Page 40 of Psycho

Fuck, but what the hell was I supposed to do with it?

Leave it there for anyone to walk by and see?

Get rid of it?

Call the police?

The last one was laughable.

Cops didn’t come to this part of town.

I could be fucking dying on the ground and call them for help, and still, they wouldn’t show.

And even if they did, I didn’t want to get involved in an investigation.

I walked over to the gift box, my fists clenching and unclenching before I reached out and pushed the lid open.

I held my breath and prayed I wouldn’t lose it again as I took the contents in more carefully.

At least the thumb wasn’t bleeding, so it wasn’t exactly new, or at least, I didn’t think so. My breath caught when I found the familiar silver ring with a skull on the head.

Oh, hell.

Was this…

This was Garrett’s thumb, wasn’t it?

Did someone know what he did to me last night and went to him?

But who besides Brody?

Yet I didn’t think Brody had done it.

I blinked when I found another object with the thumb and ring in the box.

A white rose.

My breath stuttered in and out.

So this thumb wasn’t for Dad but me.

It was from my stalker.

For a moment, I hadn’t thought of him as dangerous, especially when he never showed his face, and he had never done anything to me after three years.

My mistake was letting my guard down, because if a man could so casually cut off another man's thumb and send it to me…

Then he was dangerous, wasn’t he?

Fuck.

I closed my eyes and grabbed the box, trying hard not to think about the fact that I was holding someone’s thumb, and moved to the back of the trailer.

I went to the small storage area, pulled out a tin box I had seen around, and set it on the ground.

Saliva built as I put the gift box inside and searched around for a lighter.

I was moving on autopilot.

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