Her belly furled into what felt like a thousand small knots, each curling into individual painful balls of tension inside her.
“She’s dead, Lily.” Her father’s voice was strained as he made the admission. “Strangled. Just like the others.”
“Oh my God.”
The words bled from Lily’s lips before her brain had even registered them, her hand rising to her mouth instinctively. “It can’t be…” she started, but the sentiment died in her throat, because it was.
It was.
And Lily knew it was the truth.
“It is, Lily,” her father went on. “I’m sorry, but it is, and your mother and I thought…” He hesitated as though he was struggling to get the next words out. “Well, we thought you must be gone, too.”
Panic pounded in her chest. Her heart went out to her dad at that moment, and she knew she should feel bad for the hurt and the trauma she’d put them through in the last few weeks. She was guilty. She had caused that hurt, but at that moment, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the bombshell her father had just dropped.
Her friend was dead—throttled—and in her heart, Lily knew who had done it.
Ethan.
Her husband.
“Time to hang up.”
His voice was almost a whisper but it echoed grimly around the small booth.
Lily gulped as she turned to meet his gaze. It was dark and knowing, and it told her one thing. Either Ethan had been listening or he’d been reading her thoughts, but he knew. He knew the truth. Lily knew about Jody, and she knew he was to blame. Cold dread washed throughout her body, and all of a sudden, she felt dizzy with the intensity of it.
“Where are you, darling?” Her father’s voice rang out in her ear. “Tell me and I’ll come and get you.”
She pulled in a deep breath, her fingers gripping the telephone receiver for grim life. Every part of Lily’s being wanted to tell her father where she was at that moment, and as she looked toward the horizon, she hoped beyond reason to see his little beige car appear on the road ahead. Her father—come to rescue her—to take her away from the man who had killed Jody. The man she’d just taken as her husband.
“Lily?”
Her dad sounded desperate, and something about his tone seemed to unfreeze her brain.
“I’m in a telephone box,” she told him. “I’m not sure where exactly, but we’re just—”
Lily’s sentence was cut short by the sudden motion behind her. Ethan barged past her body, reaching for the hook switch and ending the call in an instant. The dull noise of the dial tone greeted her ears, and Lily flew around to meet Ethan’s eyes.
“I said, time to hang up,” he repeated. His tone was so predatory, Lily reflexively recoiled, bumping into the glass wall behind her. “We’re done here.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ethan
The whole thing had played out like a bad dream. Just like he knew it would do—just like his instincts had foreseen—and yet, there was nothing Ethan could have done to prevent it. If they were going to have any sort of future together, Lily would have to find out about Jody. She was his wife now; he wanted her to be happy, and deep down, Ethan accepted that Lily would need the truth. There was little he could do in terms of damage control. Not now. Not anymore.
He’d taken Jody in a fit of despair, inspired ironically by Lily herself, but that was no defense. Ethan didn’t have to pick Jody up that day or go back to her parents’ house, and he sure as hell didn’t have to throttle her there on the animal skin rug. And yet he had. Ethan had done all those things.
Jody was dead—like all the others—and he couldn’t take it back.
“I hadn’t finished.” Lily’s sentence hung in the air between them like an apparition.
She stared up at him, her eyes wide and disbelieving and her hand still clutching the black plastic receiver to the side of her face.
“Wrong,” he told her flatly. “You were finished, Lily.”
“But—”
He was on her in a moment, pressing one index finger against her lips to halt whatever was coming next. “But, nothing. I don’t want you giving our location to your parents. You were supposed to be calling them to reassure them, and to give them our good news.”
Lily blinked at him. Good news? He heard the thought, though the words never left her lips. Is that what you call this?
Ethan’s gaze narrowed. “Isn’t our marriage good news?”
His tone was almost a sneer.
“Did you do it?” She lifted her chin, gazing up at Ethan in disbelief. “It can’t be true, can it, sir?”
Even now, at this most ominous of moments, Ethan’s cock stirred at the way she addressed him, but he pushed that flicker of arousal down.
“Are you talking about Jody?”
Of course, Lily was talking about Jody. Ethan knew it every bit as much as Lily did, yet somehow, he wanted to protract the moment a little longer. Right now, there was still a glint of adoration in those green eyes, an element of cynicism in the idea that he could have done it—a part of her that didn’t want to believe the truth. Ethan knew the moment he burst that balloon, and laid the facts bare for Lily to see, the flicker of hope would disappear. And frankly, it might never return.
“Yes,” she croaked. “My dad said she’s dead. Strangled to death.”
Lily’s voice died in her throat at the final words, and she drew in a sudden breath, pressing herself against the glass of the telephone box.
“Was it you, Ethan?” Her eyes widened as she asked the question. “Did you kill her, too?”
Ethan gazed down into her pretty face. He loved Lily so much, but he had no idea how the next few minutes were going to play out. In the past, he’d been able to harness the power of his mind to help him with situations like this. He’d learned to project his mind into other people’s thoughts, and if the recipient was weak enough, he’d been able to exert his will over their decisions. Just like he’d done with those idiots who’d threatened Lily the night he’d first laid eyes on her. One glower had been enough to send the message to the driver that he was in deep shit if he didn’t comply, and the guy had got the message loud and clear, even if his dumbass friend had needed a punch to help him on his way.
Lily wasn’t like those morons though. She wasn’t weak-willed, and she never had been. Even when he’d first met her, and she’d been as innocent as anyone he’d ever known, Lily had never been easy to manipulate. She’d always been mentally strong, able to draw Ethan into her dreams from the first night they’d met, and increasingly able to read his thoughts. Her abilities were growing, and he could probably teach her to hone them if she’d allow him—if she stayed with him.
He shook that thought away.
“This isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, little one,” he started, knowing already that sentence alone would be enough to answer her question, and yet needing to explain.
“Oh, God!”
Lily’s hands rose to her mouth, and she actually shook as she fought for breath. “Oh, God.”
“Lily.” Instinctively his voice had lowered to that tone he used whenever he needed to manage her. “Let me explain.”
“Say it.” Her voice was hoarse, but her wide-eyed gaze rose to meet his again. “If you did it; if you really snubbed Jody out like the rest of them, then I need to hear it from your mouth, Ethan. Not from my father’s, not in the newspaper, but from you.”
Large determined eyes held his gaze, and in them, Ethan could see everything he needed to know about Lily’s emotional state. She was terrified of what she already knew was the truth—petrified of what it meant for her, what it meant for Jody, but perhaps more than anything else—what it meant for them.
“Yes, I killed Jody.”
The words fell from his lips even though he knew the impact they would have on his wife, and on the fragile new marriage. But Ethan couldn’t bring himself to lie. Not now. What was the point? Lily knew the truth anyhow. Sh
e could sense it in her heart, and if she looked into the black space that was his soul, then she’d be able to see it there, too.
Ethan was a killer. He’d murdered countless other young women in the past, and none of them could have done a damn thing to stop him. Not once he’d spotted them, not once he’d decided they were his. From that moment, their fates were sealed, and Jody had been just the same. Ethan may not have planned her demise, but in the end, it was just as bleak. Just as satisfying. Just as fucking erotic.
That’s how it had always been—until Lily.
“Fuck.” The word was almost a sigh, Lily’s tone the essence of despair. “Ethan.”
It sounded like her heart was breaking, and instinctively, Ethan reached to comfort her, though he knew very well that he was the cause of the pain that was now ricocheting around her head.
“How?”
Ethan stroked her shoulder as she threw the question his way.
“Why? Why would you kill Jody?”
He recalled the moment when Lily had found out about his body count, and the shock and anger that had emanated from her, but that’s not what greeted Ethan now. All that was present in Lily’s gaze at that moment was a deep, powerful sadness, and he wished for all the world that he could seize it, and take it away again.
“Oh, God!”
Her gasp drew his attention from his private thoughts and back into the small booth they were both still packed inside. Ethan still hadn’t even answered her first two questions, and yet Lily’s face was blanching with whatever the latest recognition was.
“What?” he demanded as he towered over her. “What now?”
Lily shook her head. “You must have been with me when you killed her.”
A single tear leaked from her right eye as the admission left her lips. Of course, it was true. Ethan had been with Lily when he’d choked the air from her friend. That much was obvious and yet apparently, his little flower had only just worked that much out for herself.
Ethan nodded. “That’s true.”
“How could you?” she panted, taking a step toward him for the first time since she’d found out about Jody. “How could you do that to Jody? She was my friend! What did she ever do to you?”
There was a pause as the weight of her queries seemed to land over her. “And how could you do that to me?”
He inhaled, expecting most of these questions once the word was out.
“I…” Lily blinked up at him, aghast as her hands rose to her hips. “I can’t believe this. The whole time you were fucking me, you were still out there killing women—killing Jody?”
She was shouting now, her cheeks flushing with the rush of new emotion.
“No, Lily,” he assured her. “There was only Jody.”
Lily’s jaw dropped at his assertion, and before he could even take another breath, her right hand rose, slapping him hard across the face. He recoiled at the impact, as far as the telephone box allowed, and his eyes closed at the ferocity of the slap. For some reason Ethan was shocked and surprised that his little Lily would even contemplate such a deed.
“That was for Jody,” she muttered as his eyes opened again. “Now let me out of this bloody telephone box.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lily
She’d forgiven him so much already. Lily had found out about the other women—the ones he’d cut down in their prime for no reason—and she’d somehow let it go. Even though it made no sense to do so. Even though it was the wrong thing to do. Even though it meant she’d likely burn in whatever place constituted the hell her mother so vehemently believed in—Lily had done it. For Ethan—and for the strength of the love she felt toward him.
But this. This bombshell about Jody. That was something else. There were worryingly few red lines in her head where Ethan was concerned. Apparently, the man could stack up quite the body count and she was willing to overlook it. He could tie her, spank her and leash her, and rather than protest, Lily responded with positivity—by reveling in her debasement. Perhaps she had assumed there was no end to what he could inflict on her, and what she could take, but that assumption had been wrong.
There was an end. And the end was Jody.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Ethan’s tone was hard, his hand rubbing the place her palm had just struck him. She glanced down at the hand which had delivered the punishment, wondering at the way her flesh stung from the impact.
“Are you just going to keep me locked up here in the phone box?” Lily’s tone was surprisingly dry.
She supposed she should be scared—just like she always should have been—but yet again, Lily felt little fear. The primary emotions in her brain at that moment were disgust and anger, both coursing through her veins like a potent cocktail of drugs that threatened to override her common sense. Again.
“You’re my wife now, Lily,” he told her as he pressed his giant palm against the exit of the booth. “So, no. I’m not going to keep you in here.”
“Good.” She pursed her lips as she answered him. “Because I want to leave.”
“The box… Scotland?” Ethan hesitated, though she swore his expression darkened. “Me?”
Her chin rose to meet his question. “I love you, Ethan.” Emotion crackled in her voice. “You know I do, but I can’t forgive this. You killed my best friend, and for what?”
His hard blue stare drilled into Lily. “Your best friend?”
Lily blinked at him. “We’re not going through this again.”
“Oh really?” His brow arched at the assertion, and a spike of both trepidation and arousal shot through Lily’s body.
“Yes, really,” she concluded, although even Lily could hear how unconvincing that sounded.
“I think we are,” he told her in a low tone. “In fact, here’s how I think it’s going to go, little one.”
Lily flinched at the way that sounded now. She’d grown to love the name, viewing it as a term of endearment—a sign of just how much he loved her, but now it meant nothing. The words were hollow. A shell of the affection her husband should feel for her, but then her husband should never have been her best friend’s murderer.
And Ethan should never have become your husband, the snide little voice in her head goaded. You already knew he was a killer, and still you accepted him, and now what? Because you happened to know and care about his latest victim you have an ethical problem with his actions? That’s a farce, Lily. A proper crock of shit.
“Stop it.” Ethan leaned toward her as he gave the command. “Just fucking stop it.”
Her stomach roiled at the instruction. “What if I can’t fucking stop it?” she demanded, already feeling the tension permeate her body.
Ethan’s gaze narrowed, and something about the way he looked at her made the pressure in Lily’s belly tighten until it was painful.
“If you can’t control your thoughts, then I’ll need to find ways to distract them,” he advised her in a grave tone. “Devise some ways to take your mind away from this conundrum—give you something new to focus on.”
Ethan
Ethan couldn’t have her thinking that way. It just wasn’t on. Not now. It wouldn’t have mattered so much a few weeks ago—before they came here—before they were married—but it mattered now. She was his wife, whether she liked it or not, and that made Lily his responsibility. He accepted the news about Jody would take some time to absorb, and he still wanted to give her his side of the story—to tell her how the unfortunate incident had come about in the first place—but clearly, now wasn’t going to be the time for that.
He meant what he said as he spoke to her. It was his job to distract her until this wave of emotion passed. Until she was in a better headspace to listen to him. And distract her, he would, although it would mean a serious rethink on their wedding night—and he doubted his new wife was going to appreciate the new plans.
“What are you going to do?”
Ethan’s lips curled. Evidently, she knew him
well enough to know he’d be devising some scheme right about this moment, and based on her expression, Lily also guessed she wouldn’t like it.
“Here’s how it’s going to go,” he told her flatly. “We’re going to leave this booth, hand in hand, just like any other newly married couple.”
Lily snorted at his appraisal, but her expression soon dissolved with one swift glare in her direction. “And then?”
“Sorry?”
This time he threw every ounce of intensity he had at her, and his cock swelled at the way she physically recoiled.
“And then what, sir?” she muttered.
Ethan glowered at her. Little Lily was angry with him, and in her fury, she’d forgotten her place. That situation would need rectifying. And soon.
“And then we get back in the car, and we go back to the bed and breakfast.”
Her brow furrowed, and for a moment he wondered if she was actually going to query his directive. Based on his rapidly sliding mood, that would not be smart.
“Something to say, Lily?” he quipped in a sardonic tone.
Lily drew in a deep breath, and in her mind, Ethan could hear the conflict raging. Apparently, she had a hell of a lot to say.
“Just some friendly advice.” Ethan grinned at his own words. “I wouldn’t tell me that if I were you.”
She puffed out a lungful of air. “Please, can we just get out of this phone booth? Sir?”
He watched her responses carefully. “Are you going to behave?”
Ethan’s voice was little more than a growl. “Because I swear to you, little one, if you push me now, I will make you fucking regret it.”
She gulped at his words, her gaze lowering toward her chest. “I’ll behave.”
Chapter Forty
Fallen: (A Psychological Dark Romance) (The Dark Necessities Prequels Book 2) Page 21
