Page 48 of My Girl

Right as I push myself up from the backseat, I switch the child lock on the inside of the car door to engage it before slamming the door shut.

In the front seat, I ready the needle, then turn over my shoulder.

“Where are you headed?” I ask.

“My girlfriend’s,” he says. “Henderson.”

“You’re a local, then,” I say. “Don’t forget to put on your seatbelt.”

His gaze drops to his lap. “You already?—”

I lurch between the front seats and stab him with a hypodermic needle. The sedative plunges into his veins. He fumbles, but he’s so drunk already, he loses consciousness within seconds.

I unlock his seat belt. He flattens on the backseat. Then I find his phone, power it off, and drop it on the asphalt. My tires crunch over it. About twenty minutes later, we park the taxi next to my truck, near the industrial buildings off of Sammy Davis Jr. I transfer him to the bed of my truck.

He sleeps the entire time.

When we make it to the Galloway House, it’s past the mall’s hours. Rae isn’t here yet, but her jasmine perfume—that overly floral, synthetic scent—floats through the house. I carry him in an oversized duffel bag through the kitchen and down to the basement.

I pull him out of the bag. I flick the next needle, then squirt it into him. There are enough sedatives to keep him dazed until we’re ready.

You’re getting her presents now,my mother’s voice says.You’re a pussy-whipped little boy.

This time, there’s no anger. Instead, I grin. This isn’t about giving Rae another conquest to fuck. This is about pushing her into her rightful place.

Parked outside of her apartment building, I check Rae’s cameras. On the screen, she’s sleeping face down. I turn off the surveillance cameras. Then I let myself inside of her apartment.

I scrawl a note and leave it on her nightstand, close enough to where she sleeps that she’ll lose her mind knowing that I was here again without her knowledge.

Since she first slid into the backseat of my taxi, I’ve seen that lack of human connection in Rae’s eyes. She doesn’t see others as real people; she sees others as objects, even me. Above all else, she needs the thrill—going against society’s order—to feel like she’s alive. We’re the same that way.

She just doesn’t know what she’s capable of yet.

I chuckle to myself, then head back to my house to get ready for the day. Our little game won’t resume until tomorrow night. DrummerBoy420 will sleep through the day, and when the moon comes up again, Rae and I will play with him together.

“Perhaps it is a present,” I say to myself.

It’s not about pleasing her though; it’s about pleasingmyself.Playing with my little girl, seeing exactly what she does, and discovering how her mind works entertains me. She may not be able to kill him yet, but she’ll like the idea.

I’ll make her admit it too.

Chapter16

Rae

I’ve gota surprise for you,the note reads.

There’s no signature attached to it, but I know who it’s from. I clutch the paper in my hands, squeezing it until it crinkles. It’s like I can feel Crave there, writing it.

A surprise from Crave can be anything. I don’t know him well enough to know what kind of gifts he would surprise someone with.

“A surprise isn’t a gift,” I say to myself, but as I look up at the Galloway House, the excitement burrows inside of me. I can’t ignore it. Still, I clutch my purse to me, comforted by the fact that my handgun is inside.

Crave is nothing more than a murderer,I remind myself.

“A murderer I’ve fucked,” I say out loud.

And blackmailed.