Page 11 of The Devil We Know

I skip over the sexy ones, knowing my body will respond immediately, and jump to the very end, where I type out a quick message.

Me: You need to forget about me.

I hit send.

I wait for the message to be delivered, then jump to my contacts, pull her up, scroll to the bottom, and block her, knowing my message will go through, but I won’t receive anything else from her number.

Then I go one step further, powering the phone off and walking to the far end of the room, tossing it into the incinerator.

I know this seems extreme, but I can’t take any chances that she’ll come up in the world that I’m about to head into.

There are some things I need to take care of—things she cannot be a part of—things I don’t want anybody I know to be a part of.

I take special care to wipe everyone I love from my existence, hoping it will be enough to protect them from what I’m about to do.

Then I step into the darkness.

4

A Semi-Familiar Road

Jessica

Present Day

Matt:You need to forget about me.

Once again, I find myself sitting at my desk, staring at this now-months-old message on my phone.

Then, of course, the subsequent messages thereafter that are undelivered, one after another, into oblivion.

I have no idea why he sent this message to me, and I certainly have no idea why I was immediately blocked afterward, but I won’t lie and say it doesn’t sting.

I’m also certain something must have happened. I have no idea why he wouldn’t tell me what that something was unless he felt it was for my own good, which is also incredibly infuriating because fuck him.

Frankly, it seems completely out of character for him, but maybe I just don’t know him as well as I thought I did.

It’s not like I’ve never been ghosted before. I just honestly never thought it would happen with Mathias Shields, a man who I thought to be an unassuming, stand-up guy who always does the right thing.

Which is a clear indication to me that something is horribly wrong.

A voice pipes up from the door, and I glance up to see Issa standing there with her hands on her hips. I raise a brow at her and ask, “What?”

She frowns, walking further into the room, stopping in front of my desk with her arms crossed over her chest. “I’ve been saying your name for like a full minute. What the fuck are you doing on your phone?”

I glare at her. “That’s none of your fucking business.” Her eyes narrow further, and then she lunges across the desk, snatching my phone from my hands, and I screech, “Give that back.”

She scurries out of the way as I come around the desk to chase her, but I already know it’s too late. She would have seen the screen almost immediately and realized what I’ve been hiding from her.

She stops trying to get away from me, her eyes meeting mine as she asks, “What happened?”

I shrug, shaking my head sadly as I reply, “I have no idea. I have no fucking idea.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

I shrug again. “Say what, exactly? That a guy who helped me manage my murderous episode has decided he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore?”

She rolls her eyes. “Really, Jess? It’s more than that, and you fucking know it.”

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