Page 17

Chapter Seventeen

Grey

T he suicide note crumples in my fist as I drop to my knees in Briar’s living room. I was afraid she would think I’d abandoned her, but I never imagined she felt this hopeless. I never imagined I would be faced with a repeat of the past.

A high-pitched whine joins the beat of my heart in my ears. My vision goes hazy, and I feel like I might vomit. My wife didn’t leave a note, but this situation is still too similar. Too familiar.

My stomach rolls as I recall finding my wife in the bathroom. But in that vision, her face becomes Briar’s. My wife’s blonde hair floats on the water, shifting from brown to auburn. The blood is still red, though. So much blood.

I close my eyes and will the mental images away with another roaring scream. What I feel for Briar isn’t love, but it could have been. With time and care, it could have been so much more. She’s strange and beautiful, and I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms one final time and ask her?—

“Grey?”

I scramble to stand and turn around. My ankle bumps against the coffee table’s leg, but I can’t even scream in pain as my eyes land on a ghost.

“Briar? I thought you...” I unclench my fist and look at the note again.

She rushes forward and snatches the note from my hand. “Fuck whatever you thought. You have to get out of here! You should be in China right now.”

I grip her shoulders. “Promise me you won’t do that. Promise me right fucking now.”

“Grey—”

“Promise me!” I shake her shoulders and stare into her green eyes. “Nobody ever gives me the time to figure shit out. They always jump straight to the nearest fucking exit. Promise me that you will never step toward the exit again, Briar, or I will call the cops and turn myself in right fucking now.”

Her knees wobble, and she collapses to the couch. She’s unable to look at me as tears fill her eyes. “What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to do when I thought you ran off with the last of any chance I had at a life?”

“You keep living. That’s what you do.” I step closer and kneel in front of her, then take her hands in mine. “You don’t live for a man. You don’t live for a house or your freedom. You don’t live for anything other than Briar. No matter what happens, you have to promise me you’ll keep living. Be a thorn in someone’s side, little psycho, even if it’s not mine.”

She finally meets my gaze. “But what am I supposed to do ? There is an entire dead person in the woods behind my house. I am about to lose said house, at which point, the body will be discovered. To top everything off, the best relationship I’ve ever had is with a murderer who is about to leave my life forever.”

“Not if you come with me.” I smile up at her. “I have so much to tell you.”

As we stand beside the burn barrel, I explain everything that’s happened since the tech crash during the burglary. It turned out that someone suspected we were watching the cameras, and we were just lucky that this person was on my side.

The bank bitch’s depravity was much deeper and wider than we realized. The children weren’t just abused in her care. They were exploited as well. Beverly—Gloria’s sister—had been trying to get authorities to listen for months, but no one would hear her. When I killed Gloria, I finally brought her evil deeds to light, and as thanks, Beverly put aside the money in the safe. The money Gloria had been using to pay people to turn a blind eye would now go to me.

And then some.

When Beverly ended the camera feed and the phone signal, she told me everything, gave me the money, and took me to a secure location. Once there, she used some of her contacts to fabricate a couple of passports and buy some first-class tickets to Russia. She knows of a small expat village there where we’ll be safe.

“We?” Briar asks. “You want me to come with you?”

I pull the passports from my pocket and hand them to her. “That’s why I was gone for so long. I couldn’t contact you because Beverly insisted I destroy your phone so nothing could be traced to either of us.”

“What if I don’t want to go?” She studies the passport that displays her face, accompanied by information fabricated by Beverly. Then she looks up at me. “What if I want to stay here?”

There was always a possibility that she wouldn’t come with me, but I didn’t expect this to be her response, which means I didn’t expect my chest to ache viscerally with this response, either.

I pull a metal card from my coat pocket and hand it to her. “If you don’t want to come with me, you can have all the money. That card is connected to an offshore account that no one but you and I can touch, and there’s enough there for you to live more than comfortably for the rest of your life.”

“And what about you? How will you live?” She turns the card in her hands, staring at it in the firelight.

I shrug. “The same way I’ve been living, just in a different country. I have the ticket to get me there, and that’s all I really need. You needed the money.”

She shakes her head and hands the card to me. “No, I needed more than that. I just didn’t realize it until right now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You, Grey. I need you.” She turns to face me. “We’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but I need you. You’ve given me someone to come home to each day, and you’ve given me hope. That’s something I haven’t had since I was a little girl. But I can’t have you.”

“What are you talking about?” I pull her against my chest and hold her. “I just invited you to run away with me. That wasn’t out of politeness. I want you with me too.”

She pulls away and holds me at arm’s length, then pushes the passports into my hands as well. “No. You want your wife, and I’ll never be her.”

As she turns and walks toward the house, my stomach drops into my feet. I stuff the passports into my pocket, and my hand collides with the mask. Closing my eyes, I grip the fabric and listen as the door to the house clicks shut behind Briar.

She’s right. How can she want to be with me when I’ve never given her a chance to be with me ? Every intimate moment we’ve shared has been facilitated by a middleman: this mask.

I grit my teeth and toss the mask into the fire before rushing into the house.

Briar stands in the kitchen beside the coffeemaker. Her auburn hair slides off of her shoulder as she turns to look at me. I step forward and take her upper arms into my hands again, but I won’t release her this time. I don’t care how much she struggles. She has to hear me.

“I want you, Briar. Without the mask. I don’t want a barrier between us anymore, and after I fuck you, I want you to promise that you’ll never hurt yourself. Ever. And then I want you to promise that you’ll come with me.”

“Let go. You’re hurting me,” she says as she struggles, but I don’t release her.

“No. Not until you listen to me. I’ll never be able to let go of the grief I feel for the life I once had, but when I found that note—” My throat closes off, and I can’t continue. But I have to. “The wound had begun to close, and the same person who stitched me up had wrenched me open again. When I walked into this house, I had every intention of putting the card on the table and leaving without any fanfare, but I couldn’t. Not without asking you to come with me.”

She relaxes in my grip and looks at the floor. “Grey, it was fun while it lasted, but?—”

I grab her hand and place it against my jeans. “I’m not wearing the mask, little psycho. I don’t need it.”

Her grip firms around my erection, and for a moment, I fear my cock will panic and recede inside my body. Instead, a rush of pleasure ratchets my spine straight, and I suck in a breath.

“I want you to touch me like that,” I whisper. “I want to fuck you without the mask, and then I want to sleep until we need to catch that plane. That’s all I want. Not the money. Not the old life. Just you.”

She bites her lip and looks up at me. “Then take me.”

I step into her and press my mouth to hers. Without any hesitation, I devour her and inhale her every breath. Her nipples pebbles against my palms as I touch her breasts. White heat pulses between my legs, and I want to give her every hardened inch of myself.

Gripping the hem of her shirt, I step back and pull it over her head, wanting to see every glimpse of her bare skin. She tries to cover herself, but I move her hands.

“You want me without the mask, and I want to see you. All of you. I want to touch and commit every inch of your perfect body to memory. Let me see you, Briar.”

Instead of simply lowering her hands, she takes a deep breath and removes her pants, then her bra and underwear. Under my scrutinizing gaze, she strips until she’s bare.

Raised scars crisscross her body. I’ve felt these marks, but I always figured they were stretch marks and she was embarrassed. This is so much worse. These marks weren’t caused by a natural occurrence. Whatever happened to Briar, I’m not sure it was natural at all. Nor was it consensual.

I get on my knees in front of her and pull her body closer. With my hands around her thigh, I place gentle kisses on the scars near my fingers. I turn her body, replacing every painful bit of abuse with kindness and attention.

“You’re beautiful. Your scars are part of that beauty, little psycho. They’re proof that you walked through hell and came out on the other side.” I kiss a long, thick area of raised skin on her ass. I can’t imagine what it must have been like, trying to sit down at work with a wound like this after enduring abuse to the point that it caused you to lose your pregnancy. “Never hide your body from me again.”

I rise behind her and place my hands on either side of her on the counter, boxing her in. Her full ass presses against my cock. I reach up and ease her auburn hair over her shoulder so that I can see her face.

“Promise me, Briar.”

She offers a nervous laugh. “I hate making promises, but that seems to be all you want tonight.”

I position her hands on the counter, then begin unfastening my belt. When she tries to turn around, I stop her.

“Hold that counter, and don’t let go,” I say. I hurry and finish undressing.

When I step behind her again, my bare skin meets hers, and she sucks in a breath. I press my palm on her lower back, then glide toward the back of her neck. My fingertips drive into her hair, and I snatch back her head. As a small whimper leaves her throat, my cock jumps against her ass.

“You wanted all of me, so that’s what you’ll get, but I expect something in return. I want all of you, too. And if you’re going to be mine, I want to know that you’ll protect what’s mine. Do you understand what I’m asking you?”

She nods her head.

“Good girl. Now grip that counter, and don’t let go until I say you can.”

I line up behind her as she braces herself, and the moment I sink inside, we both let out a groan. It’s a feeling we didn’t think we’d have the chance to experience again, and that makes it so much more intense now.

Another whimper sneaks out of her when I drive my hips forward and push her against the counter, but I told her to brace herself. I don’t plan to go easy on her. She seems to get the memo, and she pushes back against me on the next thrust.

We communicate without words in a game of push and pull. Within minutes, her thighs begin to shake, and I’m too close to my edge as well. I pull out of her and sit in a chair.

“Ride me, little psycho. Fuck me until you force the come out of me. Take it. Take everything you deserve.”

She turns and takes a few steps forward so that she can straddle me. Her left arm goes around my neck, and her right hand slips between us. She firms her grip on my cock, then pushes me inside her. I lean forward and moan against her shoulder. She feels like heaven.

Her tempo starts slow. With my size, this position can be a bit uncomfortable, but she’s working herself up to it. She rises and drops with each scoop of her hips, and she’s so focused. I look up and watch as her head tips back and she moans. Leaning forward, I pull her nipple into my mouth and suck.

“Oh, fuck,” she whispers. “Just like that, but suck a little harder.”

She picks up speed, coming down a little harder at the end of each scoop of her hips. I release her breast and look between us, watching the place where we join. Her swollen clit grinds against my pelvis, and my cock gleams with the proof of how good it feels to her.

Fuck, it feels good to me too, and if she keeps this up, I’m going to fill her.

I release her breast from my mouth and swap to using my hands. “Come for me, little psycho. Use me until you get what you need. Just like that.”

She leans forward, gripping me and the chair as she chases her orgasm at a breakneck speed. Her hips pump like a machine, and she’s milking both of us of every ounce of pleasure. Just when I’m not sure I can hold out any longer, she loses herself.

“Fuck, I’m coming! I’m fucking coming!” she screams, followed by a beautifully inhuman groan. Her thighs tense and release, tense and release, and there’s no rhyme or reason to her tempo now. An intense orgasm has taken control, and it’s taking me down with it.

Her perfect pussy squeezes my dick in time with her heartbeat. My arms wind around her waist, and I press my face against her chest as I fill her completely. A mixture of our come slides down my shaft and saturates my balls, but I don’t care. As this unhinged psycho leans back and looks down at me, I don’t know that I’ll ever care about anything else again.

Besides her.

“So you’ll come with me?” I whisper up at her as she looks into my eyes.

She smirks. “I just did.”

“You know what I meant.”

With a sigh, she relaxes forward and rests her head on mine. “Yes, Grey. I’m coming with you.”

As I hold her against me, everything feels right again. If we can just make it onto that plane together, life might actually feel right forever.