Page 35 of The Reaper
She stood tall and squared her shoulders, but she didn’t speak, just swallowed and kept her eyes fixed on me.
“Devon, deal with her. I don’t have time for this bullshit today.” Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out the car keys, throwing them over to me. “Get her out of here. We’ll finish up inside.” Then he glanced back at Leah May. “We have enough going on, we don’t need any more loose ends.”
Her eyes widened slightly at what he’d said, and I took a step closer to her as the others went back inside.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stunned that I was having this conversation with her here after what I’d just done.
She gulped and looked down at the crates.
“I stacked them, but I lost my footing and fell off.”
I took another step closer, treading slowly, carefully, afraid that the next step would push her too far and she’d run.
Would she run?
Did I scare her?
“Did you watch us? Did you see what was going on in there?” I asked, keeping my voice calm and steady.
She looked at me and nodded but didn’t say a word.
Why wasn’t she running?
Didn’t it frighten her to see what we’d done?
“You shouldn’t have been out here skulking around. How did you know we were here? What are you even doing here?”
She blinked, collecting her thoughts and then said, “I saw you loading up the van, back at The Sanctuary. I called an Uber, and when you set off, I followed. I didn’t think you’d find me. I’m not usually so clumsy.”
My head snapped back, hearing her veiled admission.
“Do you mean you’ve done this before?”
She opened her mouth then closed it, choosing to keep quiet instead of incriminating herself further.
And then, on a whispered breath she asked, “Are you going to kill me?”
My heart twisted when I heard her ask that.
“Of course I’m not going to kill you. Why would I ever hurt you?” I tilted my head, trying to show through my eyes that she was safe with me, always. I might be a killer, but I wasn’t a monster, not for her. Never for her.
“Adam said to deal with me, he doesn’t want any loose ends.” As she spoke, her voice cracked slightly, and I could tell she was trying to hide her fear. She’d done a good job of concealing it until now.
“Adam wants me to take you home, that’s all he meant. That’s the only loose end there is. He’d never hurt you. None of them would. And me? I would rather hurt myself than ever do anything to cause you pain. You can trust me.”
She stood still, watching me with those eyes of hers that seemed to call out to my soul. “I know,” she said on a whisper.
I stared right back at her, not quite believing what was happening. She’d admitted that she’d seen what I’d done, seen the savage I could be, and yet she was looking up at me like I was her saviour. She wasn’t scared. She wasn’t threatened by me.
She was just here.
Accepting.
“Are you going to be okay getting into the car with me, so I can take you home?” I asked hesitantly. I was conscious of the fact that I didn’t look my best, my hoody was blood-stained, and I looked like I’d walked off the set of a horror movie, standing here in this shitty run-down industrial estate, still holding my bloody scalpel.
“Yes.” Her voice was quiet, and she cleared her throat before repeating herself louder and with more confidence, “Yes, I’m okay.”
I nodded and headed to the car, taking my hoody off and throwing it onto the back seat along with the scalpel. It wasn’t perfect, but at least my T-shirt was clean, no tell-tale splatters.
