Page 51 of Ho Ho Homicidal Mania
“You don’t? I…I’m sorry, but I got the impression you were really curious. Like… to an unusual level. You paid someone to hack the FBI just so you could get more crime scene imagery.”
“For research!”
I take a deep breath and lean against the rock, fighting my frustration. I didn’t want to pull out the big guns, but he’s in denial, and I need to make him see reason. “And you stabbed the last guy in the throat forresearch?”
It’s dark, but while I don’t see his skin paling, I feel the temperature drop by several degrees as Blake focuses on me with a tight set to his mouth. “I was protecting us from an assassin. And besides, he was practically dead after youcut his nose off!”
My next victim lets out a whimper, sobs, and thrashes against the rope I used to restrain him. His gaze seeks Blake’s help, and my stomach drops when I realize my boyfriend might just want to aid this worm in order to teach me a lesson.
“You don’t die from a cut nose,” I complain. “And he was already tied down. All you were protecting was your own skin, because don’t think I didn’t notice you only acted when he started telling on you. And I’m past that, I’ve come to terms with your little double-crossing, but don’t twist it around on me.”
Blake stills, and his Adam’s apple rolls up and down his neck as he’s forced to swallow that truth. “Well, he was there to kill us both, which is pretty unforgivable. What didthisbastard do?” he asks, gesturing at the writhing man.
He’s either being obnoxious or getting on board with the plan. Only time will tell. “Oh, you will like this!” I clear my throat. “Not the crime, his crime is terrible, but that… you know, that he’s caught. This little worm,” I poke his forehead hard without looking away from Blake, since it makes no difference if I poke the bastard’s eye out at this point. He’s dying anyway. “Killed his elderly neighbor and suffered no consequences because of a technicality.”
Blake’s expression softens, warming my heart.
Kurt, because that’s our victim’s name, thrashes like a dying fish. He keeps trying to scream into the gag I’ve stuffed in his mouth, no doubt attempting to give me reasons why his actions were justified, but this won’t make a difference. I can see Blake believes me, and that’s all I care about.
His pretty face sobers. “When you said you were looking for information on my brother and how we can take him down, were you actually watchingthis guy?”
I still, because that’s not an angle I was expecting, and my mouth goes dry, because I’m suddenly a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. “I mean… this just fell into my lap. I was also checking the security on your brother’s villa and all that.”
Blake shakes his head, starting to pace. He’s no longer bothered by the fact that I led him to a man I was about to kill, but his shock seems to have been replaced by anger. “Fell into your lap? Really? How does a staged murder fall into one’s lap, huh? I believed you when you said we need to lie low, but this is hardly that, isn’t it? Every night, I worry that I might wake up with a knife to my throat, and here you are, hunting people down for funsies?”
His shouting echoes in the cave, getting so loud I have shivers by the time he’s done.
My shoulders sag. “You worry I will hurt you?”
Blake cocks his head, takes a deep breath, and speaks, full of exasperation. “I worry Carl will somehow track us down and send more people after us. More than you can handle. And even if it was just one guy, you are not superhuman!”
“I take offense at that. I said I’ll protect you. And this?” I point to Kurt with the knife. “This isn’t ‘for fun’. This isjustice.” Fuck. EvenIdon’t believe that. The truth is that I had an itch to scratch, and the holiday season always gets me like this.
“Why don’t you bring justice tome?” Blake asks bluntly.
I roll my eyes. “I just… I like our time in the cabin. Are you not having fun?”
Blake dashes forward and stabs my chest with his index finger. “So youarestalling! When you know I’m stuck and worried he’ll send someone after me. My own brother is trying to kill me, and you’re willing to let this go for now, because you like being with me in the woods and pretending it’s Christmas every day? How long did you think this was going to last?”
I spread my arms and don’t back down, because my mind is boiling. This was supposed to be a treat for both of us, the loveliest of afternoons.
“I don’t know! Until you fall in love with me?” There, I said it, my true intention out in the open.
Kurt howls into the gag, arching off the rock as if he were dying of lockjaw, but Blake ignores him. A storm is raging in his beautiful green eyes, and I know its wrath is aimed at me. “You think I can really trust anyone that much after everything that happened? After my own brother deserted me, then tried to murder me for money?” He steps back with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t think I’m capable of feelings like that.”
I put down the knife, in case he’s skittish, and step closer to him with my heart pounding. “But… I love you,” I say helplessly. Those three words can never encompass the depth of my feelings, or what it’s like to hold him in my arms at night, but it’s all I’ve got.
He purses his lips, as if he were trying to say something, only to give up. “What the hell? You don’t love me. You can’t love me because you barely know me,” he shouts, throwing his arms to the sides.
He might as well have grabbed the knife at our feet and stabbed me in the heart. I opened up my ribcage for him to see my raw insides, and all he has for me is acid. I stare at him, dead serious. I willnotback down from what I said.
“I know you better than you know yourself, and that’s why I love you. I know you secretly want to watch me take this guy apart,” I gesture to Kurt without looking away from Blake for a second. “I know you don’t care to go to the police about your brother or me. You want to take matters into your own hands. I also know you claim to avoid sugar, but always put two spoonfuls in your coffee. You say your favorite color is black, but when we do crafts, you always go for shades of blue. You love tosay ‘no, please, stop’ to me when you mean ‘give it to me harder’.”
Blake stumbles back, as if I’ve taken a swing at him, his shoulders so stiff I want to press him against the wall and work on them until they relax. But he shakes his head again, regaining his composure. “If you loved me, you’d make sure I felt safe and gone after Carl instead of wasting your time on some random criminal.”
I snarl at him like what I am—a cornered animal. “Fine. Have it your way!” I turn around, grab the knife, and stab it straight into Kurt’s heart, because I don’t even feel like playing with him anymore.
Chapter 21
