Page 50 of Little Puppet

“Puppet,” he warns again, his tone firmer, darker.

“No. If you agree to this one thing, you’ll get me unbidden. I won’t fight it anymore.”

“If you think you’re going to change who I am…”

I shake my head. “I’m not trying to, Cain. I’m attracted to this version of you. For you to come back to this place without me wouldn’t feel right. I don’t know the other man outside of here.”

“Well, puppet, having you will allow me to be more of myself all year.”

His words make pride well in my chest. I don’t dwell on the feeling, though. I just let it settle.

“You’ll still be killing, though, won’t you? You said I wouldn’t change you. If you stop killing, then you’ve changed.”

He shrugs. “I don’t know, puppet. I don’t know that the urge will remain with you as my perfect girl. I think that all along, I was looking for you. Each girl that I took, each one that I killed, wasn’t what I needed. They weren’t perfect.”

My heart slams into my ribs in loud, its meaningful strikes nearly cracking bone. I almost can’t hear him over its beats.

“They wouldn’t submit. They wouldn’t kneel. They didn’t scream my name when they came. Some didn’t come.” He rolls his eyes.

The knowledge makes my stomach churn, but my body thrum.

It’s onlymethat’s his perfect girl, and I’m giddy that I am.

“Only time will tell where things go between us, darling.”

I lick my lips as my favorite thing he calls me falls from his mouth.

“But,” he adds, reaching down and cupping my face. “I will only kidnap and kill in your presence. I’ll never do anything behind your back.”

I nod, closing my eyes as my leash tugs and yanks me to my feet.

My eyes fly open as his lips crash to mine, his tongue parting them like he’s invading my senses. Slowly, they close again as I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back like I haven’t before.

I let go entirely.

If this is my life now, it’s time to embrace it.

Chapter 15

Looking away from her with that leash around her neck is hard. I lead her out to her Honda Civic behind the house, holding out a gas can towards her as she looks over the wreckage from the night I took her.

It’s been nine days since I ran her off the road and dragged her up the hill to Grimrose House, and I don’t regret it in the slightest.

She has exceeded every expectation I’ve ever had. However, I gave up on expecting a thing a long time ago. People have always let me down, not Grace.

She’s perfect.

There’s a glimmer of awareness in her eyes, too—one that says she’ll come around to my lifestyle with time. Grace is a psychopath’s dreamgirl, and I’m glad she happened to take a detour through Dunhaven when she did, or I’d have never found her.

That would’ve been a fucking shame.

“You want me to burn my car?” she asks me, gazing at the can still outstretched in my hand.

“I already put your purse and phone back in there. Your old life will go up in flames. Then we’ll go get your new documents.”

She looks back to the car, absently grabbing the can from me as she riddles it all out.

I expected a fight from her. Giving up the past and starting fresh is hard. I know that.

---