He was all I knew, even after I tried to erase his memory with painkillers and liquor. The fire was supposed to have freed both of us from whatever this dance was that we kept doing.
“Con,” I choked out around the lump in my throat.
“Rosie?” He turned around and looked at me, his lips pressing into a thin white line. “What is it?”
I didn’t answer him. I couldn’t, and I didn’t want to waste any more of our time together.
Not when this was the last time it would happen. I could tell he was catching on that something wasn’t right, but fuck if I cared anymore. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his mouth down to mine.
Chapter Twenty
It’s ironic.
We seek comfort from those who hurt us the most. The one who inflicted my pain was the only one who could take it away.
I wasn’t a man afraid to admit that I was in love. The wound she tore open in my chest was far from closed, but I couldn’t let her go. I pushed her against the wall and took everything she had to offer. Our teeth clashed, I dug my fingers into her hips, and she threaded hers in my hair.
She ground herself against me, softly moaning into my mouth, dropping her hands to my pants and frenziedly undoing the button on my jeans and pulling down my zipper. I pushed her sweats down, taking her underwear with them.
There was no foreplay, whispered words of love or apologies. It was two people fucking. I hooked her left leg over my hip and shoved my dick inside her pussy as hard as I could. She loudly hissed and moaned from the harsh intrusion, digging into my shoulders with cat-like claws.
I didn’t attempt trying to hush her. I wanted her to scream for me. Her little pink tongue swiped across my sweaty chest, her perfect mouth forming an O with every thrust.
It was a goodbye fuck.
The kind where you used your body to say everything you couldn’t. What was a little more destruction when all we did was wreck one another anyway?
She was saying bye to me.
I was saying bye to her.
Each of us had our own version of how it was all going to end.
I pulled out and grabbed her by hair, dragging her through the door right beside us, ignoring her cries of pain. Backing up until the backs of my knees hit the bed, I sat down and guided her over my cock. She didn’t need any instruction.
She straddled me, sank her tight pussy down, and started to ride. I gripped her fleshy ass, pushing up and pulling her down. Harder. Deeper. She was getting wetter.
Her hot little breaths and quick gasps made my balls want to burst. I sucked her nipple into my mouth and bit. I let her ride me until she came, stroking the sensitive nub between her legs.
Before she could even come down, I had her on her back, halfway off the bed and feet planted on my chest, pounding into her so hard my balls began to suffer from smacking against her ass.
We fucked and fondled until exhaustion forced her into slumber.
As she lay breathing on what was supposed to be our marital bed, I memorized every inch of her body. I wanted to smother her and steal the air from her lungs, pull it all into mine so we would be together even in death.
I laid with her, letting the rest of the house settle. When the timing was right, I kissed her cheek gently and then slowly made my way out of the room.
Molly was first.
I crept into her room and watched her sleep for a few minutes. She must have sensed someone standing over her because she woke up.
Her eyes went wide when she saw the knife, but she never got the chance to scream. I drove the blade straight down into the center of her forehead, making impact with her frontal lobe. Pulling the blade out, I brought it back down, this time going for her neck, jerking from left to right to sever her head.
Blood soaked the white sheets, splattered on the wall, and stained my clothes. I could hear it trying to form suction around my blade, hear her bones crack and turn to mush.
I didn’t need her anymore, and she’d ultimately failed me, anyway. She’d do nothing but get in the way now. Sure, I could have simply strangled the life from her body, but this somehow seemed more effective. There would be no resuscitation.
I needed her to die.
I oddly felt like my father in this moment.
I wondered if these were his emotions when he felt he had no options left, choosing to blow a hole in Rose-Mary’s head and then in his own. They were kind enough to leave me detailed instructions that said to watch out for sickly Molly and find my Roses.
They should be proud of me, in my opinion. I’d just sent Molly to be with them and accomplished what I was meant to, apart from starting my own family. That wasn’t an option, though—not without Roselynn by my side.
Walking into the room where Justin and Lauren were, I stood over them and released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. My brother sat up and eyed the blood on my clothes and the knife in my hand with a blank expression.
“It’s time to go,” I announced.
Chapter Twenty-One
Something was wrong.
I knew it the second I opened my eyes. How could I do something so stupid? Willingly enter the viper’s den and then sleep beside it? What the hell was I thinking?
The house was dark and quiet, which I found rather odd considering three other individuals were lurking somewhere.
Fuck. I looked at the alarm clock and swiftly got out of the bed, snagging the long white robe off the back of the bedroom door.
“You know what I decided?”
“Holy shit.” I jumped out of my skin, placing a hand on my chest and turning in the direction his voice came from. Con stood on the far side of the room, just coming out of the bathroom.
I took a quick inventory of his bloody clothes and the ax tucked down by his side, along with the knife sticking out of his waistband.
“Con, what did you do?”
“I realized that it doesn’t matter if I change the way I look, build you a beautiful house, or even promise you the world. You still haven’t learned how to accept me, Rosie. You’re still trying to leave.”
Swallowing an angry retort, I made sure my steps were barely noticeable and inched towards the door. His words had déjà vu tingling in the back of my head.
“Con, put the ax down.”
“Why? Are you scared?” He cocked his head and gave me a maniacal grin.
Fuck yes, I was scared. I was terrified. I knew this wasn’t some scare tactic bullshit—he had every intention of using that tool against me. Con had always been certifiable, but I loved him anyway.
Everyone picks their poison—a sick little addiction you know is detrimental to your health, but you just can’t help yourself. You blatantly don’t give a damn.
Some people liked cake.
I liked serial killers.
But I never thought we would be here.
The faint sound of sirens could be heard in the distance, the rescue brigade showing up exactly when Sheriff Reynolds had said they would.
He’d whispered to let Con take me before I lowered the phone from my ear. I’d pretended I’d hung up when he arrived as ‘Max,’ but I had managed to leave the call going until he forced me to ditch the cell all together.
“You know what that sounds like?”
“Sirens?” I answered dumbly.