Page 36 of Psycho
Just science. Not according to anybody who knew what Lucas could do. They didn’t think it was science. They thought he was crazy. A liar. Only August seemed to truly embrace Lucas’s gift. Even though that gift had revealed August’s biggest secret. A secret that seemed smaller with each passing day.
If Kohn had taught Lucas anything, it was that some people didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as others. That the world would be a safer place with them gone. August and his family provided a service. They kept people safe. Maybe he was rationalizing. Maybe he just wanted August so bad he was willing to do whatever mental gymnastics allowed him to keep the other man, but he didn’t care.
Life was short. Kohn was determined to make Lucas’s life hell—to torture him until he tired of their game—and then kill him. Maybe August would save him, maybe not. Lucas had no doubt August could save himself, but he wasn’t sure he could save them both. Lucas was determined to soak up whatever time with August he could. Time didn’t mean much when it was borrowed. They were living their lives on some kind of accelerated timeline, hurtling through every milestone at light speed.
Lips pressed against the top of his head. “Do you feel better now?”
Lucas closed his eyes, leaning against August’s weight. “Yes. I think so.”
“Do you want to stay here another minute?”
Lucas studied the icicles hanging from the barren branches. “Yes. Please.”
As time ticked by, Lucas’s pulse slowed, his body temperature returning to normal, the pain and sadness seeping away. When he finally blinked his eyes open to his dimly lit office, it was disorienting, like tripping and falling down a hole, finding himself in an unexpected place.
August stood, pulling Lucas to his feet and leading him to the sofa, the same sofa they’d made out on just yesterday. Had it only been yesterday?
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Kohn’s fucking with me,” Lucas managed, voice raw.
August grimaced. “I gathered, but how?”
Lucas recounted his conversation with Cricket as well as the sticky note incident, relieved when August just accepted him at his word. No matter how accepting August was of Lucas’s talents, there was always the underlying fear he’d stop believing.
“I’m canceling my plans for the night.”
Lucas shook his head. “No, you’re not. You can’t spend your whole life as my bodyguard. We have classes, you have your…volunteer work. I can’t hide away or Kohn wins anyway.”
August’s mouth was a hard line, his breath blowing out through his nose like an angry bull. “I’m going to kill this man, slowly and with as much pain as I can manage. I need you to know that. When it’s all over and we get to the bottom of his serial killing duo, I’m going to skin him alive.”
Lucas should have been repulsed by the venom in August’s words, but they soothed his frayed nerves. “I’ll watch. I just want to make sure those girls are safe. The things he was doing…”
“I’m not like him,” August said.
Lucas’s head jerked up. “What?”
August scanned Lucas’s face. “I need you to know that. I need you to know that I’m not like him.”
Lucas cupped August’s face. “I do know that. The day I met you, I might have panicked, but even when you broke into my home, some part of me knew you weren’t the same.”
August leaned forward, his lips fitting with Lucas’s in a kiss that lingered. Lucas opened his mouth, moaning when August’s tongue dipped inside. He tasted like coffee. “I’m still making sure somebody is there to look out for you tonight,” August said against his lips.
“Somebody like who?” Lucas asked, dreading the idea of another stranger traipsing through his home.
“I’ll figure it out.”
Lucas looked at his watch; he didn’t have time to argue. “We’re both very late for our first class.”
August hesitated. “If anything happens, you text me right away. I don’t care if I’m teaching or not.” Lucas nodded, but that didn’t seem enough. “I need you to promise me.”
“I promise,” Lucas said. “Can we go do our jobs now?”
August slanted his mouth across Lucas’s in a kiss that curled his toes before standing. “Text me. Even if nothing happens. Just…text me.”
Lucas smiled. “I will. Now, go to class.”
August seemed torn but then finally left, leaving Lucas sprawled on the couch. What would have happened if August hadn’t decided to visit him that morning? Kohn had left that note for him like a dirty bomb, knowing Lucas would try to use it to get into his head. Fuck. Why was it that the only two people who believed he could do what he did were two psychopaths?
