Page 80 of He Sees You

"Juliette—"

"No, Cain. Iknowyou. I know what you're capable of. I've always known, ever since Mom and Dad died in that very convenient accident. I'm coming, and we're going to talk about this."

She hangs up.

This is a complication I didn't anticipate.

Juliette knows me too well, remembers too much from our childhood.

She'll see through the performance, recognize the patterns.

Sterling approaches, stopping just out of arm's reach. "We need to talk. Alone."

I follow him to the tree line, away from the deputies and detectives.

In the darkness between the trees, his civilized mask drops.

"I know what you are," he says quietly. "I can't prove it, but I know. You're a killer. Maybe you started with your parents—yes, I looked into that too. Carbon monoxide poisoning, how convenient. Then you came here and started cleaning house. Drug dealers, rapists, predators. Always people who deserved it, in your twisted logic."

I don't respond, just wait.

"But here's what I also know—you saved my daughter tonight. Jake would have... done things to her. Horrible things. And you stopped him."

"Yes."

"So, I'm going to make you a deal." He steps closer, and I can see the exhaustion in his eyes, the weight of his choices. "They're going to find evidence at Jake's place. Evidence that he was the killer. Case closed, town safe, everyone moves on. You and Celeste are heroes who stopped a monster."

"And?"

"And you disappear. Leave town, leave Celeste, leave everything. Tonight was your last act here. You saved her, now you go."

"No."

His hand goes to his gun again. "That wasn't a request."

"I know. But my answer is still no." I meet his eyes steadily. "I love your daughter, Sheriff. And more importantly, she loves me. We're connected now in ways you can't understand. I've shown her who she really is, and she's shown me I don't have to be alone. You can threaten me, you can try to arrest me, you can even kill me. But I'm not leaving her."

"You're a killer?—"

"Yes. And I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt her. Including you, if necessary."

The threat hangs between us like ice. Sterling's jaw works, processing the reality that the monster he's been hunting is also the only reason his daughter is alive.

"She doesn't know what you are?—"

"She knowsexactlywhat I am. She watched me work on Jake. She held the knife. She made the final cut." I let that sink in. "Your little girl isn't so little anymore, Sheriff. She's not innocent. She's not a victim. She's my equal, my partner, my complement. And if you try to separate us, you'll lose her forever."

"You've corrupted her?—"

"I've freed her. From the cage of expectations you built. From the safe, boring life you planned. From the fear of her own darkness." I turn to leave, then pause. "Check Jake's house, Sheriff. Check his computer, his closet, his basement. See what you've been protecting all these years. Then ask yourself who the real monster is—the one who kills predators, or the one who enables them?"

CHAPTER TWELVE

Celeste

The state police finally leave at two in the morning.

I watch their taillights disappear from my bedroom window—not the room where Jake died, that's still wrapped in crime scene tape—but my childhood room down the hall.