"You killed him for me," she says. "You killed him because he wanted to hurt me and you weren't going to let that happen. You think that makes you a monster?"
"Doesn't it?"
"Maybe." She lifts my bloody hand to her lips. Presses a kiss to my knuckles. "But you're my monster."
I pull her into my arms. Hold her tight, blood and all. She doesn't flinch. Doesn't pull away. Just melts into me like this is exactly where she belongs.
"We need to call the police," I say against her hair.
"What will you tell them?"
"That he broke into the house. That he attacked me and I defended myself." The lie comes easy. It's not even much of a lie. He would have, if I'd given him the chance. "Sterling's lawyers will handle the rest."
"Will they believe you?"
"They'll believe what they're paid to believe." I pull back, cup her face in my hands. "But I need you to trust me. Can you do that?"
"I already do."
"Even now? Even knowing what I am?"
She rises on her tiptoes. Kisses me soft and slow.
"Especially now," she says.
***
The next few hours are chaos.
Cops. Statements. Sterling's lawyers descending like avenging angels. The body is removed. The scene is processed. I tell my story: intruder with a weapon, tresspassing, self-defense, and everyone nods along.
Diamond backs me up. Calm, collected, the perfect witness. She says she heard a noise, found me fighting off an attacker, watched me save her life.
She doesn't mention the cameras. Doesn't mention watching me hunt him through the trees. Doesn't mention the ninety seconds it took him to bleed out on the forest floor.
By dawn, it's over.
The cops leave. The lawyers leave. Sterling himself calls, his voice tight with something between gratitude and horror, promising that this will all go away.
I believe him. Men like Sterling can make anything go away.
When the house is finally empty, I find Diamond on the back deck, watching the sun rise over the ocean. She looks exhausted.Wrung out. But when I sit down beside her, she leans into me without hesitation.
"It's over," I say.
"Is it?"
"That creep will never hurt you again. No one will."
She's quiet for a moment. The waves crash against the cliffs below.
"I thought I would feel different," she says finally. "When I watched him die. I thought I would feel guilty, or sick, or...something."
"What did you feel?"
She turns her head. Looks at me.
"Relief," she says. "And then something else. Something I didn't expect."
