Page 12 of A Simple Mistake (Deadly Mistakes #1)

TWELVE

Gabriel

Present

My mind is racing wildly.

Did I really just invite a serial killer back into my life? Who knows how many he’s killed. I could ask, and I know he’d tell me, but I can’t get the words to form because I’m not sure I want to know. I’m not sure I could handle knowing.

A part of me tries to pretend that it’s only one—that it was only Jon Davies—but I know that’s not true. I know I should turn him in. I’ve known for a year, but I can’t.

The issue is that this masked killer isn’t going to stop. And I’m not sure any of us could stop him like Liam could.

I’d heard Liam enter the room, but I didn’t know what to say or do. And when he climbed into bed with me, I found myself wanting to reach out to him, to pull him closer, but I couldn’t.

What have I done?

“Will you do anything I ask?”

“Haven’t I already?” he responds.

“You haven’t killed once since I caught you?”

“No. I’ve stood back and watched the parasites roam this city.”

“Would you walk out this door and turn yourself in if I asked?”

His hazel eyes meet mine unflinchingly. “If that would make you happy.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s so special about me?” I ask, not understanding it. Liam and I have always gotten along quite well, but why ? Why does he dislike every person he comes across but not me? What did I do that snagged his attention? What could make me special to this man? Why does that terrify me… but also excite me? No… I have to stomp that part of me down.

Liam is quiet and a part of me questions if he even knows why he’s fixated on me. Is it just an obsession? People who show sociopathic tendencies often have fixations. Am I like the people he hunts down? Am I just another of his fixations?

“You’re the only person in my entire life who’s made me feel something. Who’s made me feel human,” he says, and wrapped up around me, it almost makes him seem innocent even though I know how much he’s not. “I don’t know why. It’s the only mystery I’ve never been able to figure out.”

His fingers are tracing over mine. A part of me wants to cave and remember how I felt about him before I walked in on him killing Jon Davies. I want to be drawn into the feeling of his touch. We were never romantic, but a part of me had questioned what it’d be like if we were. I had looked up to him. He was like this enigma, and as the months moved on, I found myself wanting him to become something more than a coworker.

“Have you ever killed an innocent person?” I ask.

“No.”

“Were they all killers?”

“No. But they weren’t innocent.”

“What makes you decide that they’re worth killing?” When he doesn’t answer, I start to pull my hand back, but he grips it before realizing what he’s doing and letting go. Now that his fingers have dropped from mine, I find my hand feeling strangely cold.

“A desire.”

“The same desire that makes you want me?”

“No… yes… I don’t know. Gabriel, you have to understand that I don’t know what the fuck any of this is,” he says.

My eyes drop down as I notice the stain on his shirt. I reach down, snagging the side of his shirt and pulling it up to find a makeshift bandage slapped over his side dyed in red.

“Did you go to the hospital?”I ask in disbelief, and when he doesn’t answer me, I peel the edge of it up to see quite clearly that he didn’t get any help. “Liam, what the fuck?”

“I deserved to hurt for making you look the way you did. For hurting you like I did.”

What the fuck is wrong with him?

“Liam, you saved my life. That guy was going to… he was going…” My mind flashes to him dragging Rick past me. The way Rick moaned and cried. And the guilt I felt every time relief washed through me that it wasn’t me he was coming for. Nausea strikes me, my stomach clenching tight. “Liam… you… not only me… you saved that other officer too. And… I know that if I hadn’t made you leave the police force, you’d have found us quicker. You’d have found us before Rick died. You’d have…”

He hears the catch in my voice and pushes away from my side. He swings his leg over my hips, straddling my waist as he cups my face in his hands. “I will destroy him so you don’t ever have to hurt again.”

Clearly, this man has learned little.

“Liam!”

He grumbles and slides off the bed. “I have your cat.”

My eyes snap over to him as relief washes through me. “You do?”

“She is the spawn of Satan.”

“She didn’t run off?” I say in disbelief. “I wanted to ask about her, but everyone was so busy… and whoever I did ask didn’t know… you have her?”

“I’m rather jealous of this cat.”

“Oh, thank god. Thank god. I thought I pulled her collar off when I took the tracker. I thought you just found the collar. I just…”

“No, it was still on her.”

“Thank you.”

He straightens the flowers and then heads to the door.

“You’re getting your side fixed?”

“I’ll think about it,” he says.

“Liam. Dammit.”

He slips through the door without another word as so many emotions roll through me. I don’t even know what to think. My mind is in turmoil, my stomach in knots. I feel like even breathing is difficult and I don’t know why. I can never forgive him for what he’s done. I’ve had a year to mull it over in my mind, and all I’ve done is feel guilt over the fact that I let him go.

Yet here he is back again, and I’ve asked him to return to the police force? But if I don’t… how many more will die? What is the right choice? Is there a right choice?

The door opens again, and I’m startled to see that Liam’s returned. Blood is dripping from his fingers, alarming me. What the fuck did he go out and do?

“Liam!”

He opens his jacket, and Lucille Pawl falls out onto the bed, looking quite filthy and disheveled.

“And you think I’m evil,” he comments as he watches the blood run down his fingers. “That thing is evil.”

Lucille mews as she sees me then starts chirping as I grab her and pull her into my arms.

“Baby girl,” I coo as she purrs up a storm. “Baby girl, you’re okay. Liam saved you too?”

She bumps my chin and my nose with the top of her head then rubs on me, and I suddenly have the odd thought that Liam had done the same thing when he’d come into the room and crawled into the bed. Now he’s standing over by the window, leaning against the wall and watching me with a stoic look on his face.

“Thank you.”

“I couldn’t even sleep last night because she screamed the entire time. Are you getting out today?”

“I don’t know… they said with the concussion and dehydration they might wait until tomorrow. Can… can you watch her again tonight? I’ll hold on to her until you’re done getting stitched up. Then you can come back for her.” She’s busy making biscuits on my chest and while it hurts, I don’t even care because I love every second of it.

“Liam,” I say when he doesn’t respond.

His eyes catch mine.

“Please, you’re hurt. Go through the ER right now. And if you do, I’ll let you watch my cat again tonight.”

“You act like I want to watch her.”

“It means you’ll get to see me again when I pick her up.”

That seems to interest him enough that he heads for the door as Lucille purrs up a storm. When I pick up her paw, I notice there are traces of blood in the white fur. Is it my blood? There’s no way it would be the killer’s blood without Liam noticing.

“Liam?”

He glances over at me and sees what I’m looking at. “Sometimes the best way to get through life is blackmail.”

“I don’t know what the fuck that means,” I say.

Liam gives me a wink and disappears through the door.

I’m left watching the door long after it swings closed. My fingers brush down Lucille’s back, and I hold her tightly as my mind races.

Slowly, I reach out, finger trailing over one of the bears wrapped around the vase. I pull it free and draw it in close to me as I listen to Lucille Pawl’s purrs.