Page 34 of Moth to a Flame

I pretend to be okay.

On the inside, I’m anything but.

Hearing Lester has the slightest chance of getting out was a slap in the face. A rude awakening.

I’m not safe.

I will never be safe.

Even from a man that feels like he is.

Men are liars.

A man will have a job. Be a functioning member of society. He’ll have friends who’ll testify that he wouldneverdo the horrible things he’s being accused of.

A man will do the worst kind of things.

A strange man, that is.

Which is exactly what Landon is.

A stranger.

I. Am. Not. Safe.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Landon

I pull onClayton’s short hair while driving a spoon into the corner of his eye and—whoops, it’s out.

This is fun. The type of activities I’ve been avoiding.

The type of activities I’m actively seeking these days, thanks to Regan.

It’s more than pure fun for me, though. I’m doing this for a reason.

I broke into Clayton Sims’s dingy apartment in one of Manhattan’s less-than-appealing neighborhoods for her.

Regan.

She’s the question and the answer for everything I’ve been doing ever since I laid my eyes on her.

I want to be with her.

I can’t be with her. Not now, when I’m on edge. When I’m waiting for my algorithm to do what I designed it to. Go through our subscribers’ private information and their personal records. Track down anyone with a friend or a family member in Brinestone.

While it runs on my laptop at home, I’m here. Visiting the man who I presume jerked off to Regan’s photo then ghosted her.

Punishing him is how I take the edge off.

It’s giving me an excuse to visit her later.

Win-win.

“Hmnmnm.” Blood and what used to be his dinner dribble down his chin.

Bloop.His eyeball lands right next to the place where I kneel. On the tarp I spread out in his living room earlier.

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