Lindy Girl:
Behave now and I’ll let you ask me one outrageous question later.
The line hits like voltage.If I were anywhere else, I’d put my fist through drywall just to bleed it off.An outrageous question.Permission to ask anything.She never stops being surprising.My thumb twitches for the knife.I make it still.
What would I ask?Her first kiss?No.That’d end badly for that guy.Her worst fear?The sound she makes when she comes?That one has true potential.My mouth tips before I can stop it.
Can’t wait.
Phone back in my pocket, I lift my eyes and Caleb rolls his.I lock in harder than I ever have at one of these.Gotta earn that question.
Ten hours later, I’m where I belong.The air is thick in the alley behind the casino, damp with oil and old blood.I don’t bother with gloves.I’m not here to hide.He sees me before I even speak.That’s the thing about dying—you always know when it’s coming.You might pretend you don’t, but when you see me?You know.
His eyes go wide.Jaw slack.A whisper of denial escapes his lips before his instincts kick in and he bolts.Doesn’t matter.I let him run.Iwanthim to.I don’t chase.Ifollow.I want him to feel the weight of inevitability.The echo of his shoes slapping against the concrete like a heartbeat in freefall.He turns the corner into a dead end.Perfect.
The last time I watched someone from a distance it was the woman under the streetlight outside our warehouse.I’m chasing her too.Same pull, opposite purpose.My hands would close to hold, not to end.
He spins, back against the wall, breathing like a hunted animal.“Please,” he gasps.“I didn’t, whatever they told you…”
The woman under the streetlight didn’t flinch when the dark looked back.This one can’t even keep his spine upright.
“You did.”I step into the light.One step, then two.My shadow hits him before I do.His knees give first.He slides down the brick wall like wet paper.
“You don’t have to do this.”
People like Felix always think they’re smaller than the crimes they helped commit.
But the thing about rot is, it spreads.I crouch in front of him.He reeks of sweat and cheap cologne.His hands shake like leaves in a storm.His eyes fill with tears.There’s no fight left.Not even in his voice.
“Look at me.”People think killers are angry.Emotional.Out of control.Real killers aren’t.Real ones areinevitable.
His eyes flick up.Glossy.Terrified.I pull the folded photo of London from my jacket.It’s creased down the middle, the edges worn.I hold it between two fingers and let it hover just out of his reach.
“You ever seen her?”
He blinks, confused.“What?”
“This girl.Ever seen her come through your system?”
“No.”He shakes his head too fast.“No, I swear.Never.”
I wait.Let the silence stretch.Let him wonder if that’s the lie I’m going to kill him for.But it’s not.Because he’s telling the truth.And the truth?It’s worse.Because the men I kill have no reason to lie to me.Not the ones I ask.Not the ones who know they’re already dead.If theyhadseen her, they’d tell me.It’s the one thing that’d prolong their pathetic life.But they never sayyes.And that’s how I know that she’s either buried too deep… Or she’s dead.
I slide the photo back into my jacket pocket and meet his eyes one last time.The blade goes in clean, easy.He gurgles.Slumps sideways.Gone before he can scream.
I roll him onto his back and pull his shirt open, cut the fabric cleanly down the middle.Then I carve.The tip of the blade presses into his chest with surgical pressure.Lines etched into skin, crossing and weaving into six intersecting arcs, radiating out in clean symmetry.
A spiderweb.
I reach into my pocket and pull out my signature black widow charm.It’s silver, with a tiny red hourglass on its back.I slip it into his mouth, let it rest on his tongue.A warning to the rest that I’ll never stop hunting them.
seven
My eyes flickto the end of the aisle like I might catch a glimpse of his leather jacket or dark eyes again.Lindy girl.It has to be him.My heart knows it before my brain catches up.
Hetouchedme.Kissedmy cheek.Called medarling.Played the part of a husband I made up on the fly, and I let him.Worse, I went along with it.I played house with a complete stranger in the middle of a grocery store like we’d done it a thousand times.
But it’s not that part that really sends a shiver down my spine.
