Page 115 of The Demons We Hide

“Go on,” I say, nudging Lex. “G and I have got it here. Take the SUV.”

There’s no more argument from Lex as he curls an arm around Juliet’s waist and starts to lead her away. Just before they’re about to pass me by, Juliet stops and reaches out. Her hand grazes my arm. “Thank you, Nolan.”

Fuck me, but I can’t stop. There is no stopping. I bend down and grip her chin, turning it in my direction as I take her lips with mine. Her eyes bulge, but she doesn’t pull away. Our eyes remain locked for the entire duration of the kiss and I tell her everything I want to say with them.

I love her. We love her. We’ll never let anything bad happen to her again. She’s ours. She’s safe.

When I break the kiss, I feel a little lighter. “Youneverneed to thank me for giving you what you need, Princess,” I tell her before repeating the most important word of all. “Never.”

She blinks, slow and dazed as if she’s surprised, but then Lex grins at me and urges her towards the waiting vehicles. A few moments later she’s hoisted into his passenger seat and buckled in and the lights of his SUV flash as he cranks the engine and backs away, turning and revving off back towards town.

I wait. One minute. Two. Three. When the last glow of his tail lights dims until they’re imperceptible, I turn back to G.

“Alright,” I tell him, marching over to my discarded bag and pulling out a can of gasoline, a hammer, and a collection of other useful tools. I spy a few discarded railroad spikes jutting up from the ground. Those will work for what I have in mind. “Let’s get started.”

45

JULIET

Nausea rolls through me as I stand under the spray of Lex’s fixed shower head. I’ve never been more grateful for the high-pressure spray in my life than I am now. The water rolls over my hair and shoulders. Some turning into little rivulets of blue as some of the dye gives up its hold on my hair.

I killed a man tonight and there’s no hiding that fact. It wasn’t an accident and I can’t lie to myself and say it was in self defense. I was safe when I took that gun from Nolan’s hand. I was proud when I held it up and pressed it to that fucker’s forehead and I… liked the smoking hole the bullet created in his skull and the splatter of brain matter that erupted out of the back of his head before he flopped to the ground.

I killed a man tonight, I repeat the words in my head. And I liked it.

A knock on the bathroom door startles me from my thoughts. I jolt and reach for the knobs, only to pause when Lex’s voice comes through the wood. “Hey, baby, I’m going to run over to Nolan’s to grab some of your things so you can stay here tonight. Do you need anything else?”

Breath rushes out of my lips, and I let my hand drop away from the knobs, turning and letting the spray wash over my chest and belly. “Just a toothbrush and toothpaste,” I reply.

“Got it. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.”

I’m half tempted to ask him “where else could I go,” but I don’t. I swallow down the words and close my eyes and relive the moments when I ended another human being’s life. Like an old-timey projector screen, the images replay with a bit of fuzziness around the edges. Over and over again, pausing and rewinding and then replaying.

I don’t know how long it takes for Lex’s hot water to run out. Fifteen minutes. Thirty. It doesn’t matter. I stay under the cooling spray until I’m shivering from the cold, and when I finally turn it off and step out, I feel no cleaner than I had before I started.

The inside of Lex’s bathroom is big—bigger than I expected for him to be able to fit inside a refurbished carriage house. Then again, he’s a big man himself—tall and broad and every bit the footballer he looks. Seeing him standing at my side, still dressed in his white football pants and blue jersey even with the blood and dirt splattered on his uniform was a sight I’ll never be able to erase from my head.

It kind of turned me on, and that should bug the shit out of me.

I grab a towel and dry myself off to the best of my ability before wrapping it and tucking it securely around my frame. When I step into Lex’s bedroom, it’s to the sound of an odd beeping noise.

“Lex?” I call out, but get no reply.

With a frown, I follow the noise into the hallway and then pause in front of the door halfway between the bedroom and the main living area. The door that had been locked the last time I’d been here. There’s a dim light peering out from beneath the thin slit at the bottom.

The beeping continues in incessant, repetitive chirps and this close, I know it’s coming from inside. Curiosity and hesitance war within me. There’s no reason to suspect the guys of hiding anything from me now. They watched me kill a man tonight, and I watched one of them do the same.

Still, my hand lifts to the knob and when I try it, I find it unlocked. Wet hair dripping against my shoulders, I twist the handle and push it inward.

Computer monitors line the back wall of what can only be a ten by six foot space. It’s hardly large enough to be a closet much less a room, but that’s what it appears to be. An office of sorts.

I step inside.

There are three monitors placed on the desk that takes up the back wall in its entirety, and above them are several more, mounted each above the other. The upper screens showcase camera views of woods and the gravel path that we’d taken past Lex’s aunt’s house to the back of the property.

The source of the beeping comes from one of the upper screens that reveals a grainy image of vaguely familiar woods. The monitor glitches. A flash of red in the corner, warning of a low battery, blinks and then disappears as the screen shuts off and goes black.

That infernal beeping finally stops, but I don’t.

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