Page 35 of Crawl

Dean doesn’t own her.But I do.

“You promised you wouldn’t do stuff like that anymore,” he says. “SAA was supposed to—”

“I’ve been seeing someone,” she says, interrupting him, a jarring confession to get Dean to shut up. And he does. My chest tightens, my breathing hoarse, waiting for her explanation. Will she claim me, or will I have more victims to kill?

“Who?” he finally asks.

“Cash.”

Saliva gathers in my throat, a sour taste on my tongue.

She’s claiming me.

What the fuck does that mean?

“What kind of name is ‘Cash’?” he asks.

“Cassius Winstone.”

“Yourboss?”

“What? You screwed your student!”

“Aftershe passed my class. Before I met you. It’s different when you’re fucking your boss.”

His shoes crunch across the hard floor, meeting her on the other side of the room. I can sense their presence past the inner wall. In my mind, I see him staring into her bright green eyes, giving her his practiced look of adoration. My palm teases the knife in my pocket. It’s been a long time since I gouged a person’s eyes out.

“I just want to make love to you, baby. Isn’t that enough?”

Baby?The word crawls down my spine like molasses dripping down a tree trunk.Baby?What the fuck is that?

“Why are you his assistant anyway?” he asks. “You could be doing so much better. You could berunningLPA if you wanted right now.”

The walls breathe with her weight. She’s so damn close.

“I’m right where I want to be,” she says, her voice vibrating through the walls.

“He’ll never see you as more than a secretary.”

The walls shift again, and I know she’s walking away, because she knows it may be true.

But I’m trying to accept her double date invitation, for fuck’s sake.

“What is your problem?” she asks. “You had enough time to be jealous. Now get out.”

He follows her, his footsteps thudding across the room. “Come on, Remmie.”

“Leave.”

He crosses in front of the peephole, reaching for her.

“Don’t touch me,” she hisses.

Their voices murmur on the other side, but I’m done listening. I’m not going to watch her take her ex-boyfriend’s bullshit anymore.

No one is going to take her away from me.

I kick the hatch closed, then slam the closet door behind me. Each of my steps pounds through the rental house.