He stopped by Lindsay’s office to use the computer to search the names on the list along with the scant details Mina had jotted down that might give Brian a starting point. The internet search filled in the blanks within minutes. He made some notes to add to Mina’s and cleared the search history.
The sun was barely peaking over the horizon when he reached the first name on the list. Jason.
It would be just about time for him to be going off to work if he worked normal hours doing normal things.
The neighborhood was mostly empty—a lot of houses for sale in a new housing development. No witnesses. Perfect. He should have planned things out, and he would after the first one. He just needed to get one of them done. Mina hadn’t realized it, but she’d dug the pen into the paper deeper on this name. This was the one that caused the dreams—that strangled scream she’d made that had woken him from a dead sleep, the sweating, the panic. He knew that scream, that panic.
Maybe he should wait, let Jason be last. But Brian wanted to take this one at the height of his rage. He needed catharsis. Something physical. Something that hurt… someone else.
He grabbed his bag out of the back seat, took one final look around the neighborhood to ensure it was truly deserted, then made his way to the front door.
Birds called each other, but stopped as he approached. A dog barked in the distance. It was unseasonably warm and sunny today, a brief pause on winter before it snapped back into bright bitter cold again. It was the perfect day to do this. An unassuming happy day for Mina’s biggest tormentor.
Brian set the bag on the ground and knocked. No answer. He rang the bell. Still no answer. He pressed his finger on the button again, holding it down until the door was ripped open.
“What!” a man on the other end barked.
“Hello. I’m Brian Sloan. I’m here on behalf of Mina Calloway.”
The man laughed and shook his head. “Cute. You must be the heroic new boyfriend.”
“No. This is a different story.”
“Yeah, okay, hero. Did she cry to you about how mean I was to her? She consented to all of it. Little whore tops from the bottom. But you probably know that by now. Tell that cunt when I told her to get out, I didn’t mean send her newest fuck to beat me up.”
Keep talking, asshole.
Jason started to shut the door in his face, but Brian’s boot stopped it from closing.
“I’m happy to say I’m not here to beat you up.” He picked up the bag and forced his way inside, slamming and locking the door behind him.
Outside, the birds resumed their conversation.
Mina had just made it to the top of the stairs when she heard shouting in the main entry hall.
“What the fuck is all this?” Lindsay shouted.
She moved down the hallway and peered around the corner into the entryway. Brian stood surrounded by several bags he’d hauled inside. He was covered in blood.
“It’s trash,” Brian replied coolly.
“Who?” Lindsay said. “We agreed we’d manage this and that you wouldn’t just go off…”
“We agreed to nothing. I said it’s trash. It needs to be burned. If you’ll excuse me.”
“Brian…”
He rounded on the doctor. “You use me. You’ve always used me. Do you think I don’t know that? You used me. You used Mina. It’s all about you getting what you want, what helps your bank account. I’m not the fucking idiot you seem to think I am!”
Mina rushed down the hall and back down the stairs to the room at the end of the corridor. She should have closed the door and stayed hidden inside with the Chopin still playing on repeat. But she watched through the crack as Brian brought the bags down and took them to the hidden door behind the stairs.
When he emerged again, he was naked—his clothes and shoes likely burning with the rest of the evidence. The look in his eyes was like nothing she’d ever seen. Nothing she wanted to ever see again.
She backed up when he opened their door. He looked wild. Savage. As if he’d ripped some animal apart with his bare hands and teeth. No. As if he were the animal.
“I need to get cleaned up.”
The CD ended and went back to the first nocturne.
“Who?” she said, echoing Lindsay’s question upstairs.
“Jason. The rest will be taken care of. Don’t worry.”
Her breath hitched. Jason was gone. Like God just erased his mistake.
She didn’t know what to feel. She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel. Yes, Jason had abused her, but she’d consented to… she’d agreed to… It wasn’t as if he’d kidnapped her or held her against her will. She’d chosen… and now…
The bathroom door shut and the shower came on.
What was she giving her heart to?
26
Brian didn’t need to kill. He was largely indifferent to the act, but he would do it when he felt he needed to.
For the past three weeks, Brian had moved down Mina’s list, eliminating a few unnecessary genes from the evolutionary pool every few days until it was taken care of. Some of them had lived in different states. That helped. And he never killed the same way twice. Killing the same way twice was stupid. No sense in hitting law enforcement radars. They were drawn to big body counts like flies to corpses.
Three weeks. It seemed an impossible length of time to keep his attention on a woman without hurting her. Not only had he not hurt her, he hadn’t fucked her, either. And although she hadn’t yet attempted another blow job, he hadn’t pushed her.
Each time she trusted him more, he wanted to put a bigger wall around his heart. He feared what this new vulnerability could mean for him, the power she could hold over him because he cared for her. He couldn’t stand this free fall with nothing to hold onto, no steady solid ground on which to stand. He hadn’t been this vulnerable since he was a child. The moment he’d gotten big enough and strong enough to fight back, he’d sworn he’d never allow himself to experience a moment of vulnerability or weakness with another soul. No one would ever have the chance to gain the upper hand again. No one would ever get the drop on him.
And yet he’d allowed another person to sleep in his bed, unchained, with full knowledge that during his vulnerable hours of sleep, if she wanted to, she could find a way to end him.
But Mina let him sleep at night. Her warm body wrapped around his kept the nightmares away. Except for that first night, he hadn’t had a bad dream from his past in the entire time he’d had her. And since he’d started disposing of the men who’d hurt her, she hadn’t either. He was unwilling to mess with what worked.
He stepped out of the bathroom to find Mina lounging on the bed, a sheet draped over what he could tell was a nude body. She didn’t speak, but she beckoned him to her with an uncertain gesture. He let the towel drop and joined her. He couldn’t bring himself to speak either.
She slid down his body, kissing a trail from his neck, down his chest, over his abs, and to his cock. Her hot tongue began to lav the bundle of nerves there. Brian gripped the edge of the mattress with one hand, and petted her hair with the other. He couldn’t stop touching her to make sure she was real, to reassure her she was safe with him.