Page 119 of I Know Your Secret
Scooping her up, I carry her to the shower in the attached bath inourbedroom.
“I’ve told you before, I can walk.”
I grumble at her, setting her down on the toilet, ignoring her as I turn on the shower.
Crouching before her, I tip her chin up, looking her over. “I’m not a good man, poison.”
“I’ve gathered that.”
“I will kill for you. I will kill over you. I will kill in front of you. Do you understand that?”
She clears her throat. “I do.”
“There was a time when I thought I was going to kill you,” I admit.
The steam from the shower begins to fill the room, dusting the mirror with a film.
“And now? You don’t think you’ll kill me?”
“I don’t know if I have the skill set.” Standing, I nod toward the shower. “In.”
She removes her top and bra before stepping in, and I follow her inside, closing the glass door behind me.
“This is such a fucked situation. For most of my life, I’ve feared your death catching up with me, and now that it has…” She shakes her head, turning under the water towards me.
“Now that it has, what?” I prod, pulling her out of the shower’s spray so that she’ll open her damning eyes.
“Now that it has, I wish it had found me sooner.”
“You don’t mean that.” Anger floods my chest at the thought of her placating me with bullshit words so that I don’t kill her. Even though I all but admitted I’m too weak to do so, she has to know on some level, I’m still a fucking threat.
“I don’t say things I don’t mean. Life is too short.”
I snort. “Don’t you know it.”
“What did you mean earlier? When you said that youdiedthat day?”
I watch droplets of water drip down the bridge of her nose before tipping over the edge. “I was… I don’t know. Wash up. I need to get back to watch that feed before I head out for my meeting.”
“No. What did you mean?” She presses me against the shower wall as I try to pass her to reach the soap on the built-in shelf behind her.
“I meant that the old me, the one who didn’t give a fuck about anything except for the next kill, the man who stalked the night, rich from a bounty of killing, died. Something about you felt… I don’t know.”
“You said once I was a kindred spirit. Does that mean I’m like you?”
“You did leave me, pretty poison. Don’t forget facts.”
“But you weren’t dead.”
“But you thought I was.”
She swallows thickly, her throat sliding.
I cover it with my hand, giving it a slight squeeze, and she breathes out shakily.
“I saw a kindred spirit in you that night. Someone unafraid to look darkness in the face to survive.”
“And now?” she asks, her tongue sliding over her bottom lip as I lean down, backing her into the opposing shower door, her hands squeaking on the glass as she grips for purchase.
