Page 79 of Corrupting Ivy

“Please... stop,” I said, weeping.

“But why would I do that?” he asked, picking up the large butcher knife. “We’re going to share an unforgettable adventure. We’ll have a bond in this life and the next that no one else can even begin to compare.”

My blood dripped from my forearms as he placed the knife on my thigh and drew the sharp edge across the width of my leg. As he sliced into me, pain burst over my muscle like shrapnel.

Darkness engulfed my vision, offering me peace, and I took it. Willed it to consume the very last image in front of me.

He laughed. “Wow, what a bleeder.”

His words faded into oblivion as his laughter deepened until there was a vacuum of nothingness.

“Wait here,” I said, getting out of my truck in front of her home.

“You sure you don’t want back-up?”

I shot him a glare. “What makes you think I need that?” It was Ivy. I didn’t need back-up. She wasn’t a gang leader or a killer on the prowl, like me. She was just a woman, and I could handle that.

Jake held his hands up in surrender. “This girl has you misfiring left and right. I thought you’d want a helping hand.”

I got out of the truck and slammed it in his face before climbing the steps two at a time and knocking.

There was no answer.

Even though I ordered her to stay inside and keep the doors shut, she might have been downstairs at the diner, having supper or roaming about town. It was just too risky to be out here.

When I knocked again, nothing but stillness resonated in my ears.

I tried the doorknob and pushed.

It was silent. Aside from the faint hum of people conversing below, there was no movement.

The lights were turned out, and she’d left the bed just as it was this morning when I nearly killed her. Images of her petrified eyes raced before my mind as I stared at the bed where I had her held down, my knife pushed against her side.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, then noted my bag near the bed. Picking up my clothes, I spun for the door and out to the truck, throwing it in the back seat.

“Well, that was fast,” he said as I took my seat.

“She wasn’t there.”

Something didn’t sit right. Ivy was good about locking her door when she left, but never when she was home. A tiny voice in the back of my mind grew louder the more I tried to ignore it.

“You’re not going to leave her a love note or anything?”

“I’m going to punch you.”

He chuckled. “Did you give her the phone?”

That made me pause. I’d gotten… distracted when I took her home last night, and it was still in my bag, ready to go. I could leave it for her, and when she was ready to talk, all she had to do was call, and I’d be here. She needed time to process. I’d give her that.

Grabbing my phone with a growl of irritation, I took the phone out of my bag.

“That’s it, killer. Go stalk that girl.”

I raised my fist, and he flinched before I left the truck with the sound of his laughter ringing in my ears.

Whatever. That’s not what I was doing, even though it had the latest tracking software.

Rushing back up the stairs, I stepped back into her dark apartment and walked into the kitchen, my foot kicking a plastic bag with something heavy across the floor. “What the hell?” I pulled out my phone and used the flashlight app, shining a beam at what I’d kicked. My blood ran cold as that growing voice inside me reached a deafening level.

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