Page 31 of Wicked Riddles & Bitter Heartbeats

“Tell me about the one time,” she says.

“Huh?”

“The one time someone was with you. Was it the friend?”

Violet.

“Yeah,” I say with a nod.

“Tell me about him.”

“Her,” I correct, and her eyes widen. I shake my head. “It wasn’t like that with her. We were friends and we were… the same.”

“The same how? She kills people?”

“Yes, but more than that.” She turns to face me fully. “Violet and I met at a foster home. The parents were shit, assaulting the kids left and right, but no one cared because they took the kids no one wanted. We understood each other. From the first day I met her, I knew she was like me.”

“Kind of like me?” she asks in a quiet voice.

“Sort of,” I say. “Only different.”

“How so?”

“When I saw you, something in me told me I needed to protect you. That I wanted to make you mine. That I had to have you.” She smiles, her cheeks turning a little pink. “With Violet, it was more about being understood. About having someone by my side who just got it.”

“Like a partner?”

“I suppose, yes.”

“Where is she now?”

I shake my head slowly. “I haven’t seen her in eight years. One day I woke up, and she was just gone.”

That’s partially the truth. Well, mostly the truth. One day, I did just wake up and she was gone, but I was expecting it. It was only a matter of time. We were spiraling together and talking about how bad it was. How we shouldn’t stay together because it’s dangerous.

“From the foster home?” Lilah asks.

“She’s a few months younger than me, but she was going to leave when I did. When I went back to get her, I found her covered in blood, our foster father dead on the ground. He was trying to rape her—again. And so… she killed him. We left after that and stayed together for a while.”

“I don’t blame her.”

“Neither did I. But then things got out of hand…”

My chest gets tight when I recall everything that happened between me and Violet. I’ve never felt emotion in the way I feltit that day. Never felt a high the way I did in those moments. My first kill, Violet, the sex… it was a trifecta of perfection.

“Out of hand how?” Lilah asks.

But I don’t want to answer. I can’t keep talking about this. It sets me off when I think about her, and for a ton of reasons. The excitement over the kill, the anger I have over not knowing where Violet is and if she’s okay and why she left me at all. I never felt like I had to protect her the way I feel I have to protect Lilah. Not before I saw what she was capable of, and certainly not after. Violet had been through a lot but she’s tough. She can handle herself. If only I knew why she left me, maybe I could let it go. Yes, I agreed about us separating, but I didn’t think she would actually leave me.

I turn on my side, leaning over Lilah. “How about we stop talking about my past and talk about what we’re doing next.”

Lilah frowns before it turns into a smile. She pushes on my shoulder to roll me to my back, then climbs over me.

“Or we stop talking completely,” she suggests, grinding against my dick that’s growing hard.

“Is it enough yet?”

I recall the way she said those words, and I knew exactly what she meant by them. I wasn’t lying when I said almost. It’s just too much of a risk. Once I give her what she wants, she’s going to leave like everyone else has. The only difference now is I’m not sure I can handle Lilah leaving. That’s a dark spiral I don’t even want to contemplate.

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