Page 69 of Burn With Me

Sitting down, I turned off the video of my latest kill and turned on a real movie instead.“I’m going to go shower,” I called into the kitchen and made my way upstairs.

If this girl was sent to kill me…so be it. At least I would die clean.

Ava didn’t answer but began to whistle. Walking into the bathroom, I locked the door and then checked it again before propping the laundry basket up against the door.

“What the fuck was I doing?” I mumbled and then stared at my reflection in the mirror.Quickly stripping, I jumped into the small shower and turned on the spray, not caring that the water was ice cold.

I hated the fact that it felt nice to have someone else living and breathing inside the house, even if it was a girl I barely knew. Of course, because I was a sucker for punishment, my mind drifted off into a little cloud and pictured a different set of grey eyes. What was it about Violet’s roommate that intrigued me?

Was she beautiful? Yes, but I always passed beautiful women on the sidewalk, and they never caught my attention. At least not like this. I hated to even think of Adalyn and what she’d pulled on me, but my attraction to her was real, even if it hadn’t been reciprocated. I felt that pain again now, and the anger burned in my gut. Reaching back, I hauled off and punched the hard tile of the shower wall until my knuckles split and started to bleed. Holding my shaking fist up, I stared at the blood dripping down my knuckles.

Who was I trying to fool? No one had ever wanted me or loved me, and that wasn’t going to change. I was a hideous beast and no longer a man. I’d been reduced to a thing, and now I was The Dragon. Fire was the only companion that I needed. Thinking about a pretty brunette with grey eyes was only going to lead down one road, which was to more pain.

Pain was something I was used to and even accepted as part of life, but even I had my limits.

I finished rinsing off the soap, stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around my waist, and opened the door.

“Fuck!” I growled out as I almost ran into Ava. “Girl, seriously, you need to stop that,” I said.

“The cookies are almost done,” she said in a sing-song voice and smiled until her eyes found the scars on my chest and arms.

They were faded now, but the slight indents from where my father would burn me with cigarettes would always remain. Just another reminder of who I really was and what I’d become.

My body tensed, the muscles flexing as her hand reached for one of the scars on my pec.“Bad men hide in sheep’s clothing, and not even the shepherds or wolves can keep them at bay. Only the ravens will stop them, but even they will be too late.”

My brow rose at the saying that obviously held meaning for her. Her finger gently traced the outline of the scar and then did the same to the one on my arm. I wanted to smack her hand away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. She wasn’t horrified by what she was seeing, and the touch of another person was nice. Her finger was featherlight, but the warmth was searing in a pleasant way, and I had the urge to close my eyes and sigh.

“Thank you,” I said, not sure what else to say as she removed her hand.

“He ruined me,” she said, and laid her hand over her stomach.

I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to have a basic idea of what kind of fucked up shit had been done to her to make her mind break. As her head lifted and her eyes found mine, I saw the person she’d been hiding in the shadows. She was still in there but was tucked behind all the layers of fantasy that allowed her to live her life with no fucks given.

“You’re not ruined,” I said, cupping her cheek.

Leaning over, I kissed her softly. It was barely more than a pec, and I wasn’t sure why I did it, but it felt like the right thing to do. “One day, you’ll come out from hiding, and you’ll see how strong you really are.”

This was way too much emotion and feely shit for me, and before she could say anything else, I walked around her and headed to the spare room where I kept my clothes. When I emerged and went downstairs, I had to admit that the house smelled fantastic. Once more, I envisioned the feisty Dora in the kitchen baking up a storm.

The older woman had touched my heart in ways that I couldn’t explain, but she managed to make me feel human, like a man worth having around, not simply the monster.

Rounding the corner to the kitchen, I saw two pans of cookies out cooling, and it looked like more were in the oven.

Ava was nowhere to be seen, but she had to be here somewhere. My question was answered a moment later when I heard her coming up the stairs from the basement. She burst out the door with a wide smile on her face and carrying one of the bricks of C4.

“Look, I found Play-Doh, but you only had grey,” she chimed cheerfully.

“Umm…how about I take that? You wouldn’t want the cookies to burn,” I said, and her face morphed into horror as she tossed the brick of explosive my way and dashed to the oven.Okay, I needed to invest in a lock for that door. I hid the brick behind some cookbooks on the shelf in the kitchen.

“Ava, did you remember why you’re here?”

“I came to see you,” she said.

Maybe she just wanted to see me. The thought of someone wanting to see me ‘just because’ once more pulled at me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Was I lonely?

“Oh, here.” Ava pulled a folded envelope from the back of her jeans and handed it over with a smile.

Or maybe she didn’t just want to see me. I didn’t bother to ask who it was from, there was only one asshole that would send me a letter. I tore it open and pulled out the handwritten note. Wow, Chase could write, and it looked like fucking calligraphy. That was impressive. I’d have to tease him about his pretty handwriting the next time I saw him.