Page 38 of The Love Obsession (Bloody Desires #11)

ZAYN

Keaton and I held Ginny’s hands as we bounced a few feet into the air on the trampoline. Nearby, a group of kids shrieked in delight as they tossed a bright pink basketball back and forth, entertaining background noise from our successful excursion to the indoor jump park.

“Are you having a happy birthday, pumpkin?” I half shouted to be heard above the dance music that abruptly started playing.

“Yes!” She beamed at me as her pigtails flopped up and down with each jump. “Let’s bounce! I’m six now, so let’s bounce six times!”

“We’re already bouncing,” Keaton pointed out, but he was grinning.

He looked amazing in a workout shirt made of some clingy, shiny green fabric.

And let’s not get started on the sweatpants.

I had to keep my eyes averted since we were in a family friendly atmosphere.

His attention landed on me and he stuck out his tongue.

A warm glow burst to life in the spot where my heart was racing.

The love I felt for these two was taking over my whole existence.

I shouldn’t be so ready for the responsibility of a small child—considering my sinister hobby—but I was tired of running from city to city alone so I could kill and move on again.

I still felt as if I had good reason to do what I was doing. I was justified.

But I needed something new.

I needed life instead of death, and I’d been lucky enough to find it.

“Make them humongous bounces!” Ginny jumped with all her might, and in between laughing, we counted to six before we all fell down on our butts.

Keaton gasped, and I gave him a wink that had him flushing red. I probably needed to give him a break, but he loved being spanked so much I was having trouble leaving his wonderful asscheeks alone.

Mrs. Carmine walked up the steps to the platform in the center of the trampolines and waved at us while dragging her pink cardigan closer around her body.

She was such a sweet woman, and she’d been charming while accepting our invitation to stay all day and overnight tonight in our guest room.

Luckily, she’d also suggested watching Ginny later so we could have time to ourselves.

And oh, did we ever need a free evening.

Ginny popped up and started bouncing again, trying to make us fall over. Keaton grabbed my hand, and my breath caught. I squeezed back.

“Fall! Fall!” Ginny put all her effort into trying to bounce us over without actually jumping on top of us, screwing up her cute face in concentration.

Keaton and I shared a look and flopped over onto our backs while Ginny squealed in victory and marched around us.

She leaped, a girl walking on the moon with big, exaggerated steps.

Keaton touched my face. “You look happy.”

Grinning, I kissed his cheek. “I am. I haven’t felt this good since before my parents died. Before times got bad. And that’s all thanks to you. I love you.”

His face flushed a sweet pink that he would deny for a million years if I pointed it out. “I love you, too.”

He leaned close and brushed his lips over mine, and I melted into the kiss, wriggling closer, but then a horrible pain in my gut had me groaning. Keaton was in the same predicament as Ginny hit the trampoline between us—after conveniently using our stomachs to break her fall.

She grabbed our shirts and shook us.

“No more pop for you!” I said, trying and failing to do anything but laugh.

“Are you boyfriends?” She stuck her face in mine in that too-close way all little kids perfected that was intrusive but still mostly endearing. “Barney at school, he has two moms! This is the same, right?” Her eyes were wide as she glanced between us.

Keaton hugged her while I tried to disentangle her fingers from our shirts.

“More or less,” he said.

“There are some key differences to the scenario,” I murmured.

He rolled his eyes, but Ginny was off like a shot to Mrs. Carmine. I gathered by her pointing at us that she was sharing the good news that had only just now occurred to her.

“Kids are so funny.” I glanced at Keaton and frowned because he was tense.

I followed his line of sight to Mrs. Carmine, but she only smiled and nodded, then gave us a friendly wave.

His shoulders sagged in relief, and I wanted to build a time machine for the sole purpose of murdering everyone who had ever put that fear of being himself in his brain.

“Let’s go tell Ginny there are presents to open at home.”

Keaton got up and my heart leaped at the way he easily hauled me to my feet. “I think you spent too much.”

“Come on.” I shoved him, and he bounced, keeping his balance. “We only covered the dining room table in gifts. We didn’t even stack them.”

Keaton frowned. Fuck, he was adorable. I decided then and there to double the amount of presents on his birthday.

“You know most of it is stuff she needs.” I put my hands on my hips and bounced in a circle.

“Clothes. Bike helmet. A new big girl bike. Roller skates. A bowling ball, so she can win next time because the green ones are lucky, but her own green one would be luckiest.” I stopped ticking off things as Keaton raised an eyebrow.

I kissed him in a sneak attack.

“What will you do for Christmas if you go all out like this for birthdays?” He scratched the back of his head and gave me a little pout that adorably reminded me of Ginny.

I tweaked his nose. “Spoil her, of course, but you’re supposed to spoil kids during the holidays.”

He wrapped his arms around me and swung me off my feet.

A shrill whistle blast broke us apart.

“No roughhousing!” A teenage girl with braces and a no-nonsense expression pointed at us, then her lime green shirt that matched the other employees, as if to prove she had the authority to boss around adults.

Ginny pointed at us with both hands and danced around, clearly enjoying us getting into trouble.

“On that note, let’s go home.” I turned toward Ginny and shouted, “Presents?”

“Yay!” She ran toward the door, not stopping for her shoes, leaving the rest of us scrambling behind her.

“Wait!” Keaton called. He bolted after her, carrying her shoes and his.

Mrs. Carmine chuckled huskily under her breath. She was good enough to wait for me to put on my shoes. A few minutes later, we reached the car to find Ginny still bouncing excitedly near the door.

Mrs. Carmine rubbed Keaton’s shoulder, and he looked as if he was going to burst into flames. Even the tips of his ears were red.

“You deserve the best of luck together. You’ve made one old woman happy. I thought if you ever left the park, I’d never see Ginny again. Enjoy yourselves tonight, huh?” She wrinkled her nose at us.

Keaton was so gobsmacked I couldn’t help but snicker until I had tears gathering in the corners of my eyes.

She smiled at me, and I grinned right back. I knew she thought we had a date planned, and while there would be far more bloodshed than traditionally found on a date, she wasn’t completely wrong.

“We’ll have a good time together.” I was able to keep a straight face, thank God.

The whole way home all we heard were questions about presents. As soon as Ginny hit the dining room, she was a whirlwind, ripping off paper and ribbons like a pro, but she’d been wide awake to see the first rays of sunrise on her special day, so about an hour before sunset we were tucking her in.

“No, don’t take them out! It’s still my birthday!” she cried, batting at my hands as I tried to remove her special birthday bows from her hair, so instead I dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“Whatever you say, pumpkin. It’s your day.”

Keaton kissed her little cheek, and Mrs. Carmine was settling down in a rocking chair I’d found in the attic to read a stack of stories until Ginny finally gave in to the massive yawns that kept attacking her out of nowhere.

They both waved at us as we snuck out of the room.

“Are we actually going on a date tonight?” Keaton tilted his head and smiled down at me.

“We’re going hunting.” I smacked his side with the back of my hand. “Let’s get changed.”

“Into what?” He followed me into our room with excitement sparkling in his eyes, the same kind Ginny had before ripping into her presents.

“Something you don’t mind burning. Also, remind me to grab the bug spray. It would be a real shitter to get Goldie and end up with ticks on our asses.”

He snorted, but I was serious.

It took us another hour to change into black clothes, stop at my storage unit for handguns, go to the gas station, and drive out to the spa, but that was fine. We wanted the cover of darkness.

We left my car on a side road, pulled on some nitrile gloves, and started the walk in.

We slipped on lights attached to headbands that resembled something miners from the 1920s might wear.

They were silly but did the job. I had a book bag over my shoulders, and Keaton carried a red can of gasoline that he kept giving dubious looks.

“Shouldn’t we be sneaking?” he asked.

“Nah. No one is looking for us.” I shrugged.

About twenty minutes later, we spotted Goldie’s cabin glowing in the woods.

“Stop. Mask on. Light out. Let’s go.” Anticipation had my skin feeling as if it was going to buzz off my body.

Keaton followed orders like a dream, which I would reward him for later, and we snuck around to the rear of the cabin. I hummed as we came across an old Buick.

“Pour the gas on the car. I bet he has the stash of meth in there. There weren’t a lot of good hiding spots in that cabin.”

Keaton listened to me, but then he went off script and doused the wall of the cabin, too.

Shrugging, I waited for him to get clear. “Try to stay out of the smoke. You do not want to breathe this shit in. Trust me.”

Keaton gave me a thumbs-up, and a thrill fired through me as I took a brand-new red Zippo out of my pocket. I lit the flame, then threw the lighter into a nearby puddle of gasoline.

The whoosh as it went up was satisfying.

Not long later, Goldie came tearing out of his cabin, gun in hand. His long hair was everywhere. He was so busy staring at the fire that Keaton was easily able to grab him without doing any sneaking at all.

Unfortunately, Goldie fought worse than a rabid badger, trying to bite and flail and punch. He lost his gun in the process, but Keaton almost tripped into the fire.

“Boy, knock him out!” I hissed. I’d been trying to get close enough to help, but Goldie’s flying feet were a menace.

Keaton snapped out of whatever shock he’d been in and must’ve realized he was triple or more Goldie’s size because he simply held him with one hand and brought his other massive fist down on top of Goldie’s head.

The second our drug dealer was on the ground, I was on him, using superglue to seal his eyelids shut.

He must not have been as knocked out as I’d thought because he grabbed his face, screaming and shaking his head.

Keaton yanked him to his feet by the arms, and I winced because there was a sick pop that had Goldie shouting again and clutching his left shoulder.

“Walk or you die now,” I said.

“You can’t do this to me!” he shouted.

Keaton slapped him and that stunned him quiet.

Goldie didn’t walk. Instead, Keaton hauled him like a sack of potatoes away from his cabin.

We both dragged Goldie until the burning cabin was in the far distance and we had to turn on our headlamps again.

There was shouting that might be coming from the direction of the spa.

The sound of other people’s voices seemed to spur Goldie into a new reckless round of trying to tug away from Keaton, even though it got him nowhere. Keaton shook him.

“Who the fuck are you! I’m not holding!” He sobbed.

“That’s a lie,” I said smoothly. “Well, perhaps now it isn’t.”

There was a loud crack , as if something had exploded, from the direction of Goldie’s cabin. He started to imitate a tornado siren.

“You will be quiet or I will cut out your tongue.”

Goldie only increased the volume, so I grabbed his ear and pulled. Hard. It takes less pressure than most people realize to detach an ear, and I tossed it aside as blood gushed down his neck to paint his stained white T-shirt red. Pleasure curled through me.

“We’re going to play a game. I’m going to ask for the name of your supplier, and every time you tell me no or don’t answer or any other bullshit, I’m going to rip something else off.

I’ve never managed to pull off a nose, but I’m game to try if you are.

What do you think, boy? You ever pull off a nose? ”

Keaton stared at me as he kept moving. “Nope.”

His eyes glinted, demonic in the headlamp with the vengeance that lit him up from within.

I flung myself at him and went on tiptoe to press my lips to his.

No one had ever stared at me like that, as if I was God and a monster all at the same time.

Although, who was to say how different those two things were—if at all.

His lips were soft and everything I wanted forever.

“Fuck you, fucker! My ear!” Goldie sobbed.

“Now, that isn’t nice. Not nice at all.” I felt truly fucking evil as I grabbed his other ear, but I didn’t care. Perhaps I wasn’t a god, but I was sure as shit handing out some karma tonight.

And my boy looked as if he wanted to ride my cock the second we were done.

I could live with this.