huh?”
She eyed me. “You’re my personal babysitter. I believe it is your job to keep me out of trouble. Unless you have something better to do. Hot date is it? Or are you sick of my face.”
I smiled and stared out the window. “I am in no way sick of your face.”
“Good, then we need to decide on something to do. It’s a little chilly for skinny dipping in the lake, so that’s out.” She waved her hand, as if physically dismissing it. “That’s not entirely true, I suppose. I’ll watch you skinny dip if you want.”
I laughed. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Okay then, Mr. Boring. I’ll let you pick. As long as we’re together, I don’t care. I don’t think I’m up for being alone. All I see is that dead girl when I close my eyes. Then I open them again, and I think I’m going to see the killer in front of me. I can’t even keep myself safe. I feel useless,” she said with impotent rage.
I set the plate on my lap so that she knew she had all of my attention. “I have an idea. It’s very illegal, so I doubt you’ll be interested.” I smirked, and in turn, she smirked back. God, she looked gorgeous with a hint of deviltry in her eyes.
“What might that be?”
I shrugged. “You don’t feel safe, and I know how to give you a little power back.”
“Screw me and let me be on top?” she asked eagerly.
I knew she meant it as a joke. I still just stared at her, eyebrows raised high from the shock of hearing her talk like that. I might have laughed, but I thought it would have come out sounding odd.
“No,” I said. “Jesus Christ, Lynnie.”
“I was joking. I know I have a bad sense of humor, trust me on that.”
I didn’t actually trust her, since she hadn’t joked like that when I’d first met her. I would have liked to take that as her getting more comfortable with me, but I decided to not look too close.
“I thought I could teach you to shoot.”
She went quiet and extremely stoic for a long beat. “You want me to shoot a gun?”
“Not a bad thing to know how to do.” In no way did I think this decision would be responsible or even a particularly good idea, but with a killer on the loose and too close to her, I didn’t hate the idea of her knowing how to handle a gun. My boss would have decapitated me if he caught wind of this plan.
She clapped once. “Sounds perfect. Let’s go.”
“I have to stop by my house first. I need to do some things. Do you have anything to do? Call your parents?”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “No. I texted my mother this morning, and she still hasn’t gotten back to me. Bird won’t talk to anyone either. Everyone is still freaked out. And I’m the bitch who’s not crying in the fetal position.”
“You’re not a bitch just because you’re not shutting down over this. That would be unhealthy.”
As if to end the discussion, she took the empty plate from me, got out of the car and went inside to put it away. When she came back out, she had on shoes and she’d put her hair up in a ponytail. She looked both ways before crossing the street and skipped back over to me.
When we went to my house, she waited in my car for me. I fed the dog, changed my clothes, and grabbed a box of bullets before I returned.
She eyed the box. “Am I using your cop gun? Because that sounds illegal as fuck.”
“Oh, it is. But no one pays any attention, so I can discharge my weapon without having to report it.”
Wide eyes met mine. “So glad Willow Grove’s finest are on their game. You… you would get crucified if anyone knew you were doing this. You know that, right?”
I shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“Wow, only in a small town. I don’t recommend you go to Los Angeles any time soon.”
“I would never. Why leave a place so quiet and boring? Might as well live and die here.”
She sneered at me. “Your apathy is so damn sexy.”
I smirked and started driving. She asked what I had been doing when I stopped off at the store and dragged her inside. I didn’t tell her, because the confused expression on her face when I grabbed several sodas looked too cute. She helped me carry them out to the car and put them in the trunk.
I knew of a place near an abandoned farm a few miles outside of town. God only knew how long it had been like that, but I’d never seen anyone there. Without any houses nearby, it would be perfect.
When we got there, I watched Lynnie examine it with her eyes. The only things around were trees, an old fence, and a broken down barn. I saw it as peaceful, but a normal person would probably see it as terrifying. Not a place you’d want to be caught in during the night.
I grabbed the glass bottles of soda and put them on my car’s hood. I handed one to Lynnie and went to put the other on the wooden post. Lynnie grinned like the Cheshire Cat when I got back.
“Oh,” she said. “Targets?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Glass will be satisfying to shoot. For example…” I pulled the gun from my side and aimed. When I pulled the trigger, the bottle exploded, spraying purple liquid all over the fence.
When I looked back at Lynnie, her eyes had widened and her mouth hung open, just a little. She shifted on her feet, cleared her throat and pressed her lips tightly together.
“Not gonna lie,” she said in a deeper voice than normal. “I’m a little bit incredibly turned on right now.”
I smiled. “Really?”
She nodded and looked down. “Little Lynn is awake and ready to go.” Then she sighed and shook her head. “I learn new things about myself every day.”
“Sorry…”
She closed her eyes and shook her head again. “Oh no… don’t be sorry. I’m gonna go behind that tree for eleven minutes. Just look in the other direction and ignore the sounds you may hear.”
“Or,” I said. “I can let you shoot.”
Her eyes narrowed at me. “Are you trying to make me jump you? Because there’s a really good chance that’s about to happen.”
I had to remind myself half a dozen times that she didn’t mean it. She didn’t want to have sex with me. If she did, then she would be insane.
She came up to me, and I started going over the basic safety of handling a gun. This sounded like an awful idea, but she looked so excited that I couldn’t pull the plug. After I set up another bottle, I returned to her.
“It’s going to have a kickback,” I warned. “So hold on as tight as you can. You can ge
t a broken nose otherwise, and no one wants that.”
“Got it.” She raised her hands, gripping the gun. Her stance looked all wrong and she had terrible aim.
I moved behind her and gripped her hips. She squeaked, but she didn’t tell me to back off. I set her hips, pulling her closer to me than she had to be. She wiggled around, rubbing up against me.
I slid my hands up her sides, moving them up to her arms so that I could help her aim. Yeah, that seemed like a good cover. I spoke in her ear. “Hold it steady and pull the trigger when you’re ready. Do you have any questions?”
“No.” Her response almost sounded breathy.
I put my hands on her waist and held her while she pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the wood and Lynnie went backwards a little. I caught her and watched her take everything in. Even missing, she looked over the moon. Her chest pumped up and down and her smile brightened.
“That was amazing,” she said. “Holy hell, you get to do this for a living?”
“I mostly do paperwork…”
She turned around, putting the safety on the gun. Smart girl. When she aimed her eyes up at me, I stopped breathing. She had such life in her face, and her nose wrinkled up. Her freckles popped in the sunlight. “Yeah, I’m definitely too into this. I’m gonna have some confusing dreams later.”
We kept going because she insisted we did until she broke a bottle. It took an hour, but she did it. She jumped up and down, cheering, for almost five minutes afterward. And then she hugged me and my entire world changed. Her body felt so soft pressed right up against me.
We sat on the hood of my car, drinking the surviving sodas. Lynnie seemed to feel much better as she watched the sky. I still felt the box in my pocket, and I figured now would be as good a time as any to give it to her. Either she’d figure out she needed to stay away from me, or she would like the gift. Honestly, both options scared me.
I took it out of my pocket and held it in my hand. “Your birthday got kind of ruined,” I said. “I was hoping to give this to you under more pleasant circumstances.”
Lynnie took a pull from her bottle and set it down. “Oh no, is this where you stab me and dump my body in the woods? Damn, I knew this was coming.”
I almost laughed. “Close. I was out yesterday and I saw this. Happy birthday.” I put the box in her hand.
Honestly, I went out specifically to find something for her, and came across a delicate silver locket. Angel wings made up the sides, folding into the shape of a heart. She would open the wings to reveal space for a picture I didn’t put inside. Hopefully she had something.
“Oh my God,” she said when she opened the box. Her fingertips ran over the metal. “This is beautiful. Thank you.” She leaned over to me, wrapping her arms around my neck. Her lips lingered on my cheek a little longer each time she kissed me. She got me just outside of my lips again, and she hesitated when she pulled back. “Can you put it on me?”
She turned around, lifting her hair up. I did as she asked. I clasped the chain, straightening it afterward. Her skin felt like silk when I touched it. Lynnie turned back around, and the locket hung crooked. I went to fix it for her without warning. She reacted, but not negatively. Her eyes dropped down to where my hands touched her chest. She knew what I intended to do, and she made no move to stop me. Even after I’d fixed the necklace, I couldn’t pull my hand away. Temptation told me to keep going, see how far I could take it before Lynnie would be done. But I didn’t do it.
We left, and I told her that we needed to make a couple of stops before we went back to her place. First, my house. Blue had been there alone all day and he needed some time outside. I ran in, and he greeted me with yips and glee. He ran around in circles before jumping up to me.
I picked him up, and looked him in the eyes. “You’re about to meet a friend of mine. You better be nice.”
He howled and pressed his nose to my face. I took it as an agreement.
Lynnie turned into a little girl when I came back to the car. Sort of screaming, she melted into someone made of glitter and happiness.
“You have a puppy and didn’t tell me?” she scolded, reaching for my dog. I handed him over, because I didn’t want to die like this. “Hello, baby,” she cooed at the dog, who seemed happy to have finally met someone who liked being alive. Lynnie cuddled him to her chest, and his face snuggled up to her breasts. He stared at me knowingly. He looked smug about the love she bestowed on him. Ha, ha, look what Lynnie is letting me do. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I got in and started the car. “I didn’t think to.”
“Oh, I love you,” she said to Blue. “You’re so cute. What’s his name?”
“Blue.”
“Blue!” She smiled at the dog. “You are very pretty, Blue. I can’t believe your daddy hid you from me.”
I started driving, letting Lynnie freak out over the dog. If I knew it would be this easy, I would have brought him to her a week ago. She seemed quite taken with him.
“We have to take him for a walk.” Lynnie decided. “He should run around.”
“Anything you want,” I said truthfully. If it meant spending time with her, I’d do it. “I warn you, though, he likes tricking you into thinking he’s tired so you have to carry him.”
She snorted. “He’s a puppy. He’s not capable of deception.”
“Oh, yes he is.”
I caught her rolling her eyes as the puppy snuggled her again.
I pulled up to the station and told Lynnie that I would only be a few minutes. I had to make sure I clocked in for today. Not that I cared too much if I got paid for this, but I might get in trouble if I didn’t sign in. It didn’t take long, and I made sure to fix it so it had the correct time I started. In and out in two minutes.
I would have been back out to the car in a moment, but something caught my eye. In the paper shredder, something shined. It blinded me for a moment, having caught on the lights. I looked over, squinting to see it better. It looked like a penny, and I couldn’t imagine someone being so stupid as to stick that in there.
I unplugged the machine and pulled the top off. The penny appeared untouched, but I tossed it in the trash anyway. When I went to put the top back on and test it, I saw glossy paper. It appeared thick, like the printed photos we used for our crime scene pictures. The picture had been destroyed, but I could see blood stained clothes in a couple of the strips that laid the right way. Then an eye and a slit stomach.
That should not have been there. Even the photos that came out poorly needed to be archived, or had doubles made. We had rules and procedures, all of which had been broken by somebody.
It didn’t matter to me. I had a girl and a puppy waiting for me in my car, both of which I cared about a thousand times more than someone cutting corners.
I left the station, only to be greeted by a smiling girl sitting in my car. One look and it made my body feel different. Like I could feel a soul in me, just as long as I had her approval. I wanted to bask in it until this feeling got ripped out of my hands.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
The Crash
Rocelyn
Isaiah had the day off and I knew I shouldn’t have been upset about it. A woman named Barbie had taken over for him, and she acted overly peppy. Hypocritical of me to say, since I acted like a big ball of goof whenever I got around Isaiah, but still…
But, with my preferred company gone, it didn’t seem so bad that my parents came home. They rarely showed up, so it felt odd. They only came home because of the party incident. It felt petty to think, but both of them forgot my birthday. They only remembered when they called the sheriff and he went over the story with them. So they transferred a thousand dollars into my bank account, still managing to not say the words ‘happy birthday’.
My mother talked on the phone in the backyard, probably speaking with a client. She looked pissed off.
My father worked hard, having someone else install a new security system. While the box with a heart p
ut him on edge, he didn’t believe that the girl at the party had anything to do with me. Just in case, though, he wanted to make sure I had protection. The recent spike in deaths had been reason enough for him to drop a few grand on the upgrades.
The man installing said upgrades looked put out with my father and his micromanaging. Dad didn’t like that the man didn’t look clean cut. He didn’t say it, but I knew. While my father wore dress pants and a tucked in button-up, the other man had on jeans and a sweater. Dad liked to keep his orange hair combed neatly, and the other man had messy dark blond hair. He glared at my father every time Dad opened his mouth. I stayed in the kitchen, making cookies and watching the two men work. They stood at the back door, adding a pin pad.
I didn’t care about the bickering; I focused on the cookie dough. I dumped a cup of chocolate chips into the bowl and began mixing. The oven beeped, and I set the cookie sheets out. Then I started rolling the cookies.
Even though Isaiah stayed home today, I still hoped to see him. I’d use the excuse that I made too many cookies. Oops. Don’t want them to go uneaten. He simply had to let me in his house so that I could feed him and then violate him.
I made the cookies for him and him alone. In all honesty, I hoped to get a few minutes with him. I knew he needed a break from me, but I needed to see him and I wanted to see the puppy too. He had been so cute on his walk. He sniffed everything and dragged me all around, so full of energy and life. It had been odd picturing him as Isaiah’s dog, since he was such a calm man. But he loved Blue and I knew it, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
“I sure would like it if my daughter didn’t get stabbed to death and eaten,” my father snapped at the poor man. I didn’t catch what brought it on, but I paid attention now. “Can you make sure you’re not cutting corners, please?”
The worker sighed. “Sir, I am doing everything I need to be doing. I promise that nothing will be able to get into this house without your permission. If the code isn’t entered within thirty seconds, the police are notified and will come to your rescue.” Everything out of his mouth sounded deadpan, so I didn’t feel all that safe.
