Page 164 of Irreversible

“What a hero I am.”

Everly chats with the bouncer for several minutes, huddling in her light jacket as a fine mist drizzles from the cloud cover. It’s obvious from the way he’s gesturing between the cloud cover and her phone that he’s trying to talk her into ordering a ride. She doesn’t care that she has no business being alone in the dark, unaware that I’ve turned her into a target.

She just wants to walk in the rain.

That’s why I shoved pepper spray into her purse when the dressing room was empty.

Still, she’s treating her freedom carelessly, like her experience has made her immune to tragedy. It makes me want to snatch her off the street and put her over my knee until she learns a lesson.

The mere thought makes my dick half hard, which isn’t fucking helpful at all.

How many times have I imagined having her under me, playing out that scene I described to her in filthy detail when we had no hope of making it come true? She’s single now, too—and watching her dance topless for a bunch of assholes, just out of reach, has been turning my balls fifty shades of blue.

But there are still too many things in the way. Too many reasons I really need to shut my mouth and keep my distance. Besides not being sure I can even carry a face-to-face relationship like that, I still have moments where I’m just fucking…bitter. As idiotic as it is, Istillhear her husband’s name echo in my dreams.

I gave her my trust, and she chose another man.

A man who’d already turned his back on her.

Sometimes I can’t decide whether I want to fuck her or make her suffer.

Both could work.

Tanner rudely interrupts my inner conflict. “There’s another thing bothering me. Why hasn’t he just taken you out if he’s got a lock on you? There’s got to be something else he wants.”

“That’s comforting.”

“Worth pondering, though.”

“Indeed.” I inch closer to Everly and the bouncer, pressing the phone closer to my mouth. “And I take it there’ve been no more leads since Amsterdam.”

A textpingsthrough in the background. “No,” Tanner says. “But I just sent a picture of the guy who’s been following you.”

Amsterdam was what finally shook me. Convinced me to change my strategy. But it won’t be over until I’ve wiped him off the face of the earth, and now, he’s decided to play.

It was in Europe that my prey stopped running and began to bite back, playing his little mind games. More innocents. Casualties left in his wake.

Then it became personal.

I found the bodies in Bucharest, Berlin, and Amsterdam—victims who closely resembled Everly, Sara, and finally, me. After the last one—a humble mechanic and father of four, who’d done nothing wrong but leave his house looking like the wrong person—I came back to the States, afraid of what would happen if I pushed him further.

This time,Iwent underground. I needed to put a stop to all the senseless death.

But I’d made an error in judgment: there’s nothing Vincent loves more than games, and he wasn’t willing to stop playing. A month later, a photograph of Everly showed up in Tanner’s email, the Golden Gate Bridge an unmistakable backdrop behind her. There was no questioning who’d sent it, but just in case I was confused, the subject line was an hourglass emoji.

Subtle.

So now I’m here, far too close to crossing a line I won’t be able touncross. I could watch out for her quietly, of course. Invisibly. But I can’t think straight being this close to her. I can’t?—

“Did that picture come through?”

“Hang on.” I glance away from the woman consuming my attention long enough to glance at the photo in Tanner’s text. It’s a nondescript guy in a baseball cap. Not helpful. Movement in my periphery catches my attention, and I look up just as the bouncer disappears from the doorway. Everly sets off in the direction of her apartment, striding confidently with her chin held high. “Dammit.”

I want to go over there and shake her. Tell her bad shit can happen within a three-block radius, just as easily as it could within three miles.

“Talk to me, Porter. What’s going on? You know the guy?”

“No, that’s not—” Then I freeze.

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