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SHILOH

T his is how I die. On campus grounds. In a bathroom stall.

With my stepbrother’s cum dripping down my thighs. My orgasm soaking his dick. My cheek pressed to the door.

My days as a student here are over. There’s no reputation to uphold. No future to give a fuck about.

Being called a slut by someone I won’t remember by next week shouldn’t hurt. Shouldn’t embarrass me.

Her comment stings, anyway.

Shame burns my throat. I’m confused. Don’t know what to do with myself. Where do I go from here? Will they leave? Let me have my walk of shame in peace?

I don’t think so.

I feel too much. I’m too weak to handle this.

I’m looking at Kaleb for answers while he releases, then rubs my wrists. Without a word, he shows me that he has all the solutions. He smooths down my skirt. Tucks himself in .

The girl outside rambles on and on. Reveling in her righteous monologue.

I hardly hear her. Hard to focus on anything as I’m being pulled into Kaleb’s embrace. He cups the back of my head. Wraps his arm around my waist.

His confidence is intoxicating. I inhale it, feeding on it like a vampire.

For a long minute, he’s just there. Being warm and reassuring. Lending me his strength.

“N-no need for name calling.” In my dazed, mortified state, I faintly recognize Eddy’s voice.

The air in the stall shifts. Kaleb’s done coddling me. The warmth vanishes. A chill sweeps over my bones.

His shadow does that to me. His presence.

It’s pure evil. But he doesn’t aim any of it at me.

His entire focus, his fiery wrath, is directed at the stall’s door. At the people on the other side of it.

I’m staring up at him. At this menace. At the danger in his eyes. The vengeance.

Standing at his full, intimidating height, he returns my gaze.

His golden eyes look downright murderous. His jaw clenches.

For a person who hardly feels anything, catching that much emotion in his expression is terrifying.

I’m ready , my body language tells him.

He answers by squeezing my shoulder. Once.

“We just came here t-to use the bathroom before we leave,” Eddy’s stuttering .

“Stop being self-righteous,” the woman groans. “ She isn’t here to pee, is she? She’s here to get a dick. Any dick, it seems like.”

Kaleb bends to the floor, picking up his mask.

“Let’s go home.” Eddy has a sense of responsibility for his students. Unfortunately for him, it won’t be enough to save anyone here.

Kaleb rises, slipping the mask over his head. His eyes are nothing but black holes, but I see through them.

The message they send is crystal clear.

No one’s allowed to talk to me like that. No one will ever survive saying these things about me. No one will ever look down on me.

His princess.

That awareness is the shot of adrenaline I’ve been craving. The final slap on the face to shake me out of my daze.

It obliterates the shame.

Silently, we communicate like only the two of us can.

Like stepsiblings. Like soulmates.

We’re together in this.

Always.

“Oh, please.” Hinges squeak as someone opens one of the stall’s doors. The woman, judging by how close she sounds. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for that easy pussy”—she’s louder, doubling down on the obnoxious tone—“too.”

Kaleb brings his hands to my painted cheeks. At her vicious words, he squeezes my face. His passion, love, and depravity are just as strong as mine.

I blink. Once. I’m okay. I’m ready .

Gloves. He takes them out of his hoodie pocket, pulling them over my hands first, then his.

One swift movement and I’m shoved behind him.

“Please mind your l-language. Miss Talbot is—” Whatever Eddy was about to say dies on his lips.

Kaleb bursts out of our stall, and the door bangs against the wall. Two people shriek at the sound. At his ominous presence.

I peek my head around him in time to see it’s Eddy and the girl.

There’s a third man out there, one of the two I saw earlier today.

A silent man. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Blue slacks and a black peacoat.

My black peacoat that I left in the clinic.

Kaleb would recognize the coat in a heartbeat.

He’ll kill the man with a death wish for it. Soon, I bet.

The thieving fucker watches the scene unfold, unbothered. Doesn’t make an escape attempt.

He smiles while my masked stepbrother approaches the woman, his hand curled before he gets to her.

And he does. Kaleb grabs her by the throat, holding her up in the air as if she weighs nothing.

Eddy is frozen in place. His eyes are gaping, jaw dropped.

He can’t move, though I bet he wishes he could.

The other man’s gaze turns curious, registering the woman’s shrieks of misery. “Put me down. Put me down.”

He’s staying out of sheer, morbid curiosity.

Huge, fatal mistake. One he’ll pay for .

I slip out of the stall as Kaleb enters the adjacent stool. I don’t want him there alone with her. He’s mine.

“What are you doing?” she rasps, struggling to suck in a breath.

Kaleb shakes her in response.

Apparently, the sudden movement is the wake-up call Eddy’s been desperate for.

Poor loser tries so hard to go unnoticed. His steps are small as he backs up toward the door, his trembling hand reaching for the handle.

Delusional.

I won’t let him out. Won’t give him a chance to change his mind and rat Kaleb out.

They’ll. Take. Him. From. Me.

This is the end of the road for Eddy.

Choking sounds of the woman come from my left as I launch at him. Power surges through my veins. I don’t feel like a person anymore. I feel like a human weapon. A deadly one.

In my periphery, while I launch myself at Eddy, I notice the woman whom Kaleb’s choking is flailing her feet in the air.

The blond guy’s eyes flick between Kaleb and me, and he huffs a laugh.

He shows no sign of remorse for stealing my coat. For enjoying this show .

“Please, please, please.” Her demands have shifted into pleading. “I’ll pay you. Anything you want.”

Kaleb thrusts her against the stall. I hear it rather than see it, the loud thump that rattles the room. Her pathetic cries .

But focusing on her is a privilege I don’t have at the moment.

Eddy is about to open the door.

He sees me coming, shrinking into the wall.

“Please.” His fingers search blindly, frantically, for the handle that’s slipped from his grasp. “I told her to stop. She wouldn’t listen.”

Problem is, one of these days, someone will listen to him. When he tells them our story.

Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.

In a year, three, ten? He’ll forget how terrified he is at this moment. The senseless mumbling of the woman in Kaleb’s hold will be a distant memory. My stepbrother’s unleashed wrath won’t be as vivid in Eddy’s mind.

He could write a book about us. Turn us into a spectacle. People will hunt us like animals.

“Please.”

Following Kaleb’s lead, I lock my hand around Eddy’s throat. The adrenaline rush has injected strength into me, and I shove him against the wall, putting my face in his.

Inside his gray eyes, I see myself.

Black Xs are painted over my eyelids. White paint covers most of my face, except for the smudges from Kaleb’s thumb on my cheeks and the area around my mouth.

My lips twist in a snarl.

Eddy starts crying.

Too bad my compassion only extends to one person and one person alone.

My Kaleb .

Feeling feral as all fuck, I turn my head to watch him in his element.

As if he’s been waiting for me, Kaleb looks my way.

His silence is deadly.

Boom.

Thrusting her up against the wall a second time, his black eyes are still fixed on mine.

He cocks his head to the side. Got something to say?

“You’re so hot when you’re like this, brother.”

Let the people here hear me.

None of them are getting out of here alive.

He makes a sound in the back of his throat, pulling the woman off the wall.

He’s fierce, my Kaleb. Big and goddamn mighty. He could end this in a heartbeat, squeeze the life out of her, and be done with it.

Thing is, he was born with sick needs. Sick needs that need tending to.

And one of them is torturing people.

The other is satisfying me. Of course.

Now he gets to do both.

Kaleb carries his victim toward the hook on the wall.

“Oh God.” Eddy’s fingers are on my wrist, helplessly trying to push me off him. He thrashes his body to no avail. I lean my weight on him. It’s not a lot, but I manage to overpower him. I do have my crazy on my side. “Sweet Jesus.”

While Eddy is held firmly in place, my eyes dart to the third threat. The man that isn’t restrained by either me or Kaleb .

He’s staying very still, seeming as entranced and as captivated as he was before.

If he’s planning to write a book about us himself, he better think again.

Leech. Fucking leeches, every last one of them.

Later, I repeat to myself, quickly returning my attention to Kaleb and the woman.

The veins in her eyes have exploded, red drowning out the white. Her nostrils flare, sucking in air. As much as Kaleb allows, anyway.

God, he’s gorgeous. The corded veins in his hand. His devotion to killing the woman who said awful things about me.

When I was young, I was conflicted about this side of him. His revenge on the boys who molested me was gory. Bloody. He left their hearts scattered on the bathroom floor, Dad said. Their rib cages had been cracked open.

I understood why Kaleb did it. It terrified me nonetheless.

Eleven years later, the fear is gone. Wiped away.

Love bursts from my body. Adoration.

Gratefulness.

“Crew.” Her strangled plea is followed by a hand gesture. She outstretches it toward the man who does nothing to help her. The blond observer. “Crew.”

Nothing. He wouldn’t have been able to help her if he tried.

Which he doesn’t.

One second, she’s alive. Breathing, sort of. Awake for this nightmare.

Boom .

Kaleb doesn’t just push her up against the wall. He hangs her onto the hook.

It’s sinfully hot. His viciousness. His creativity.

“ Hakkk .” Blood spurts out of her mouth, painting her lips and chin red. “ Hakkk .”

Kaleb releases her throat, leaving her there. His hand lifts to the side of her head. Resting it on her temple.

“ Hakkk .” But it’s weaker now. It’s the last sound she makes before Kaleb shoves her head violently to the side and breaks her neck.

The cracking sound has every part of my body throbbing for him.

Another sound comes just then. Eddy’s growling loudly, pushing against me.

I’m so fucking done with him.

Kaleb moves toward Crew, his head turned toward me. I shake my head once. Don’t need help.

I really don’t. Making a V shape with the fingers of my free hand, I twist back to Eddy.

His eyebrows are pulled down, his entire body working to free himself from me.

How. About. No.

I shove my middle and index finger into his eyes. Pushing them as far as they’d go. The squelching sounds and blood seeping down his cheeks don’t bother me. I’m proud of myself for finally doing something significant to help Kaleb, other than handling the police detectives.

I’ve been standing on the sidelines for too long. Have allowed others to dictate what I can or cannot do for him .

Those days are over. Gone.

I hook my fingers inside Eddy’s eye sockets, flipping my wrist.

Something tears inside of him as he screams. Another wave of blood gushes out.

He’s grown quiet. Death has taken him.

“At last, we’re alone,” Crew says, his voice hoarse.

I pull my fingers out of Eddy, stepping back and letting his lifeless body drop to the floor. Then I twist to the idiot who’s actually happy to be here, the one Kaleb holds up by his throat.

“Excuse me?” I ask. Kaleb’s warmth washes over me as I come to stand closer to him. He leans into me, the latex of his mask pressing to the top of my head.

It’s the sweetest kiss.

“Y-your dad paid me to stay away.” Crew’s eyes bulge. His lips turn a darker shade of blue. “I run an indie news blog. You might’ve heard of me—Hyatt Holiday. I dug up information about you, and your dad gave me a shit ton of money to take it all down. To stop stalking you. We can work around the deal I made with him. If you give me your permission, it doesn’t count as stalking, does it?”

As much as I hate to admit it, I need him alive for a few more seconds.

He holds information that we’re missing. About my father. Maybe about an accomplice, someone who’s waiting for him on the outside.

Kaleb and I have to know what we’re up against. We have to cover all our bases after we kill the building’s security and destroy the tapes. Yeah, it’s unfortunate that the guard will have to lose his life.

What other choice do we have?

None.

Kaleb tenses when I place my hand on his shoulder. Relaxes when I remove my glove, shove it in my bra, and stroke his arm. He looks at me through his mask, asking for my take on this.

“Let the man talk.” Then we can kill him. “I’ll never turn down a good deal.”

A grunt. Then he lets go of Crew’s throat, not letting go, not really. Kaleb threads his fingers through Crew’s hair and tugs.

“Okay, okay. Cool. I get it. I won’t waste your time.” Crew slants his blue eyes at me. They’re no longer bulging. For a little while. “Thank you.”

Kaleb shakes Crew’s head. Violently.

“Right. Don’t piss off the obsessed stepbrother.” The psycho grins up at Kaleb, the smile splitting his face in half. “So. I couldn’t fucking believe my eyes when it was the two of you, when you walked into the clinic today. Like, how lucky could one person get?”

We could be here all night, listening to him drooling over us. His excitement pours from him, smelling worse than the blood and death surrounding us.

Not interested.

“You’re after an interview?” I veer the conversation to where I want it to go .

“Yes. Yes. I’d pay for it. Your father wired 50K into my account. You can have every cent.”

Apparently, my dad has been busy talking to everyone else except me.

Kaleb told me that my dad had called on that first night he visited me. That he’d deleted the call. It hadn’t changed a thing between us.

A real, loving father wouldn’t have been deterred by it. A man who cared about his daughter would’ve kept calling. He would have shown up at her apartment.

Instead, my father changed his number. Hired a man to stalk me. Sent Kaleb’s psychiatrist over to my place. All in the name of having the upper hand over us. A reason to finally get rid of me. Something to justify it.

“No cameras. No editor or PA?” I ask, fishing for information. “Only you.”

“Correct.” He chuckles, smiling. The idiot. “I’m a one-man show. It’ll be just the two of you and me. Oh, and the smell of the money advertisers will throw my way after this.”

Good. When we burn down his office later, no one will be there to protect the materials he’s dug up on us.

“You can’t tell anyone we’re here, either. My father included. I want him to think we tried to escape.” I cross my arms over my chest. “These are our terms. Take it or leave it.”

“Sure, sure.” He inches closer, and Kaleb yanks him right back. “Your father threatened to kill me if I went public or blackmailed him for more money.” A nervous laugh. “I haven’t said a word to anyone about this, about you two. Your secret will stay safe with me in exchange for this exclusive. ”

“Great,” is what I’m saying. What I actually mean is, Finish him, Kaleb.

Crew is clueless. His grin widens.

A moment later, that grin disappears into the wall.

Kaleb is so fucking sexy, so fucking hot when he bashes Crew’s face in.

“Why”— bam —“stop”— crunch —“please”— smash, smash, smash —“ow.”

Blood splashes on the wall. Brain matter drips down Crew’s temple.

My stepbrother doesn’t relent.

Why should he?

He’s having fun.

Crunching and smashing sounds echo inside the small bathroom at a steady pace. As loud and insistent as the beats of my heart.

Eventually, Mr. Sleuth stops fighting. Releases his final breath.

My cheeks are hot, heart fluttering.

I want Kaleb. I need him inside me. No man, woman, or porn video could ever compare to this.

This raw savageness. My unapologetic murderer. My own personal vigilante.

The best thing to have ever happened to me.

I’m breathing hard, as turned on as I’ve ever been, as I watch him lean over to grab Crew’s phone and take the laptop out of his bag.

My nipples are pulled tight at the sight of him smashing them beneath his foot, turning them into nothing .

“Security office, then home?” I’m heady with desire, batting my eyelashes at him.

“Sounds like a plan, little sister.” He opens the door for me, his other gloved hand skimming my cheek. “I hope you know I’m nowhere near done with you tonight.”

I reach for the bulge in his jeans, biting my bottom lip at how hard he is. How he jerks in my hand. “Please, don’t ever be done with me. Ever.”