Page 21 of Devil Inside: Green

“Well, there are, like, fifteen mental health facilities here, and then we have the therapist offices. I don’t know how to narrow it down.”

Green drops down on the bed next to me, pointing to one of the facilities on my screen. “He hasn’t gone after teens. It’s all been women in their mid-twenties or older. So the ones for teens and young adults, I think we can cross those off the list.”

“I suppose we can. But that still leaves all of these.” I point to all the others. “Maybe we should split up. You take half and I’ll take half and we’ll try to see if we can catch a glimpse of a guy sort of hanging around.”

“You feeling okay?” he asks, pressing the back of his hand to my forehead.

“I’m fine. Why?”

“Because you actually suggested that I let you go off by yourself to stalk a killer. What part ofyou’re mineis confusing for you, Preppy?”

“Well, I just thought—”

“Think of something else. That’s off the table. We go out, we go out together.”

I rub the heel of my hand over my eye, feeling about three seconds from crying in frustration. “Then let’s just go. We’ll stake out each place for a half hour to an hour and make rounds?”

“That’s what we have, then that’s what we have.”

While I pack up my papers and laptop, he grabs my sandals, helping me into them. A sweet biker? It doesn’t make sense.

We spend the next four days on a constant vigil, moving every forty-five minutes or so. Green searches one half of the parking lot and I search the other. We stop for food and pee breaks between locations.

I’m sucking down the final dregs of my soda when Green grabs my cup, tossing it in the back seat. “Hey,” I whine.

“Need to fuck you again. I need a bed, a shower, and then to fuck you—not in that order. This isn’t working. It’s not fucking working.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” I snap.

His eyes bug out. “Uh, yeah… fucking you.”

“Great—you keep thinking about your dick while some woman gets carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey.”

“This clearly isn’t working and we need the stress relief. Fucking you is about the best stress relief I can think of. I want to catch this twat-whistle as much as you do, but, babe, if I spend another minute in this car, I’m going crazy.”

All at once, I lose my irritation. He’s right. This going from place to place idea is stupid. What are the chances that we’re going to see something this way?

God, what was I even thinking?

Instead of irritation, the tears begin to fall.

“Babe, what—” he starts.

“I keep letting her down,” I cry.

“No. You aren’t letting her down. Come ’ere.” He reaches over to pull me onto his lap, tucking my face against his neck and holds me. I grip his cut in my fists as the emotion gets the better of me.

“I promised her. I promised my sister. I’m failing the two people who need me the most miserably.”

“Preppy, we’re out here.We are. We’re not back at the clubhouse sitting with our thumbs up our asses.”

“But—”

“No. Nobuts.” He bends his head down to kiss me and I melt into it, into him.

“We don’t make sense,” I manage to say once he ends the lip lock.

“Don’t know about that,” he says. Our eyes lock as he brushes his hand down my cheek, then leans in to kiss me again. “Feel calm around you. I don’t know why. Dela was fun and excitement. She was alwaysgo, go, go, no matter what was going on or who got caught up in her adventure.”

---