Page 51 of He Sees You

"Should I be?"

"You're alone with an admitted killer, pants off, bleeding. Most people would be terrified."

"Most people haven't been writing about you their whole career without knowing it." She winces as I apply antiseptic. "Every antihero I've created has pieces of what you are. I just didn't know you were real."

"I'm very real."

"I know." Her hand moves to my hair, fingers threading through it. "Jake's going to be a problem."

"Not for long."

Her fingers tighten. "You can't kill a deputy."

"I can make him disappear in ways that don't involve death. There are worse things than dying, Celeste."

"Like what?"

"Like living with the knowledge that you're nothing. That you're weak. That the one thing you wanted most was never yours to take." I finish bandaging her calf, my hands lingering on her skin. "Jake needs to learn that lesson."

"He said he's been in the house before. During his shifts. Going through my things." Her voice is steady, but I can hear the violation underneath. "My underwear drawer was rearranged last week. I thought I was imagining it."

The rage that floods through me is ice-cold and patient.

Jake has been marking territory, leaving his scent in her space like an animal.

A crash outside makes us both freeze.

Jake's found the cabin.

"Open up!" He's pounding on the door. "I know she's in there! Saw her tracks!"

I stand, moving toward the door, but Celeste grabs my wrist.

"Don't kill him."

"Why?"

"Because I want to watch him suffer slowly. Death's too quick."

I smile at that, dark and genuine. "You really are perfect."

Jake pounds again. "Open the fucking door, Lockwood, or I'll come back with a warrant!"

I open it, keeping my body between him and Celeste.

Jake stands there, swaying, his uniform disheveled and stained with snow and mud.

His gun is unholstered but pointed down.

"Deputy. You're drunk."

"Where is she?"

"Who?"

"Don't play games with me, you psycho fuck. Celeste. I know she's here."

"I'm here," Celeste says, appearing beside me. She's put on one of my shirts, long enough to be decent, but making it clear she's comfortable here. "By choice."