Page 89 of Three for a Girl

“Why?”

“You’re a part of me now, a need to rival the one to kill. I imagine I’m a part of you, too, even when you tried to immerse yourself in your job.”

Chad nodded. “I know I’ve been dismissive, and selfish. And today, I thought I’d lost the chance to make it up to you. I thought you were dead.”

“What?”

Chad waved his hand, it was a long story and he didn’t want to go into it. “For a minute I thought you were gone, truly gone, and it felt like someone had gutted me. Stopped my heart in my chest. I couldn’t see beyond knowing if it was you or not. There’s nothing without you in my life, and when I found out it wasn’t you, I wanted to tell you how I wished I tried harder, I wanted to tell you how sorry I was.”

“Sorry? What have you got to be sorry about?”

“You’re stuck here with no outlet, driven crazy by it. I’ve trapped you, you’re my prisoner, my captive. No wonder you almost killed me and fled. And when you were away, I started thinking … how unfair it is for me to be me, but you can’t be you, and maybe, just maybe, I could meet you halfway. Maybe I could compromise, and let…”

He trailed off. It was a thought he dare not voice. He looked away, and tried to pull his hand back, but Romeo pinned him, and leaned closer. “Let me what?”

“Let you.”

He couldn’t say any more than that. Speaking the actual words out loud seemed so barbaric, immoral, wrong. It was bearable when they were locked away in his head.

Romeo breathed out in a rush. “Let me.” Chad tried to yank his hand free, but Romeo didn’t let him go. “Let me? Let me kill someone?”

Chad needed to leave the room, get away from the place those words had been spoken. Adrenaline flooded his heart—horror, or satisfaction, he didn’t know.

He had to get away.

Romeo wouldn’t let him escape, so Chad squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his teeth together until they ached. It was only a thought, a thought that tugged on the seam of his humanity. He loved Romeo so much he would let him fulfil his desires—not on Chad, but on someone else, someone innocent…

No.

He gasped, pulling away from Romeo with all his might. His chair tipped, he landed on the floor, and struggled away on his elbows, kicking his legs against the floor to get distance from Romeo, but he was undeterred. He was on top of Chad in a heartbeat, not pinning one of Chad’s wrists, but both of them above his head.

“Tell me, is that what you meant?”

Chad scrunched his eyes shut, and turned his head, hiding in his bicep. Romeo’s nose pressed into Chad’s temple, and his lips rested on the top of Chad’s cheek bone.

The smell of him stirred up butterflies, and the feel of his breath sent tingles racing over Chad’s skin. His heart pounded in his chest, a drumming that neither of them could ignore.

He was certain Romeo’s was beating just as frantically, though he couldn’t feel it against him. His voice wavered as he begged into Chad’s skin—over and over, he kissed the word please, and Chad’s heart ached for him.

“Please, tell me, is that what you meant?”

Romeo moved his lips across Chad’s face, finding his ear. He nipped the lobe before asking again, rocking his body against Chad.

He was hard, and so was Chad. His head spun, and a voice told him to end this, stamp out Romeo’s hopes, but it wasn’t the loudest voice.

The other voice told him it was inevitable. The only way they could both be happy in their new lives. Romeo was worth someone’s life, he was worth a hundred people’s lives, especially if they were deserving of death like Marc.

If they werevermin.

“Sometimes you think about letting me … letting me kill?”

Romeo rearranged his hands, using one to grip both of Chad’s wrists in an unescapable hold.

“Please, talk to me, Chad. I’m begging you.”

With his free hand, Romeo held Chad’s chin, his fingers so tight on Chad’s jaw he swore it was molding around them.

“You think about setting me free, unlocking the cage?”

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