Page 45 of Always Salty

I kind of had an idea of what I would hear—IE him killing a man to protect me.

But what I got was so much more.

“I’ve been watching you for months,” he began. “Way before your brother and my sister met.”

I nodded.

“Shasha had an issue with the doctor that worked with you. McCinnish,” he continued. “He was drugging his patients…”

He then went on to explain all the bad things that the doctor had done in his time at our sleep center. From assault, to rape, to stealing. He’d done it all.

When he’d explained that he’d finished him off by making him look like he’d had a heart attack, I couldn’t find a single ounce of pity for McCinnish.

That part of me was broken—the one that felt sympathy for others when they’d experienced something horrendous.

I mean, sure, logically, I could sympathize with actual victims. But with men that hurt innocent people all for his own personal gain? No, I wasn’t ever going to feel bad about a man like that no longer living on this earth.

I hoped there was a special place in hell that he went and reaped what he’d sown.

While he’d spoken, Dima hadn’t once taken his eyes off of me.

“…and then I saw you,” he explained. “And I became…obsessed.”

I turned my full attention toward him. “Are you sure that this is a good idea?”

“You mean, you and me?” he asked.

I licked my lips and nodded.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure that I’m altogether sane anymore,” he admitted. “There’s something fundamentally broken inside of me. The United States government made sure of that. My gut says I got out too late.”

I leaned back in my seat and said, “Whatever is broken inside of me is drawn to that broken part in you.”

He picked up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks and said, “I have cameras in your place.”

I nodded. “I figured.”

“I followed you home multiple times,” he continued.

“I figured that, too.”

“I shot your friend’s boyfriend last night,” he confessed.

I blinked at him. “Really?”

“Really,” he replied. “He doesn’t know who I am or anything, but I’m sure it won’t take them very much to connect all the pieces if they see us together.”

“I’m done with her,” I admitted. “I can’t deal with that kind of stupidity anymore.”

He picked up another piece of sushi—my favorite—and handed it to me.

I took the whole piece into my mouth and chewed.

His eyes sparkled as he said, “I killed that man that hurt you when you were younger, too.”

I smiled then.

It wasn’t a pleasant smile. “I wish I’d been there to see it.”

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