Page 19 of Twist Me

“Ah, Papi. I…” I caught my reflection, and my shame of lying to my papa was obvious on my face as I chewed my lip, trying to think of a good excuse. My stupid brain wasn’t computing. “Uh, I can’t this year. Lo siento, Papi. I…” I glanced around, my eyes landing on my TV with some mushy stupid couple holding hands on a beach. “I’m going to be with my boyfriend that weekend.”

I just knew my father was raising his big, bushy eyebrows when he said, “Oh okay, Hija…I didn’t know you were dating anyone. What’s this lucky guy’s name?”

Shoot…

Note to self: when lying in the future, prepare all answers. My last method, having been somewhat successful, I again roved my gaze around the room, my eyes landing on the file on the table.

“His name is…Goliath.”

Even saying that out loud made me feel strange, like a buzz in my stomach, and my lips felt tingly. That was weird.

“Goliath?” he repeated. “That is a strong name, Hija. You need a strong guapo hombre.”

Why was I blushing?

I cleared my throat and fidgeted with the corner of the paperwork.

“Uh, yeah, Papi. So I can’t come to tu casa. I’m sorry.”

My dad, to his credit, tried to give me some speech that would have probably made any virgin blush, not just me. I didn’t think my family knew I was a virgin, but then again, it wasn’t something you really talked about with people. I was an only child. I had no sisters or brothers to gossip about such things. My mother was gone, having died when I was a baby in a fatal car crash. My papi was all I had.

I grew up on spare tires as toys and motor oil as paint. My dad was doing his absolute best to give me the world. He owned an old auto shop, and it was him that gave me my tinkeringabilities. I could take any broken, abandoned thing and bring life back into it.

“Well, I am very proud of you, Hija. I want to hear all about it. Feliz cumpleaños, mi amor.”

My dad hung up, and I sat down on the barstool of the island, grumbling to myself about the mystery that lay before me.

“Judas Masters,” I read aloud. “Charged and convicted of stabbing an innocent woman in a diner. Upon arrest, he claimed the victim was trying to kill him, but there was zero evidence to support the allegation. Judas Masters reportedly suffers from positive charge schizophrenia in the form of audio and visual hallucinations. He was tried and deemed guilty under the plea of insanity, thus taken to Hospital Twelve, where he has remained.”

In the grand scheme of things, I didn’t feel like he was all that bad. When I saw him, he hadn’t been doing anything to me, mostly just talking to a wall or kissing some random patient.

I continued reading another page from the file and instantly recognized the man.“Pharaoh Masters was accused and convicted of stalking a young woman who was now deceased. Prior to her death, she terminated the restraining order she’d had against him. The victim had reportedly dated the accused for over a year, with multiple witnesses and social media suggesting she was in love. Pharaoh and the deceased shared a daughter, who was one year of age at the time of her murder. The child has since been placed in foster care. Location: unknown. The murder took place in the victim’s home after it was reported by an anonymous tip that Masters was trying to kidnap the child. Ariah Morgan’s cause of death was a broken neck and multiple stab wounds to her back. Masters claimed he ‘didn’t mean to’ kill the deceased and refused any further statements. He was tried and deemed guilty under the plea of insanity, taken to Hospital Twelve, and has remained there since.”

My eyes were misty. The picture clicked into place of another brother’s history, but yet again, not nearly enough. Everything I uncovered had fifty new questions that required answers.

Another thump sounded from the other room, and I rolled my eyes.

“Munchies! Would you refrain from jumping off things, please? You sound like an elephant, loco gato,” I hollered in the direction of the thump.

A meow sounded under my feet, and I paled. Seeing my cat sitting under the barstool and not anywhere near where I’d heard the sound made me shudder.

Steeling my fear and forcing my feet to move, I grabbed a candlestick from the hallway. My gun was in the freaking box under the bed in the other room. It was the best I could do.Walking forward into my sleeping quarters, I stuck out the end of the metal candle holder, inching my way inside the dark area.I didn’t see anything, my eyes blinking to adjust to the light streaming in from the hall.After a long moment and some deep breaths, I turned to walk back out, feeling like an idiot at being a nervous nelly in my own home.

Grumbling, I said, “I’m starting to turn into them already. Stupid triplets. Stupid Goliath.”

An arm, a very human arm, hooked around my body just before I went flying, slamming against my bedroom door. The shadowy figure held one hand on my throat, anchoring me to the bedroom wall, and the other hand covered my mouth, trapping my sounds of fear from escaping.

His chuckle was familiar, and with the dim light from the hallway illuminating the side of his face and naked chest, I knew exactly who it was before he ever spoke in his dangerous, lulling, melodic tone.

“Can’t keep my name off your lips, can you,OfficerLavita?”

The way this woman turned to stone beneath my grip was intoxicating. Her fear was tangible. I could practically taste it. In fact…I ran my tongue along her neck, and the salty range of her sweat was absolutely mouth-watering.

The moonlight peeping through her window illuminated her terrified pale brown eyes. Her heartbeat in her neck was strong,and under my grasp, it felt like a drum, but she didn’t fight me. She just stared at me.

I knew she’d heard what I’d said. She knew I was perfectly aware of her little mission and crystal clear now on who she was. It never did add up that this tiny, fragile thing could be malicious. She wasn’t even trying to free herself now when she knew from the files plastered around her apartment exactly what I was capable of, and yet she made no move to buck me off, bite my hand, or knee me in my beautiful balls. Nothing. Just stayed completely still, frozen like a fucking doll.

“If you’re hoping I’ll get bored and go on my way, you’d be very wrong, Little Lamb. I’m not some kitty cat. I don’t chase and play to scare my prey. I am a predator that devours it whole once it isn’t useful to me anymore.”

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