Page 60 of The Obsession

“Long enough to have him over to meet your mom,” Mendez pressed. “Have you noticed anything odd about him? Is he particularly secretive when it comes to say, his phone?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t tried to steal his phone or anything, so I wouldn’t know. He seems okay to me? Normal, I mean.”

Mendez’s eyes drilled into mine. “Really? That’s very interesting, Dee, because apparently you’re close enough to give Logan a key to your place.”

“A…key?”

Mendez’s eyebrows rose. “You didn’t? I ran into him yesterday outside your house, and he said you’d given him a key. He said he left a surprise for you at the house.”

My thoughts shattered into a million galloping, shrieking questions. He was at my house? He broke in? He left something? Some sick, twisted thing, no doubt. God, how I wished I could tell Mendez the truth about Logan, reveal to her what a sicko he was. But then what would happen? She’d catch him, maybe question him, and who knew what he’d say to her? I couldn’t let that happen.

Through some superhuman effort, I managed not to move a single facial muscle. I stretched my mouth into a smile. “Oh, yeah! Yeah, I did…do that, yes.”

Mendez sighed. “Look, Dee, I know you’re in a relationship with him, but there’s something really off about that kid, okay? When I saw him yesterday, he didn’t look so good. Kind of twitchy. Sweaty sheen to him. Eyes all manic.”

That would be the drugs I’ve been slipping into his food, Detective.I wanted to scream with nervous, sick laughter. My plan was working a little bit too fast for my liking. “He can be a bit intense, sure—”

“Dee, between you and me? I know drug addicts. I’ve caught them, I’ve questioned them, I deal with them a lot more often than you think. And Logan—he’s on drugs, Delilah. You really haven’t noticed anything off about him?”

“I’m sorry!” I cried. “I don’t know—yes, maybe, he’s been a little bit more frantic. I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t—”

“Hey, listen.” Mendez placed a firm hand on my shoulder. “You’re a bright girl, Dee. But when it comes to Logan, maybe you’re not quite thinking clearly. You need to be smart about all of this, okay? I have a bad feeling about Logan. You need to watch out for him. Understand?”

What else could I do but nod wordlessly? Mendez said a few other things, but I failed to register any of them. After she left, I stood there watching until her silhouette turned into a small blip, and I wanted to fall into a hundred thousand little pieces. Things were moving too fast. My plan—my unfinished plan—was unraveling. For god’s sake, I’d only completed Step One so far. I hadn’t even carried out Step Two, and Step Three was still just a vague idea. I hadn’t counted on Detective Mendez coming so close to the truth so fast. What if she gathered enough evidence to arrest Logan? He’d spill then, he definitely would. He’d be like, “Why are you wasting your time looking for a drug dealer when there’s a killer right under your nose?” He’d cut a deal with them for immunity. He may have thought he loved me, but I wasn’t too eager to find out how long that “love” would last when he’s facing potential jail time.

And Logan, that sick, twisted boy, had broken into my house. I couldn’t even register just how violated that made me feel. And, as I stood there, feeling increasingly cold, I realized that I also felt fearful. That maybe I wasn’t the snake after all, that maybe I was always doomed to be the rat. Always the prey, always one step behind. Tears stung my eyes. He’d been inside my house. My safe place. He’d been in there, doing god knows what, and I didn’t even realize it. How many times had he broken in without my knowledge? Which of my things had he rifled through? My books? My clothes? Bile rose. My underwear?

“Everything okay?” Lisa asked.

I started again then gritted my teeth and forced myself to smile. “Yeah, just a few routine questions.”

“Hmm.” Lisa didn’t look convinced. She chewed on her bottom lip for a bit. “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

“Huh?”

“If you’re in any sort of trouble,” she said.

The concerned librarian act isn’t fooling me, I wanted to scream at her.Not when I know who you truly are. What you really are.

Then it hit me. She wasn’t asking me because she was concerned about me. She was concerned about how it might affect her and her business. Resentment coursed through my stomach, souring it. I kept my face still, though my insides were writhing and twisting. If she cut me off…hung me out to dry…

I’d take the whole fucking place down with me, Lisa included.

And that was when I realized what Step Three was. I had known a while ago that Step Three was about me being the snake, but I didn’t know what that entailed, exactly. Now I did. And I needed all of the resources I had to do it.

I gritted my teeth and said, “I’m fine.” Well, I wasn’t, not yet. But soon I would be.

Chapter Nineteen

Logan

The first few months after Sophie died, I’d had a bit of trouble digesting the news. My brain refused to register it, and for weeks after, I’d see Sophie everywhere. I’d be standing in line at the cafeteria and I’d hear her laugh and turn my head just in time to catch her turning a corner. I’d drop everything—tray, food, and water crashing to the floor, heads turning in my direction, people whispering, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. All that mattered was me running, running, calling out her name. But I was never fast enough. By the time I turned the corner, she was always gone, dispersing into thin air like a breeze.

It took months for it to finally sink in, for the neurons in my brain to finally relay the message to my consciousness: Sophie was dead. She was gone. She’d been alive, and now she no longer was, and all I could do was keep going, keep living, while the memory of Sophie lurked under the surface.

Except now she’d been called up again, shaken out of her slumber. I’d be talking to Delilah, watching her perfect mouth move as she spoke, and suddenly her lips would turn red, her eyes lined in that dramatic way, and I’d be talking to Sophie, and it was like old times, so perfect, and I could reach out and touch Sophie, my Sophie. She flinched when I pulled her close and tried to kiss her.

“Logan, you promised, no physical stuff unless I’m okay with it,” she said.

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