“Only the last two. I don’t know anything about the others.”
I sighed.Today is not the mother fucking day.“And still, you allowed the party?”
“Yes.”
“Whose idea was it?”
“Barrington and Lansbury.”
I nodded.
“You now owe us four million dollars.”
“What? You didn’t do that to Barrington when he lost his girl. That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Oh, yes it does. She was your responsibility, you fucking idiot!”
He looked at me with pleading eyes and then the pathetic tears trailed as if he were some wimpy teenager. “I didn’t want her to die. We were just having fun, and just because we were there, doesn’t mean it was one of us. I was the last person with her. She was alive. She wasn’t dressed like that or hanging!” He started sobbing.
“I want the money before the end of the night. Don’t you dare tell the rest what you’ve just revealed to me. And don’t even try to paint me as the bad guy. You owe me your fucking life. I’m covering your ass for this. If master got wind of this you, your wife, your daughters and your fucking entire family would be killed within twenty-four hours. You know this.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Sir.”
“I need you to grow the fuck up, Adler. If you would have done your job right, your girl would still be alive. Instead, you risked your entire family’s life.”
They say women gossip like crazy, but men are much worse. Despite my efforts, news spread fast at the center. The only good thing about that this time was that because everyone knew about the new murder, they stayed out of my way. I didn’t have to fake grace or manners with anyone. I didn’t need to be near anyone and that was a good thing because I could hardly get my bearings. The minute I tried to go back to work, my mind went blank. A part of me was ecstatic because this meant I would see her. No one could ever comprehend the sick shit I’d dreamed of doing to her, the daydreams I’d cooked up in my mind while jacking off to the memory of her, but this was as bad as it could get. I didn’t really want her here. I wanted her in my bed, fainting from how many times I’d made her come. I wanted her pregnant with my child, too happy raising our kids to think of anything else but us.
It had been two years since I’d seen her.
I’d just spent a “special weekend” with Master in his favorite city, Paris. Although, how could something be special when it happened every three months for eight years and I didn’t havea choice? At the airport, they canceled my flight and I ended up having to buy a whole different itinerary, connecting at Stansted airport. At first, I wondered why that airport sounded so familiar, then it hit me, it was the closest airport to her campus. The clerk at the airline’s service desk asked me what times were best. I chose the one with the twenty-four-hour layover.
I went tohercampus and waited for her to wake in the morning. When she walked out of her building, it was as if I were an addict who had finally gotten a taste of their favorite drug after a century. My eyes landed on her, and immediately, every cell in my body vibrated at her magical presence. There was a connection pulling me to her so aggressively I had to fight it. She looked so beautiful, so calm, confident, and nonchalant. Her black hair bounced with every determined step. I longed to smell it, like the last time. Did it still have the smell of crushed leaves? The minute my eyes caught her lips, my cock hardened. Her eyes looked straight ahead, finally not full of fear and sorrow like I’d seen last time. She’d really listened to me and survived me and those assholes. I let out a long breath of relief. My entire life was a series of atrocities I’d committed for one excuse or another, but at least I’d helped her, at least I’d tried to save her and she was okay. Thank God.
Watching my little one for a few hours was like being a thousand leagues under the sea, drowning for centuries, then the sight of her allowed me to take my first full breath.
I had to wait awhile for all the people to stop coming out of the dorm building to grab the door before it closed, and ran up the steps to my left, right after the mailboxes. Her apartment was the last one on the left. I unfolded the paper clip and stuck it in the keyhole, pushing in and turning clockwise. Nothing happened, so I turned it counterclockwise and pushed. I heard the click and nudged the door open.
The room had a tiny kitchenette to my right and a bed at the back of the place with a window to the side. The only other door I opened led to a bathroom shared with the neighboring apartment, so I immediately backed into her quarters. The only place I could hide in was her wardrobe. Thank God she had a few long dresses for me to hide behind.
It wasn’t my first time in a narrow space, so I sat inside it until I heard the keys unlocking the door. By then, I was sweating and so hard for her. From the cracked-open door, I watched her take off her sweater, then grab something from the mini fridge and eat it with crackers as she turned the TV to the news. She was a multitasker, eating while undressing until she was only wearing her bra and panties. But she didn’t just throw the clothes around. Everything had a place: the black boots behind the door on a square plastic tray, her sweater on the back of the only chair in the place, her clothes in the hamper. She ate another cracker and gulped down a lot of water while reading some mail. I wanted to ask her how her trip to Belfast went. Did she start therapy because of what happened on prom night? Was it working? If someone else hurt her, I needed to know so I could kill him before I returned to Master.
Once she was done with the food, she washed the dishes, cleaned the counter, and turned off the light there before walking into the bathroom. The shower was on for a few minutes, then I heard her brushing her teeth. At that time, I walked to the kitchen, hiding behind the galley. In her towel, she returned to the room and put on a white babydoll gown and shorts, then got into bed. She was watching the news and quickly dozing off. I waited until there was a deep consistent breathing, almost snoring before I quietly placed my shoes by the door, walked over to her, and raked my fingers through her hair, pushing it back. For a few seconds, her eyebrows scrunched but then relaxed again.
“Little One,” I whispered.
“Hmm?”
“Have you missed me?”
“Mm-hmmm.” She nodded while smiling. “Killian,” she whispered. A slow grin pulled at the corner of my lips. I didn’t even care that she’d called the wrong name as long as she let me do what I wanted to do. It was so cute, the way she talked in her sleep. God, why was I so feral for this girl?
Her eyes fluttered open, so I placed my palm over her mouth and apprehended her wrists, with her body pinned to the bed between my legs. Her eyes bulged at the sight of me. She shook her head and screamed into my palm.
“Shhh… I will not hurt you. I just want to talk.”
“Mmm-uh.” She was still shaking her head, screaming again and again and writhing with all her strength, trying to topple me over. I tightened my hold on her.
“Magdalena, please don’t make this difficul—”
