Paint It All Red (Mindf*ck Series Book 5)

by S. T. Abby

  My part was miniscule. All I had to do was be the lookout during the planning of this.

  This wasn’t just my revenge. It was theirs more so than mine.

  Christopher Denver wronged my father in more ways than I can even fathom, even played his best friend and lawyer, but at the end of the day, Jake was his own son. He was wronged the most.

  Because of his father, Jake lost the love of his life back then.

  Because of his father, Olivia’s sister was raped and murdered.

  My misery was placed on the backburner. I had enough people to kill.

  “This is crazy. Olivia should be on the run if they suspect her,” Jake says thoughtfully, drawing me out of my own reverie.

  “It says they have a male suspect they’re looking into,” I say, confused. “They don’t suspect her.”

  “Can you find more on it?” he asks as I try scaling down.

  “No. It’s just a small article that barely even cares to mention this at all. I’ll see what I can find, but I know someone far better at all this computer stuff than me.”

  I shove at his chest, and he grunts while rubbing the spot like I hurt him as he winks at me.

  “Not right now. I was in the middle of dreaming up a good threesome. I’d like to return to that dream.”

  I narrow my eyes at him, and he groans while lying back down.

  “I’ll look into it later, Lana. I genuinely don’t give a shit who killed him. I’m just glad the fucker is finally dead.”

  He covers his face, his breathing already steadying as he starts drifting back off to sleep. Rolling my eyes, I push back up to my feet and walk back to the house.

  For once, Bennett doesn’t attack my feet the second I walk in, and I kick off my shoes while looking around and making kissing noises. “Bennett! Come on, Kitty. I need to give you a bath.”

  He doesn’t come, and I frown. Usually he’s all over us after we’ve been gone for a minute.

  Deciding to chase him down later, I go to the fridge and grab a bottle of water, but my hand hovers over a bottle as I stare and tilt my head.

  It’s a habit to count things and take in my surroundings, always aware of any change. And I’m positive there were three beers beside my water this morning. Now there’s only one beer.

  Slowly, I grab my water as a chill slides down my spine. It’s possible Jake has already started drinking, but doubtful, considering there were no beer cans near him.

  It feels like someone else is here, but I don’t make it obvious by looking around. The living room is just beyond me, and I grab a knife and an apple, acting as though I’m about to peel it.

  Abandoning the water bottle, I stab a new nail into my wax apple to represent the man I wanted dead the second most, but I pause, noticing it’s been turned. I look at this apple every single day. I know it’s not facing the right angle.

  I move through the house, seeing nothing obviously out of place, but there is more sand in the dining room than normal. Bennett should be all over my feet right now, but he’s not.

  Slowly, I start peeling the apple as I move into the living room, and the chill in my spine has it stiffening. There’s no doubt that I feel eyes on me right now.

  “If you’ve hurt my cat, you have no idea what that will cost you.”

  I spin around, the knife in hand as I drop the apple, but my entire body turns to stone when I see someone smirking at me from the corner.

  Logan pushes off from the wall, and I’m tempted to pinch myself just to be sure I’m not hallucinating or dreaming.

  “Your cat’s name is Bennett?” he asks, his lips twitching as the knife tumbles from my hand. “I’m not sure how I feel about that,” he goes on, stalking closer.

  My bad leg tries to give out, and I stumble, but Logan’s arms are immediately around me, his scent engulfing me as those hands grip my waist.

  I tilt my head back as unshed tears start clouding my eyes, and he stares expectantly.

  “You’re here,” I rasp, which is a ridiculous thing to say after three months.

  “You let me think you were dead,” he says, his voice strained.

  “I didn’t want to risk contacting you and getting you in trouble,” I quickly explain. “They were monitoring your calls because you were stirring up trouble even on leave and—”

  He puts a finger over my mouth, silencing my babble.

  “They still don’t know it was you. Did you kill Jason as a sign to me that you’re still alive, or was he just unfinished business? The torture was mild in comparison to the others, almost as though you were in a hurry.”

  He pulls his finger down from my lips, dragging it, and I shudder against him while staring into those too-familiar blues.

  “It was the safest way to tell you. I didn’t think it’d take them so long to find him. And I couldn’t do it sooner because I couldn’t even walk without crutches until—”

  He silences me when his lips come down on mine, and I melt against him, reveling in the feel of his kiss. Tears spring from my eyes as I kiss him harder, clinging to him like I can’t let go.

  I’m breathless and dizzy when he finally breaks the kiss, but I manage to blink the tears away and speak.

  “How’d you find me?”

  “You said if you could be anywhere, you’d be in Greece with me. I hoped that meant you came to wait,” he says softly, thumbing my chin.

  “But your job—”

  “I left it,” he says, studying my eyes.

  “And your life—”

  “Is wherever you are. Guess you shouldn’t have been so perfect if you didn’t want me to love you this much.”

  I blow out a frustrated breath over that word. Perfect. He knows the truth is so far from that now.

  “I didn’t want you to sacrifice everything for—”

  He kisses me again, most likely to shut me up, but I don’t care. Any reason for his lips to be on mine is a perfect reason.

  Finally, he breaks the kiss.

  “I signed up to ensure justice,” he says, brushing his lips over mine. “I didn’t sign up to play politics. I’d rather be in Greece with you than sitting in someone’s pocket back home. And before you get the clever idea to leave me behind because you think you’re ruining anything for me, you should know I can’t ever go back.”

  My brow furrows. “Why?”

  “Because I made sure there was no way to leave you with any doubt.”

  My eyes search his, and it finally dawns on me. “It was you who shot Christopher,” I whisper in shock.

  “That was my message to you,” he goes on. “Didn’t realize it’d take them so long to find the body.”

  I shiver in his arms, realizing how fucked up this token of love would be to the rest of the world. But to me, roses and poems can’t compare.

  “So you’re here to stay?” I ask, still reeling.

  “You can’t ever leave me again. I’m assuming there aren’t any other secrets?”

  “No other debts to collect,” I assure him.

  He stares at my lips like they’re fascinating, still cupping my chin as he starts backing me toward my room. I guess he’s been getting familiar with the home.

  “Where’s my cat?” I ask, which sounds stupid.

  “I was surprised you had a pet,” he says, amused as he dodges my question.

  “Did he run out?”

  “No,” he says, smiling broader. “He’s probably purring away with—”

  “Oh, good. You’re here.” Hadley’s voice has me snapping my head around as she walks out of my room, holding a purring Bennett in her arms. “Your cat has bald spots that are confusing me.”

  “What are you doing here?” I ask, shocked.

  She shrugs, inspecting Bennett’s ugly coat that is gradually getting better.

  “Where else would I be? Now about your cat… What’s wrong with him?”

  “He was a stray and had something stuck in his fur. Jake shaved off the glue-like stuff about two weeks ago whe
n we found him.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Speaking of Jake, where is he?”

  “He’s the bum with his arm over his face who is sleeping on the beach.”

  Hadley grins at us and puts Bennett down as she skips toward the door. I hope Jake is prepared to be surprised. I also hope she wasn’t just a fling to him, since she’s sort of in Greece right now.

  “Back to where we were,” Logan says, turning my face back to meet his. “I had Hadley do a search of a list of surnames. I knew you wouldn’t change your first name. Lana Vorhees was pretty obvious, considering I watched Friday the Thirteenth all the time when I was a kid.”

  I smile like an idiot for no reason at all.

  “Me too.”

  He brushes his lips over mine again, still backing us toward my room.

  “Then it was even more obvious when I saw Jake Vlad listed under this address as well. Not sure that Vlad is the best name for him.”

  “He used to dress up as Vlad the Impaler every Halloween when we were kids,” I explain, still smiling.

  We’re so morbid.

  “I picked a little less obvious name,” he says with a shrug.

  “Oh?”

  “White,” he says, shrugging while smirking.

  “As in Carrie White?”

  He nods slowly, still backing me toward the room until my legs finally hit the bed. In one motion, he bends and tosses me to the bed, and I squeal like a little girl.

  He comes down on top of me, and I giggle like an idiot, smiling up at him as he kisses the tip of my nose.

  “So this is real. You and me. We’re actually going to get to be together?”

  “Not possible for you to get rid of me,” he says, kissing my lips.

  “I can’t believe you’re actually here,” I moan as his lips start trailing down my neck.

  He leans up on his elbows as I start stripping. He watches me, but finally he decides to shed his clothes too. As soon as we’re both bare, he settles between my legs, but he stares into my eyes while pushing a piece of hair away from my face.

  “I decided if I could choose anywhere in the world to be, it’d be wherever you were,” he says before he kisses me, silencing whatever girly, swoony thing that would have come out of my mouth.

  And I kiss him back with everything in me as he thrusts inside me, filling me so completely that every nerve in my body feels electrified.

  “I love you,” I whisper across his lips.

  “I love you, Lana Vorhees,” he says, grinning.

  It’s our own twisted version of perfection.

  EPILOGUE

  Three years later…

  LOGAN

  Lana is laughing with Hadley as they read Laurel’s latest letter. Lindy May sends all of Laurel’s letters to Olivia. And Olivia sends them to a home in Greece that Lana owns, but we don’t ever stay there.

  Laurel has turned into a fun, witty girl who has managed to put her past behind her and move forward. Lindy has given her all the tools to do that, and she’s finally moved on herself in her quest to save Laurel.

  Her ex-husband killed himself a little over two years ago. Lana and Jake broke out the champagne to celebrate, since they’d apparently driven him to that.

  Olivia also writes, telling them about Cheyenne and Alyssa, who both still live with her. No one ever suspected Olivia after I put a round of bullets in Christopher Denver.

  Diana Barnes went to live closer to her son. He bought her a home, and she’s finally able to enjoy her life without the past hanging over her like a daunting shadow. She thinks Lana died in that explosion, and Lana says it’s best if she believes that.

  I check in on my team from time to time, using a burner phone to contact Leonard. He assures me that no one on our team is looking for me. Most everyone thinks I snapped. He’s the only one still there who knows the truth.

  He said Craig is just happy that he’s officially the prettiest face in the unit.

  But I know what I did still weighs heavily on all of them, because they’re worried it could be them one day. They just don’t understand how unlikely that is. And it’s not like I can tell them.

  Jake walks down the stairs in just a towel. It’d be nice to not share a house with him and Hadley, but this home is massive, and I’d never tear Lana away from her best friend after all they’ve been through.

  Besides, I sleep peacefully at night, more so than ever. Our house is the most dangerous place in the world to try and break into because of the four of us.

  A guy walks down the stairs, also wearing a towel, and Hadley whistles at him as she stands and struts from the dining room, her hair mussed and her clothes disheveled.

  “Glad you two finally finished up. I couldn’t go another round,” she tells Jake as he tugs her to him, nipping her lips with his teeth as he grins.

  “You still have to go another round with just me tonight,” he says. “And next week, you get to pick who joins us.”

  She beams like he just offered her Christmas. Personally, I don’t get it. I’d fucking kill someone if they touched Lana, and there’s no doubt she’d cut someone to pieces if they touched me.

  Literally.

  But Jake and Hadley are both bisexual, and though they’d never cheat on each other, they do include select individuals in their bedroom on occasion.

  Twice a month to be more precise. Trust me, I know more about Hadley’s sex life than I ever wanted to.

  “I want a girl,” she says as the guy they spent the night with goes to the fridge, making himself at home.

  “Deal,” Jake tells her, and she grins again while I carefully maneuver my way out of the threesome afterglow.

  Lana is holding back a laugh when I near her, because she knows I hate hearing all the gritty details Jake and Hadley love to share.

  She takes my hand, and I pull her up, my thumb brushing the red ruby on her ring finger.

  “You ready, Mrs. White?” I ask her, waggling my eyebrows.

  “I’ve just been waiting on you.”

  “As of now, I can’t wait to get out of this house and out on the boat.”

  She laughs again as I practically drag her away from the house. Her leg is completely healed now. She walks with no limp, and she’s back to taking classes—kickboxing classes to be exact. Though I think it’d be smarter for her to actually teach the classes, since she’s a little too good to still be a student.

  Her fingers thread with mine, and I drink my beer as we walk down the beach, heading to where the boat awaits us.

  This has been our life for the last three years. I had no idea how much I was missing out on. Life is pretty damn good when you take the time to live it.

  Most importantly, we dance every night.

  Hadley and I took over the online site for Lana and Jake, since they started another internet business that needed their attention. Lana outsourced the appraisal jobs to some trusted people who needed the extra income.

  Five years ago, I never pictured myself leaving the Bureau and spending my days with a semi-retired serial killer, while walking the beaches of Greece. I never pictured me sharing a house with another couple. I never pictured anything at all about my life as it is today.

  Which is why I love Lana so much. She still continues to surprise me, and I’m fairly positive I’d be the one burning the world down if anyone ever tried to take her from me.

  She calls me a romantic for that.

  It’s a life I love.

  “What are you thinking about?” Lana asks on a sigh as she leans her head against my arm.

  Two months after I showed up in Greece, Lana and I got married. It was just the four of us with one officiate, but it was perfect. Hadley and Jake took two years to follow our lead.

  “How crazy life can be, and how good it can turn out,” I tell her, lifting her hand so I can kiss her fingers.

  She grins as she snuggles in closer to my side, her white dress blowing in the wind.

  Today’s our anniversary, and we’
re taking the boat out for a long weekend away from the house.

  “Our story is definitely unique,” she says, sliding her arms around my one and hugging it.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, balking mockingly.

  She laughs while rolling her eyes.

  “Yeah. We’re just a typical romance,” she deadpans, but her lips lift in a small smile.

  “Horror romance. That’s a genre, right?” I ask, smiling when she laughs.

  She spins, turning to walk backwards as she faces me.

  “You want me to be honest?” she asks, biting her lip.

  I grab her waist, loving the way she laughs when I lift her.

  “Yes,” I say, nipping her chin before kissing it.

  Her legs slide around my waist as she tightens her hold on me, and I continue to carry us in the direction of the boat.

  She grins as she says, “It’s my favorite horror story of all time.”

  I grin against her lips as we reach the pier, and she slides down to walk beside me, locking our fingers together. She’s getting giddy. I can feel it.

  There’s something you need to learn about loving a girl like Lana. She had to open something up inside herself to do what it took to end Delaney Grove’s reign of terror.

  And that something can’t just be locked away.

  She has special needs. Needs that I tend to once a year, because I love keeping her sane. And she can’t live in denial of who she is.

  We load up on the yacht, and she takes care of pouring the champagne, while I get us away from the pier and start driving us out into the ocean. We toast the champagne, and I brush my lips over hers as she stays close.

  We’re floating with no land in sight before I anchor us down and check the monitors to make sure we’re completely alone and no one can bother us.

  She flashes me a smile, anticipation sparking in her eyes.

  “You ready for your present?” I ask her.

  She grins.

  “Yes.”

  I tug her hand in mine and guide her to the lower deck. She follows, practically walking on my heels in her excitement. As soon as we reach the downstairs and her eyes fall on her present, she stops walking, her smile growing bigger.