Page 24 of Bloody Seven

"The scars are from her?" Her eyes widen.

I know she probably thought The Collection gave them to me, and in a way, they did. Poppy and I both carry scars because of them. The only difference is that mine are visible.

"She was scared, so she reacted. I don't blame her, but The Collection was ready to spring into action as soon they got the message on my phone. Someone was waiting for her outside theapartment. They grabbed her and staged her death to make it look like a car accident."

"If they took people from both of us, I wonder how many others are out there suffering too," she says, and I'm not sure I like the way her mind is processing this information.

"They painted a narrative that someone broke into the house to try and kill me, and Rebecca ran to get away. The cops claimed she was driving erratically, swerving into oncoming traffic. She was hit by a snowplow and killed on impact. I just didn't know it at the time because I was bleeding and being loaded into an ambulance so they could take me to the emergency room."

I run my finger along the bottom scar, letting the painful memories fill me for the first time in years. Rebecca lost her life, and the only thing I did was retire from The Collection, happy to be free of my duty to them. Poppy lost Drew, and she went on to kill people to get vengeance for him. This woman is so much stronger than she gives herself credit for. She's a better person than me, that's for damn sure.

Chapter 11

Poppy

Itry to imagine how different today would have been if Corbin hadn’t survived his stab wounds.

At the beginning of this quest for vengeance, I always planned on my last murder taking place in year seven. One for each of the deadly sins. Although, after having a taste of how it feels, I found myself wondering if I'd truly be able to stop.

Over the years, I considered everything and decided the only way for this to truly be over was if I became my seventh kill. I would get to be with Drew, and while it may not be exactly what he wanted for me, I highly doubt he would want me to spend the rest of my life in jail.

Corbin changed everything. He reminded me what it feels like to live again. I was dead on the inside for so long, but he managed to awaken my heart. It’s finally beating toward the future, and I don't want to be my seventh kill.

I want to explore our connection because I’m almost positive he feels the same way. It's unfathomable considering how little time we’ve actually spent together, but when you knowsomething is right, you just know. Why else would he even give me the time of day after I left the way I did last year?

Somehow, the broken parts of our souls intertwined with one another, upheaving our trauma and forcing us forward. We were both frozen in the past, but slowly, we’re healing.

I definitely wasn't expecting him to be okay with me being a serial killer, so I turn toward him to talk about it a little more. "I'm not going to lie. I thought the whole 'I'm a serial killer' thing would be a bigger deal. You seem like you're okay with it," I say, testing the waters.

"Did you kill people who deserved it?"

"I did. They were all men who lived up to whatever sin I chose for the year. The first kill was a man trying to assault a woman."

"You sound more like a vigilante than anything else."

I laugh at that suggestion. "The police don't consider me a vigilante. I do appreciate the difference in outlooks, though."

"You said you have seven kills over seven years. Have you killed this year yet?" He asks a loaded question that I don't want to confess the answer to.

"I kill on Valentine's Day, and that's not until tomorrow." It's not a lie, although I'm leaving out some of the truth.

"Do you have someone chosen to kill tomorrow? It's not me, is it? I mean, now you know I'm not a good guy, even if that's what you thought before. I’m retired from a secret society and the reason my wife died. I lied to you about her."

"I'm not going to kill you, Corbin. If that were what I planned, I wouldn't have slept with you first."

"Just tell me, cupid. I can see you're struggling with something."

"The seventh kill was going to be me. I was going to confess to the murders with a letter and take my life the same way I did the rest of them."

"You're not doing that," he states plainly. He cares about me, and he doesn't want me to hurt myself. It’s cute.

"I know. I changed my mind, but I don't know how I feel about that because that means my promise to Drew is unfulfilled."

"That doesn't have to be true. You can find someone else."

I could, but I don't know if I want to. I'm not angry at the city anymore. That anger has shifted to The Collection. They’re the cause of all of this. So much unnecessary pain just to fill the pockets of men who most likely have tiny dicks.

The Collection didn't care about me because I didn't come from wealth. I wasn't even a significant enough person for them to eliminate after they killed Drew. That may be the part that stings the most. They weren't worried about me.

---