Page 53 of Dead Love

“Don’t push your luck, flower.”

I blushed at that nickname, my eyes fluttering down to his chest, imagining his weight crushing against me. I started again, filled with a renewed sense of purpose. This was my investigation, wasn’t it? Get to know him. Prove one way, or another, that he is or isn’t guilty.

“My favorite color is green,” I said.

“Let me guess—because of plants.”

“Am I that cliché?”

A small smirk crossed his lips.Finally.I didn’t even mind that he was making fun of me.

“My favorite food is yogurt,” I said.

The smirk widened into a grin. “So you throw it on the floor.”

“I mean, I cleaned it up.” I smiled, then lifted my shoulders and knocked into him playfully. “My favorite time of the day used to be the morning, but it’s not anymore.” He waited for an explanation, but how could I tell him that once the morning came, he would be off to work and I would be back in the basement, without him? I didn’t know if it was about the freedom that he gave me, or if I preferred night because it meant him. A man who may have killed his brother. Who may have killed my best friend. A man who had shown me more about myself than I had ever known.

“Mornings suck,” he said, the smile gone from his face. Like he knew what I meant. Like he felt the same way too.

CHAPTER18

Vincent

The next day,Kora knocked on the basement door earlier than usual. My pulse quickened. I took a deep breath, then opened the door and glared down my nose at her. Wearing a light sweater that hung over her shoulders, tight leggings, and fluffy socks over her feet, she was completely covered, and all I wanted to do was undress her. To kiss every inch of her body.

I clenched my jaw tight.

“Yes?” I asked, my tone harsh.

“Can I stay up here for a while?”

I balled my fists, then relaxed my fingers and stepped to the side. It was Saturday, and for once, I wasn’t needed. Kora went around me, her footsteps like the taps of a butterfly’s legs on a petal. The sunlight came in through the glass window on the front door.

“It’s daytime,” she said, grinning. “I was right.”

“Congratulations. You can tell time.”

She pressed a finger to her forehead. “By instinct.” She rubbed her arm where the chip was, then wandered through the house. I went back to the studio and opened my phone, turning to the tracking app, the red light flickering around the blueprint. I angled my chair and easel so that she couldn’t see my latest piece. On the canvas, Kora was wrapped in plastic, her body squished, her mouth and pussy dripping with come.

Kora knocked on the door. “Vincent?”

I blocked the view of the canvas. “What?”

“Did you murder the Echo victims?”

I moved my head back slightly, surprised at her words. It was bold of her. Did I seem like someone who would stab a body and let a drug take the blame?

“If I murdered someone, you would know,” I said.

She studied me, searching my eyes. “I thought so.”

“What made you ask that?”

She dragged her fingertips across the doorframe. “I don’t know. I figured I should ask.” She looked up. “Can I come in?”

“Let’s go outside.”

I put a hand in front of me, and she stepped ahead, going to the front door to follow me to Quiet Meadows like before. But this time, I led her to the backyard. A pomegranate tree shimmered in the distance, and the fir trees stretched up in front of it. A firepit was empty to the side of the yard, and a deep freezer hummed against the house. It was a small patch of grass, pressed against the base of the mountain. Kora ripped off her socks, wiggling her toes in the spiky green blades. Sulfur from the fissures mixed with the woody plants, but Kora sucked in a long breath of fresh air as if it was all the same: rotten eggs, wind, or forest. She closed her eyes as she tilted her head toward the sunlight, basking in its glow, reminding me of the first time we met, on the viewpoint. My heart thumped hard in my chest, and the dogs circled around her, barking, sharing in that same bliss. Everything seemed like it could stretch on for a millennium right then. With my eyes on her, I forgot to breathe.