Page 100 of Burn With Me

“I know that,” I said and wished I could move my arms. They were starting to go numb.

“I wasn’t finished. He was a judge that liked to give children back to their abusive homes.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Derek held up his finger and growled like a dog, freezing the words in my throat.

“Don’t say it’s not true. You don’t have a fucking clue. Did you go sit in court and watch your precious daddy work? Did you ever ask him about his job? Did you even once consider that every decision he made affected another’s life?”

I closed my mouth. I didn’t know. I’d never been to his courtroom. The thought of sitting there all day and listening to legal stuff had seemed boring.

“I did,” Derek said. “I sat in the back of his court for days and watched families plead to have someone arrested or restraining orders put into place. I watched children cry on the stand, and your father had the nerve to say that parents deserved the right to be with their kids.”

Derek burst to his feet, and I flinched as his massive fist hit the pole I was tied to. The whole building sounded like it groaned with the abuse. Dust and dirt fell onto my head, and I coughed and choked on the particles.

“The parents’ rights!” He bellowed so loud that it echoed in the large open space. “What about the children’s rights?”

He marched away, and when he turned back to stare at me, I saw the face that all those that died at his hands saw. There was a fissure in his mind that had broken. When I didn’t know, but I could see it in his eyes as he tried to rein it back in like he was arguing with someone else.

“Didn’t I have rights? Didn’t my brother?”

Even though I didn’t want to, all I could picture was a young Asher terrified and hiding from his father, and I hated how that sat like a rock in my stomach. I hated that Derek was making me feel bad for him and what he’d done.

“So now you’re planning on killing me to get back at your brother. Do you even know that he talks about you all the time?”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s the truth. He loves you, Derek.”

“Shut up!”

Derek picked up a canister, and I shivered as I stared at the red metal can. He walked to a far wall and a large pile of loose hay before setting it down as if he was preparing his stage. All the other kills had been the same. The perfect angles, wind, or accelerants were used to make the fire travel at his will.

“I chose you before I knew you were with my brother. That’s just a bonus.”

“Why? What the hell did I do other than my job? You pissed off that I was hunting you and getting close?”

Derek laughed as he lit the first old-style lantern. I quickly realized he had them placed all around the barn and the thought of burning alive became a lot more real in my mind.

“You weren’t close to catching me. I thumbed through all your notes and theories, and I mean, you were on point with some of them, but who I was….” Derek looked over at me as he replaced the glass topper of the next lantern. “You had no clue. I would’ve gone months or years without you coming close.”

“Gloating now? You didn’t seem like the type,” his glare had me reconsidering my life choices. You’d think I’d learned by now not to poke at the bear.

“You’re right about that. I’m not the type to gloat, which is why I know you weren’t close. I don’t leave behind calling cards, and I certainly don’t stick to patterns.”

I shook my head. “Fine then, why me,” I asked, exasperated as my head pounded harder with the start of a migraine.

“Because you tried to save Sarah. I mean, she died in the end, but you did ruin my first attempt,” he said casually, as if we weren’t discussing a person’s life.

“The apartment across from me? That’s what this is about?”

“Yes. You don’t know how many times I watched you jump from your balcony to Sarah’s like you were trying out for a staring role in an action movie. Over and over again, I watched as you rescued my prey. My pet didn’t get to eat, so you needed to be punished.”

“Okay, can we be real here for a moment? What did you think someone would do if they saw that and thought they could help?”

“Why didn’t you just stay out of it? She deserved to die for what she was doing. Why would you want to help her? You’re just like your parents.”

I’d never wanted to yell ‘yes’ and ‘no’ at the same time before.

“If what you say my parents did is true, then no, I’m nothing like them.” I snarled and tried to shift around the beam enough to keep my eyes on him.