Page 53 of Salvation

He smirked—or at least smirked the best he could with the toothbrush in his mouth and then went back into the bathroom. I stood in the centre of the bedroom, impatiently waiting for his return.

“A while,” he finally said, leaning against the doorframe.

“I gathered that. How long isa while, exactly? And don’t try brushing me off. Custom leather jackets don’t appear overnight. Bedrooms are not decorated overnight. At least not without leaving behind the stench of paint and paste. So how long?”

“A couple of months,” he shrugged, as though it was no big deal. “Are we done with this now?”

“Not even close,” I replied, placing my hands on my hips. “How long have you been watching us?”

“Are you sure you want the answer to that? You can’t scream and shout, remember?”

“Believe it or not, I went into this conversation expecting to hear things I don’t like. Hit me with it.”

“Months. We had Bambi watching you for weeks, and then Hacksaw took over. It’s how we already knew where that woman lived.”

“That woman had a name.”

“Exactly.Had.I didn’t bother learning it then. I’m certainly not going to bother learning it now that she’s dead.”

I gritted my teeth, but I didn’t rise to the bait. “And just how far did Hacksaw go to watch us?”

“I’m guessing by the look on your face, you’ve already got a good idea.”

“I want to hear it,” I persisted.

“He snuck into your house and bugged your phone. He installed cameras in every corner. He followed you to and from work, and he sent me pictures of everyone you were with.”

“So why did you take so long to make yourself known?”

“To start with, because we didn’t know about Axel. Bambi hid that from us.”

“And he’s still alive?” I muttered dryly, but he smiled all the same.

“He paid a price. Check out his hand next time you see him and you’ll see the price he paid.”

“Lovely,” I said, my stomach tightening at the thought. “So then what?”

“Rachel, it’s late. Can this wait until the morning?”

“No.”

He sighed heavily and pushed himself off the door. “And then nothing. Hacksaw took over, immediately told us about Axel,and we set a plan to take him. There was a debate over whether or not we’d let you live, and clearly you came out the victor, so that’s the end of it.”

“Why didn’t you come for him straight away?”

He stalked closer to me, his movements slow and steady. “Because I wanted to make you suffer, Rachel. I wanted to know every last, tiny, insignificant detail of your life. I wanted to gather up all the strings without you even being aware of what I was doing. And then I was going to snip each one, leaving you with nothing.”

“And what changed?” I asked, craning my head back to look at him.

“Nothing,” he shrugged. “I just realised how little I actually cared. I spent months watching you, and realised how mundane your life really was.” He grabbed my chin as he spoke, forcing me to look into his eyes. “It’s no wonder you were so quick to sign that contract, Rachel. This is the most excitement you’ve had in years.”

“You’re probably right,” I muttered back, refusing to be drawn into an argument. “But that’s the drawback of being a single parent. It doesn’t leave much opportunity for hobbies or a social life.”

He looked as though he was going to say something, but then thought better of it. “You surprised me. I thought for sure you’d kick off at that statement.”

“I’m full of surprises,” I said, stepping out of his hold. “At least one of us has grown up and stopped playing games. Maybe the other one would like to join in.”

I pushed past him and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, rolling my eyes when I saw the brand new toothbrush waiting for me.

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