“Really?” I ask quietly.
He nods again, wringing out the washcloth and tipping his head toward the door. “Go get in the shower. I’ll be in there in a sec.”
Shower?
My face twists, but the horrific realization of what I did drops the confusion, my hands striking upward to cover what’s surely evidence in my hair. “Oh, my God.”
He cracks a grin. “Always so fuckin’ precious.”
Even though I’d like to kiss all over his handsome face, I’m bolting off my bed and into the bathroom. I don’t bother shutting the door. I know he’s gonna come in here anyway, and I’m a bit more worried about getting whatever’s in my hair out and down the drain than I am about someone possibly seeing my butt.
It takes me maybe fifteen seconds to crank the water on and get undressed. Apparently, that’s enough time for him to do whatever he needed to. I’m just getting under the water when he’s cracking the curtain back to reach in for my shampoo.
Rushing to soak my hair, I take a moment and lean into the wall, trying to calm my thoughts ahead of time. I can feel my brain getting hot, which always induces an extra warmth behind my eyes and cycles in a nauseating loop of my voice. But the overthinking doesn’t stand a chance against Razor’s attentive massage on my scalp.
The words melt before they can even form.
I close my eyes, letting him scrub my hair clean of the malevolent attack. “Why aren’t you freaking out on me?”
He hums in thought, raking the soap up the nape of my neck. “The hunt’s in our blood, little bunny. It’s not something that can be controlled. Only tamed.”
“The hunt is in our blood?” I turn to him, squinting through bullets of water. “What does that mean?”
He tilts his head, giving me a somber grin and coasting his hand down my back. “I’ll show you.”
Getting back inside the house, I close the front door after Razor, watching him setthestack of boxes down on the coffee table. Anticipation brews in my chest, swirling a contradicting haze of victory and dread.
This is what I’ve wanted.
Everything I’ve been asking exists in the boxes he filled with files and VHS tapes. The questions that have driven me nuts are just… in there. Well, not the questions themselves. But everything that made me question all of this.
It’s… kind of underwhelming.Andoverwhelming. If that’s even possible. I just, I don’t really feel the big blow of excitement.
Maybe that’s because my internal slaughterhouse expected a big production to drain the secrets. Not that what I did wasn’t…
Never mind. I don’t know what I’m saying anymore. And I’m not sure I even want the answers he’s pulling out. I’m scared of it changing everything.
Brushing off a VHS, he pivots to me, running his finger along the marker scribbled on a white sticker. “You ready?”
“Um…” My lips twist, stepping a little closer with my hands knotting low at my waist. “What is that?”
He turns it out for me to see. “It’s yours.”
“Mine?” My throat swells, readingpatient 1013written in unknown handwriting. “What? Patient? W-w-what-”
“Baby,” he hums, dropping the VHS to his side and giving me a parental look. “I know. It’s confusing. And it’s gonna be a lot. But I need you to-”
“Stay calm?” I interrupt, lashing a stiff hand toward the tape. “That sayspatient, Razor! How can I stay calm when a VHS that’s supposedly mine sayspatientwith an assigned number after it?”
“I know, Bunny. I fucking know.” His chest stiffens, the flare in his nostrils bringing attention to the gloss coating his eyes.
I’ve never seen him… Why is…
He blinks hard, the rough clamp dispensing a tear down his cheek.
Tracking it rolling to his chin, my head teeters, trying to digest the fact that whatever is on that tape is enough to make Razor, a volatile predator, wipe his face free of the tears he’s fighting off.
My chest is caving in, but my feet move anyway, stopping right in front of him and returning the care he’s given me countless times. “I’m sorry,” I murmur, using light fingers to dry the damp trail left on his cheek. “You remember everything, don’t you?”
