Page 4 of Her Reckoning
“At what point did it go from background to letting me carve a fucking cat into you?” I ask in the hope that the answer explains this connection that we have. From the moment that I met Enzo, every atom of my being has called to him. I should be afraid given his affiliations and the promises he had to make to hold his position, but the fact that he chose me in spite of his job brings a snowstorm of emotions to my belly.
“During the day, I watched you do your job with every fiber of your being, trying to put the dirtbags in this city behind bars and get legal justice for them. Then at night, I watched you find your own, more dark persona, and hunt those who got away with the same tenacity. You never did anything without reason, so I cleaned up where I could and made sure that the city only got what evidence I approved. I knew that no media would catch your attention too fast, and I wanted an opportunity to know everything about you before we met,” he admits, crashing my reality and the dark side of my life together.
I had felt the eyes watching me but assumed that it was a side effect of my grief. Tears start to escape and I quickly stare down into my cup, avoiding eye contact. Enzo stands next to me and wraps me in his arms. This is the first time that anyone has held me since my parents’ accident over a year ago, before my first kill. Sobs wrack my chest and he holds me closer; my vision blurs as I lose control. We just sit there silently, waiting for this wave of emotions to pass. Grief is not linear, and when you throw in a murder spree, it can make processing your emotions more complicated than before.
“My stepfather was drinking when he crashed the car, but I’m sure that you already saw the reports. Did the reports tell you that he used cameras to spy on me in my bedroom andbathroom?” I ask, admitting out loud for the first time what I had found.
“Your stepfather was on a list of men connected to other families that deal in the skin trade. We were unsure how much your mother knew, but a large portion of his business was adjacent to those who traffic humans. I know he exchanged video currency with other bad men, but we developed special software to analyze the participants and name them so that we don’t continue the victimization of the humans in them. We know you were recorded, but none of us knew the capacity out of respect for your privacy.” He strokes my shoulders, sending waves of calm through me.
“He never touched me, but I was lucky considering some of the things I saw on the hard drive. I know the names of some of the men who participated and how this city could never land a charge on any of them. The list includes politicians, judges, billionaires, and those who think they are above the rules,” I answer the unspoken question that lingers between us.
“I can take the hard drives and get them into the right hands if you want. It will not be the traditional form of justice, but it will alleviate you of the responsibility for what he did and his tainted money,” He offers me, and my heart skips a beat at the option to offload the hard drive of horrors and alleviate me of the burden.
“If I agree, can we talk about the way that you saved your number in my phone?” I ask, ready for a change from my dark past to my punny present.
“Only if you look in your cupboard first,” he replies, a smile on his face. Getting up, he steadies me and brushes the hair out of my face before I walk over to the cupboard. Opening it, I see it is full of cereal in all different flavors and varieties. It takes me a moment to process it before I start laughing.
“Cereal for my serial killer,” He snickers as I find my way back to my seat. Shaking off my laughter, I place my hand in his and smile.
“So how and why is your contact name Pussy Tamer?” I ask him, feeling the gentle tug on my hand pulling me into his embrace.
“I have been calling you Kitten since the day I laid eyes on you. If anyone is going to tame your wild killer streak, it’s the man who has been following your career since the beginning,” he answers without hesitation, using his finger to rub circles on the back of my hand. We finish our food together in comfortable silence, the weight of the conversation heavy in the room.
“Would you like to come to my family home with me?” I ask, hesitation evident in my voice. I have never taken anyone back to that gated house of horrors.
“I would follow you to the end of the world, Kitten,” He answers before stealing my breath with a kiss.
5
Chapter 5
Enzo
“Change can be sparked in many ways.”
We ride in silence to the old Wilson estate, hand-in-hand. Even the idea of her in those halls makes me want to destroy everything. I thought that my obsession was bad when it was just cleaning up and watching her over the camera feeds, but now that I have her in my arms, I cannot imagine my life without her. The house that we are going to is where he recorded her without her consent in private spaces, which is very different from watching her on cameras at work where she knows she is being filmed. There is no way that I would put a camera in her bathroom or bedroom without express permission. Everyone deserves some privacy.
The most erotic thing that I have ever watched her do was torture and dispose of bad men without flinching. Shemethodically tears them apart and makes them pay for every amount of pain that they’ve inflicted on anyone else, and it fills me with pride when I think about it. Thinking about the way that she kills grown adults without flinching has my erection growing in my pants. I try to subtly adjust my pants with the hand that she isn’t holding when we make eye contact and she starts laughing.
“Having technical difficulties, Zo?” She laughs with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.
“Zo?” I ask, deflecting from the question of my hardness or the discomfort it brings where it presses against my jeans. I use the mirror to catch glimpses of her smile without fully taking my eyes off the road. The estate is not too far out of the woodwork, but her safety is my top priority.
“I like it better than Pussy Tamer,” she laughs out in response. The warmth that floods my heart is new, expanding my love for the woman next to me.
“Thinking about all of the things that I have seen you do makes me hard,” I admit, not wanting to keep secrets from her. While I knew that she was different when she became more than just a job, honesty in my line of work is not usually so freely given. She has blood on her hands like I do, but the blood coating hers is only of people deserving death. What I have done in the name of the family is more than revenge. I do not always know why people must be handled, but I do as I am asked. There are few lines in the proverbial sand aside from hurting children and innocent women.
“I could alleviate your discomfort… but I have a feeling you want to be able to focus on the road when I suck your soul out for the first time,” she jokes, watching me squirm at the wildly erotic images flooding my mind. I shake my head to clear my thoughts.
“Kitten,” I growl, as we pull up to stop at the gate. I remove my hand from the wheel, adjust my hard length, and type in my gate code, 80085. She blinks at me, sighs, and shakes her head.
“I gave myself a code to access anywhere that you could be in case you needed an extra set of hands. It was as easy as adding my contact to your cell phone. You, Kitten, have been slowly picking off some of the most dangerous men in this country by yourself. When I was unavailable, I assigned someone to monitor your location to ensure you always had backup if you needed it. Everyone has been instructed to stay out of your way unless you are in trouble,” I explain as we park in front of the stairs.
We get out of the car, re-join hands, and walk to the front door. She stops with her hand on the knob, turns to me with tears in her eyes, and her armor cracks. I pull her into my arms and clutch her to my chest.
“I never felt safe bringing anyone here, and after I found out what Andrew was doing, it made more sense,” She admits, wrapping her arms around my waist and hiding herself in my chest. The need to help her with this situation courses through my veins like a primal urge. I run my fingers through her hair until her breathing evens out, then I place a gentle kiss on the crown of her head. When she pulls away, I reach out and open the front door, bringing us back to reality. Each of us takes off our shoes by the entrance door before we walk up the stairs to her bedroom and open the door. We walk into the room where soft pink tones cover every surface, and it looks more suited for a child than a teenager. We stride to the large closet door before she drops to her knees and moves the boxes deeper in the closet to reveal the bare wall.
“Can I see your knife?” she asks me expectantly, looking up into my eyes with a smile. I grab the knife from my pocket and hand it over to her. There should be some hesitation withhanding her a knife so close to my genitals after the other night, but if she decided tomorrow to end my life, I wouldn’t fight it. I would gladly accept my fate at her hands if it healed the parts of her that this life broke. Without hesitation, she cracks the panel open and reveals the dark space filled with hard drives and electronics covered in dust. I crouch next to her and grab an empty bag from the other side of the closet and we work together to place all of them in the bag.
