With one last long press of his lips to mine and a request not to wait up for him, he silently escapes the bedroom. I don’t hear him moving at all; the only sound signaling his departure is the click of the garage door closing behind him.
I slide back into bed, hoping the next few hours can pass by without issue.
But even as I fall asleep, I can’t help the swirling thought thatsomethingwill go wrong tonight.
Chapter 33
Welcome Back To Your Fucked Up Life
CORMAC
“Jesus, it’s about time you showed up,” Skyler yawns, leaning against the wall outside Mingle.
Glancing at my watch, I scoff. “You said 6:30, it’s 6:32.”
“Yeah, but old Cormac would have been here at 6:20,” he laughs. “And he would have smelleda lotless like sex.”
A feral grin threatens to pull at my lips, “I bet old Cormac wasa lotless fun, though."
He nods. “Yeah, old Cormac was a buzzkill. It’s weird that getting your skull knocked in has brought some of the life back into you. But I’m worried diving back into this life is going to derail all the positive changes you’ve made.”
“Like what?” I ask, following him to the unregistered car hidden in the side.
He slides into the driver's seat and waits for me to get into the passenger seat and shut the door before answering, “Like finally actually going after Brigit. I knew if you just took the plunge, it wouldall work out.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Sky,” I scrub the back of my head, refusing to think too hard on the subject or else my fucking erection is going to come back. Again. “We might be sleeping together, but it’s not like we’re…”
“Cohabitating?” he says from the corner of his mouth, a smug smile in his voice.
“Not by choice,” I groan. “Out of necessity, she’s staying with me for a minute until we figure all this shit out.”
“I’m sure when it’s all over, she’ll still choose you,” he says without even a hint of his usual humor. “Why wouldn’t she?”
Pulling out onto the darkening road, he takes a sharp left turn, guiding the car uptown.
“Because I’m a serial killer who smuggles drugs. And because I’ve also been stalking her for the better part of a decade,” I list all the very valid reasons she would have for not wanting any part of me.
“Well…” he shrugs. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. There’s no reason she ever needs to find out about the whole stalking thing. If it worked out for the best, who cares how we got there?”
I care.
I don’t want to have a relationship built on deception. I’d rather Brigit know everything and walk away than spend the rest of our lives together knowing I hid it from her.
“You’re not gonna tell her. Are you?” he asks in disbelief.
I nod, “Of course, I am.”
“You’re a moron,” he laughs, glancing at me from the corner of his eye. “The other stuff she’s been able to handle because it had nothing to do with her. She can go on believing she’ll never be the victim of your depravity. If you tell her she’s been on the receiving end of your crimes more often than anyone else, she’ll run for her fucking life.”
My heart sinks.
I know he’s probably right.
But his spelling it out for me like this is all the more reason Ihadto warn Brigit before I left that there’s something she needs to know.
Skyler uses his theories about the universe looking out for us tocompletely detach himself from our actions. If the universe didn’twantus to kill these people, we wouldn’t have.
If the cosmos wasn’t plotting for Brigit and me to get together, we?—
