Page 48 of Choke

Jesus Christ.

“MAD.”

“Sorry?” Cally asks.

“Her initials are MAD,” I explain.

There is silence on the other end, and then he chuckles.

“Yeah, they are. Her Loony Toon mother must’ve had a crystal ball into the future to know how things would end up.”

I watch her sleep as he continues to read through her file. After that night with her mom, nothing relevant was found. He notes that any information predating her 18th birthday would have been sealed.

“As you know..” He comments.

I grunt a response.

Yeah, as I know.

There is a pause, then the sound of muffled voices on his end. ‘Shit. Gotta go.’ Click, he hangs up. Leaving me in a dark, silent room with nothing but the video feed on the TV in front of me. She hasn’t moved. Exactly as planned.

When I broke in last night, I left a few hidden nanny cams around her place—one near the front door, one in the living room, and one inher bedroom pointed directly at her bed. I honestly cannot believe you can order this shit on Amazon. Then, I downloaded a program to hack her Wi-Fi, giving me access to her thermostat. Oh, what fun I’ve had slowly increasing the temperature and watching her strip out of her clothes.

I watched Cally with her. I watched her body relax as he changed the locks, leaving one of the keys for me under her doormat in the hall.

And he’s worried about what reading her file will do to his career. Ha.

Before I left, I crushed up a sleeping pill—maybe two—and slipped it into the open bottle of wine in the fridge. It was a gamble that she would drink it at all and one that paid off when she said goodbye to Colton and immediately poured a mug full of wine.

She stumbled around a little, struggling to get to her bed before the full effect of the pill kicked in. She landed on her stomach, feet dangling over the edge of the bed, hair wild around her, and hasn’t budged since.

Glancing at my watch, it’s early. Not even 10 p.m. I open the app on my phone and lower the heat in her apartment to slightly lower than usual. Heat clings to me more than most. I run hot. I don’t need her apartment warmer—I’ll be plenty warm. Rising from the couch, I collect the items I need and stuff them into my pocket. I pull on a black hoodie and a baseball hat to hide my face and head out the door. Looking back at the screen once more, I see her roll over. Her mouth slightly parted, nipples visible through her light tank top from the dropping temperature.

It takes me minutes to get to her building. I cannot for the life of me understand why condos even have security-locked entry. Humans are, by nature, much too accommodating and friendly. It took all of two minutes for someone to swipe me into her building. I stood by the door, pretending I was rooting through my bag for keys. A slightly older woman jogged up, reaching around me to swipe her fob against the panel.

“I can never find mine either.” She comments, slightly breathy.

I offer her my most charming, nice-guy smile. “Every time.” I agree.

In reality, I don’t have a fob, and the key I need is tucked under a doormat and placed there by my slightly crooked cop friend. We ride the elevator up. She makes meaningless small talk, and I avoid lifting my head enough to have my face captured by the CCTV cameras that seem to be in every corner. When we reach her floor, two below Lex’s, she hesitates a second before exiting as if she is hoping I’ll follow her. It’s so interesting that women seem most drawn to me in my darkest moments.

The elevator continues the short distance up, and the doors open onto Lex’s floor. I flip open the nanny cam app on my phone to confirm she is still asleep one last time. She hasn’t so much as moved since I last looked at her. The key is precisely where Cally said it would be, and I slide it into the lock, reminding myself that she has the weirdest fucking cat and not to let it take me by surprise again. When I had come in here last night, it had jumped onto my back while I crouched to hide a camera, and I jumped so hard, I was sure I was on the verge of a full-scale coronary event.

I can just imagine it. Lex comes home to my corpse in full rigor mortis. Her freaky little alien-looking cat feasting on my fingers and eyes. Cats are fucked, this one especially so with its large almond eyes, light pink skin, and bat-like ears. I’ve responded to enough medical calls where a homeowner has died. Dogs will damn near starve to death if their owner dies. Cats? A few hours later, they figure out which parts they like the best.

The creature is nowhere to be seen, and the condo is silent. The only sound is the hum of the refrigerator. A chill creeps up my spine. I lowered the temperature significantly, and it’s cold here. I make my way to the bedroom. Leaving the lights on as I pass. The drugs in her wine were strong, and the temperature and brightness shouldn’t register at all with her. Her room is dark. The only light streams through the door, and I push it open. As the light falls across her bed, two glowing eyes pop up and fix on me, and I jump again.Jesus Christ.

Fucking weird little alien.

Returning my attention to her, I see that she is out cold, lightly snoring, on her tummy with her head to the side. Her lips are slightlyparted, and I can see the small spot of drool under her mouth—perfect. I slowly lower myself to sit on the bed beside her. Being this close to her, on her bed, has my heart rate increasing and my dick pressing against the inside of my pants.

Holy fuck.

Before I can stop myself, I reach out and run my hand up her calf. I watch for any reaction, but she’s comatose, so I continue. My hand brushes the back of her knee, up the back of her thigh, and onto her ass. She’s wearing nothing but a thin tank top and a cotton thong. From this angle, the way one knee is bent up and out to the side, I have a perfect view of the outline of her pussy.

She releases a soft moan as my hands caress her body. It jolts me out of my daze, and I look at her face. It is still peaceful, asleep. Reminding myself this is not the time, I rise from her bed, pull the two tickets out of my pocket, and set them down on her nightstand. She’ll find them when she wakes up; it’ll take her a little longer than usual to get her thoughts together. She’ll be strangely groggy and fuzzy around the edges, and slowly, she’ll figure it out, she’ll know. Know that I was here and expect her to be at the charity game this weekend.

I have to leave before I cannot walk away from her. Leaning down, I press a kiss to her temple. She doesn’t react at all. The sleeping pills in her system are doing precisely what I need them to.

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