He was consumed by guilt, worn down by failure and grieving the loss of his identity.
Romeo couldn’t shake a cold case in front of his face especially with Josh wising up to what they’d been doing, and he couldn’t go out and kill at random because of the compromise he’d made.That left him in limbo, with a throbbing head, and twitching fingers and an ever-growingneed.
Chad distracted him.Chad gave him a purpose stronger than the need to kill, but without him there it ate away at him until he was running his nails over his hair, cursing his affliction.He hated his dark need, but at the same time loved it, the power, the sense ofright.It was euphoric and addictive.Taking someone’s life, controlling their last breath and looking them in the eye as the light left them forever elevated Romeo to a god-like state.
He was meant to feel like that.
A god among men.
As uncomfortable as it was for Chad to accept, some people were made to be killers.
It was inevitable, fate.
But it had been too long.
He paused, fingers clutching his hair as he struggled to remember the last person he’d killed.
“Graham Brennan.”
That was it.Graham had killed his wife and her sister and admitted his guilt to a journal.Romeo had almost wept with relief when he found it while snooping around Graham’s house, proof he could present to Chad who let go of the metaphorical chain he had around him and let him kill.
Then Romeo’s mind had wandered with thoughts of Chad killing, of Chad’s hands around someone’s throat, and his eyes as dark as the night as he squeezed them tight enough for the air trapped in their lungs to turn toxic.Romeo had expected the monstrous part of him to gnash its teeth, hackles raised, growlingme, me, meat the thought, but it hadn’t.
Itreallyfucking hadn’t.
The monster had purred the words ours, ours, ours at the thought.Romeo didn’t know whether that part chanted at Chad, at the kill, or a combination of both.
Both.
Chad killing, relishing in it, it was the ultimate fantasy.
Romeo groaned and pushed the thought away before his body could react any more than it already had.He glanced back to the house to the place where Lucinda Hastings had died.Sure enough, it killed his hard on and shoved the monster firmly back in its cage.
Watching Chad be forced to kill hadn’t been arousing in the slightest.
Something had broken in him, and Romeo had seen it.
A snap of something behind his eyes.
And Romeo still didn’t know if he could fix it, or round off the edges, or make Chad accept it, he wasn’t wired in a way to understand that particularbreakwhich was why Chad needed Josh, Ally, and Keeley.It was also why Romeo hadn’t attempted to persuade Chad to leave their home and start somewhere new.
Chad believed Romeo learned different languages to distract himself, and it was partly true, but more than that, it was a piece of a bigger plan if ever Josh got too close to finding out the truth.There were other things Romeo had bought online from hidden sites, and dark webpages.Chad didn’t question how or where Romeo spent his money, and he’d put together a ‘Runaway kit’ for whenever the need arose.
Passports, fake birth certificates, cash.
He and Chad were not going to end in that county, in that village, in that house.
But Chad needed to heal before Romeo would even suggest them leaving.
The boarded-up window caught his eye.He sighed.That’s if the public backed off long enough for Chad to heal.
“Come on,” Romeo called over his shoulder.Mercutio picked up his ball and trotted behind Romeo as he went back into the house.
****
Chad was late.
Romeo sat in the kitchen with his phone on the table.
