Page 31 of Psycho

“Dane was.” I replied, “But he needed some help to get to her. So he called in backup.”

“Do you kill women often?”

I licked my lips and closed my laptop, leaning forward on my elbows to stare at her. “Not as often as men, but often enough.”

She swallowed, mulling that over. “Do you do it differently than a man?” She waved her hand. “The actual killing, I mean.”

“Sometimes.” I replied, understanding what she was asking. “But when the woman is responsible for the deaths of dozens of families full of women and children, then we treat her no better than any other monster we eliminate.”

“Hence the brain.” She whispered.

“It wasn’t the first part of her to get splattered, but it was the last thing she felt.”

Liv licked her lips, and I was afraid she would get emotional or nauseous even at the conversation, but she didn’t. “What did she do to those families?”

“Do you really want to know?” I asked, “The woman was a monster.”

“I want to know.”

I rose from the table and went to her, dragging her feet onto the couch as I sat and rubbed them, recounting Carleen Delgado’s horrors inflicted on innocents. “She was the mother of a leader. And I guess you can say that it takes a certain kind of monster to raise one.” I rubbed my thumb into Liv’s arch as I recounted the tale. “She would find impoverished families in Mexico, which wasn’t hard where they were. And she’d offer them help, under the guise of being some sweet older lady. She’d befriend the women at the market or church and offer them meals and help with their obvious needs.”

Liv deadpanned, “So kind of her.”

“And when the women got hooked on her friendship, she would begin offering things to the rest of their family. Jobs, places to stay, money, food, you name it, she gave it.”

“I’m sure it came with a catch.” Liv said ominously.

“A big one.” I affirmed, “She’d pull the rug out from under the women after a while, making up some tale about needing the money back or needing something in return for her generosity. She’d weave a story about how she was in trouble and needed it, or she’d be in trouble. Obviously, those women couldn’t repay her, if they could, Carleen wouldn’t have gotten her claws in them to begin with. And when push came to shove, Carleen’s son would step in. He’d demand repayment with interest, and if they couldn’t pay, then he’d have them on the hook for labor. In somecases, they would take husbands or older sons from their homes and ship them off into the drug game. Other times, men from the cartel would show up at their homes in the middle of the night and take payment out of the women and their daughters right in the middle of the street.”

“Jesus.” Liv sighed, “Rape, you mean?”

“Yeah, most of the time, the young girls never got back up off the ground when the cartel was done with them. That woman decimated entire families in the dark of night.

She stared down at the foot that I was rubbing, chewed on her bottom lip while keeping her hands covering that bump under her t-shirt. “And you made it hurt when you killed her?” She asked, looking back up at me with glassy eyes.

“She fucking screamed for mercy. But she found none from me.”

“Do you believe a person is good or bad based on their DNA?” She whispered and my chest ached for her, knowing what she was really asking.

“No, I don’t.” I slid under her legs, pressed myself against her, and then, wrapping an arm around her, pulled her onto my lap. “I believe that a baby is born innocent and good to their core. Behaviors are taught and evil is grown and festered inside of someone based on someone they’re around.” I tipped her head back, so she’d look up at me again when she stared off at the wall behind me. “Your baby is good, Liv. You are good.”

“But Damon isn’t. What if some of his evil is engrained so deeply in his DNA that he transferred it onto my baby?” Swallowing, she went on, “That’s my biggest fear. And I think the part of me that keeps me held back from fully embracing this as a gift and not a punishment. What if my baby is just like him?”

“It won’t be.” I reassured her, resting my forehead against hers. “This baby will be just like you. And just like me. Becausewe’re the ones that are going to raise it and teach it right from wrong and good from bad.”

She hiccupped and laughed at the same time, but there wasn’t much humor behind it. “You’re a psycho and I’m a criminal. What the fuck do we know about being good?”

“You’re so fucking good, Storm.” I countered, “And my darkness will never touch this baby. I won’t allow it, on my fucking life.”

She took a deep breath and contemplated everything before wrapping her arms around my abdomen and snuggling in deeper. “Sometimes, I think a little darkness in a person’s soul can be a good thing.” I leaned us back a bit and got comfortable as she continued her thought, “Because only the pure and innocent get hurt. That darkness within us, that which we harbor while striving to do good, protects us from the manipulation suffered by those in Carleen’s story. I would have killed that fucking bitch myself if she even tried.”

I tightened my arms around her, moved by the way she thought of people like us. “You’re damn fucking right about that, Storm. Damn fucking right.”

Chapter 14 – Olivia

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked, shifting in the front seat of Maddox’s truck as he drove through the dark night. “I’m getting‘take her to the train station’ vibes over here.”

He looked over at me where he sat driving with one arm stretched out straight on the steering wheel, leaning over onto the center console, looking like a sexy grizzly bear. It didn’t help that he had on a black and white flannel that was giving off hot lumberjack snack vibes.

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