Page 14 of Some Saviors Can Break You

“I'm sorry.”

“Thanks.”

“Look, Eli, it’s not that I'm not flattered that you seem to be interested in me, I just don’t get why. I mean, we met last night, you saved my life, and that’s it. Why are you going to all this trouble?”

The fact that she seemed genuinely perplexed about why he would be interested in her gave him his first clue to her reluctance to go on a date with him. His confident, beautiful, smart cop was insecure inside. “Because you seem like a complex woman, one who I want to get to know better. We’re attracted to each other, maybe it doesn’t go any further than that, but maybe it does. Maybe attraction and interest could grow into something else, something more.”

“So, you aren’t just trying to get me into bed?”

“Oh, I want you so much that I'm hard just thinking about it, but no, I don’tjustwant to get you into bed. I want more. I want to get to knowyou. Life is about taking chances, risks, and I get that something is making you scared to do that. I can't help you with that because I don’t know what it is you're scared of. But I'mnot going anywhere, so get used to that idea. And flowers. Get used to flowers because you’ll be getting more tomorrow. Sweet dreams, Florence, I know what I’ll be dreaming of tonight. You, beneath me, screaming my name as you come.”

Chapter

Three

February 11th

4:43 A.M.

She’d seen him.

He wasn't sure what to make of that.

His whole life he had been invisible, the middle child, the kid in school who wasn't exceptional, but who wasn't disruptive so the teachers never noticed him, the adult whose job had him blending into the background, there, but not really there.

After a lifetime of never being noticed, he wasn't sure what to make of this development.

Last night, he had been shocked to drive up to the dumpster where he intended to leave his next body only to see a woman walking out of that very alley.

And not just any woman.

Detective Florence Harris.

He knew who the woman was. It had been eighteen months since he had taken his first life, and he’d thought it would be prudent to take notes on the investigation, make sure he knewwho was hunting him, and what they were doing to try to find him. He had no intention of getting caught and going to prison, so if he wanted to remain a free man, he had to make sure that he was smart. Every decision he made, every move he made, he had to think it through, make sure he mitigated as many of the dangers as he could.

There was no doubt in his mind that Florence was there for one reason and one reason only. She was trying to get ahead of him, predict where he was going to be, and when he was going to be there.

She’d done it too.

Somehow, she had actually managed to guess where he would dump the next body, it was just too big a coincidence to believe anything else.

How had she figured it out?

No one saw him.

No one knew him.

No one cared about him or what he was doing.

Until now.

Florence had seen him. Florence had figured out enough about him to know where he was going to be. Florence certainly cared about him and what he was doing, and had no doubt vowed to put a stop to him.

His problem was, what was he going to do about this new development?

It wasn't like he could allow the detective to get too close, by now, she had to know that he was the one who had nearly run her down with his car because he’d moved on to the next dumpsite and left the body there. She knew that she was right, that he’d been dumping the bodies in the shape of an eye, so she would undoubtedly make sure that all dumpsters in the pattern were watched, hoping that he would walk into a trap.

He wasn't that stupid, but it did present so many problems.

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