Page 16 of Morally Grey

“Don’t kink shame me, asshole. I apologized. You’re the one who went all-in with it. A big, bad killer, huh?”

“Shut your pretty mouth,” he says before kissing me again. “Let’s not talk about what just happened. I made you come, so you can’t turn me in now.”

We’ll see about that. I still haven’t decided what I plan to do with Grey, and now, I’m in no hurry to figure it out.

Chapter Ten

Grey

Guilt eats me from the inside the next morning as I sit across from Briar at the kitchen table. Each bite of pancake tastes horribly sour. Not even the diabetes-inducing syrup can help. Even so, I shovel each bite into my mouth. The sooner we finish eating, the sooner I can tap into that dead bitch’s camera system.

“Is something bugging you?” Briar asks as she tidies up the dishes. “You’ve hardly spoken since...last night.”

“Something about leg shackles doesn’t exactly make me eager to converse in the mornings.” I shift my feet around and rattle the chains. “Any chance we could try a trust exercise and let me walk around freely?”

Briar tightens her high ponytail and looks at my feet. “I guess we could try, but if you take off, I’ll call the county sheriff.”

If anyone should be contacting the county, it’s me. I’m the one who’s being held hostage in this really strange situation with this really strange woman who is starting to grow on me.

That’s part of the problem. I liked what happened between us last night. It was dirty and wrong to play the killer in thebedroom, and I’m not playing. I am a killer. And she let me fill and fuck her until she was cross-eyed.

But what would my wife think? That’s the question that keeps running through my mind, waving a banner. I run my finger over the place where my wedding band once rested. Now, that gold band rests with her and our unborn child in the casket.

“Do you still have your wedding ring?” Briar asks as she pulls the shackles from my ankles. “I only ask because I haven’t seen it on your finger, but I sometimes notice you turning the place where it should be. My dad used to do that with his ring.”

I shake my head and look out the window as the second shackle releases. “No, I don’t have the ring anymore. Some habits die hard, I guess.”

Briar sits back on her heels and looks up at me. “Would you ever remarry?”

“Never say never, but it’s unlikely.”

“I never want to get married. Sid did, but I wouldn’t do it. I sure dodged one hell of a bullet there.”

“Sid. Was that your ex with all the crazy fetishes?”

She nods. “Yeah, one and the same. I would have stayed loyal to that sorry piece of shit, with or without marriage, but he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. One night, I caught him with a couple of eighteen-year-olds. He thought I was off at a conference for medical billing specialists.”

“Is that what you do for a living? You harass people about their medical bills?”

“Ouch, shots fired.” She stands and stretches her lower back. “Let’s go to the living room. I want to see how high your reward is now.”

I stand and follow her out of the kitchen. “We have an agreement, don’t forget. I made you come, so you can’t turn me in.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She flops on the couch and grabs the remote.

Light fills the screen, and she flips through the local channels until one of the stations finally airs their midday news segment. We sit through a story about a nursing home catching fire, another about a failing school system, and then some sports commentary. Finally, my face pops up in a small rectangle to the right of the news anchor’s head.

“Police are still searching for the man who shot and killed bank CEO Gloria Rogers two days ago.”Video taken outside the bank pops onto the television as the news anchor continues. She details the murder, then gives my description before finally saying,“If anyone has any information, you’re urged to contact the number on the screen. A reward has been offered for any tips that lead to an arrest and conviction.”

A number flashes on the screen, and Briar’s jaw drops. “You’re up to twenty grand, Grey! In two days, you’ve quadrupled the price on your head. How does it feel?”

It feels pretty shitty, if I’m being honest. I don’t regret what I did, and if I had it to do over again, I’d make the same decisions. Every time I think about what I’ve done, I don’t feel remorse. I feel pride.

What does that say about me?

“Now that the power’s back, you can show me whatever it is you wanted me to see on the laptop.” Briar rises from the couch and leaves the room. When she returns, she has a laptop in her hands. She places it on the coffee table, then connects the power cord. “It’s old as dirt and won’t turn on if it’s not directly connected to a power source. The battery is shot.”

She’ll get no judgment from me. I haven’t owned a laptop since the bank took everything but the car.

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