She whimpers a gasp, and I smile behind the mask. “You like it, too, don’t you, darling? You told me so the last time we met. Being chased by a masked man, your stalker, in the woods… The moment he catches you and you lie helplessly while he fucks you like a hungry beast.” I press my cock harder against her and hiss. “On the scale of one to ten, if I slide my fingers now inside your pussy, how wet will you be?”
“Get the fuck off of me.”
“That wet, huh? I bet wetter than when I put a gun to that sweet little cunt. I know I’m harder. Nothing compares to the primal thrill of capturing you, my little butterfly. Nothing compares to watching my prey tremble beneath me, caught at last after the pursuit…and vice versa.”
“Tristan!”
The distant shout of her bodyguard echoes through the trees. I have minutes, perhaps seconds.
“Why are you calling for him? You’re the one who ran into the woods away from him. He doesn’t understand what we have,what I’ve done for you. He can’t give you what you really need, so you came here, looking for me.”
“You’re insane. I didn’t know you were lurking in the woods.”
“Didn’t you, darling? Didn’t you, at least, hope I was?”
Lightning flashes across the sky, illuminating us in stark white light. In that moment, I see her completely, vulnerable, terrified, mesmerizing. Her hands are pressed against my chest, neither pushing me away nor pulling me closer. Suspended between rejection and acceptance.
“Tell the truth, Birdie. Isn’t there a part of you that hoped I was listening? Who else would solve your little problem? You want more of the gifts I’ve been giving you.”
“Gifts?” Her chest rises and falls rapidly beneath me, rain droplets clinging to her eyelashes like tears. “You mean the people you’ve murdered.”
“The people who hurt you,” I correct her with a surge of pride. “The ones who deserved their fate. I’ve watched them all, Birdie. The ones who used you. The ones who think they own pieces of you. I couldn’t let that happen anymore. They had to pay for what they did. They had to know the truth. You are mine. All of you. Mine.”
The shouting grows closer. Her bodyguard, crashing through the underbrush. “We don’t have much time.”
“You can’t kill Blake.”
“Your husband,” I say the word like poison on my tongue. “He thinks he can control you with his threats. But don’t worry, little butterfly. I will take care of it.”
“I’m serious. You can’t kill him now.”
“C’mon, darling. Drop the act. We both know that’s not really the message you’re trying to give me.”
“What are you talking about? The things that will come out about me after his death will ruin my life.”
“Whatever he has on that app is retrievable and easy to destroy. You already know how good I am with technology…and finding people.”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “How did you know about the app? You couldn’t have been listening to us in the woods. I’d have noticed. Tristan would have noticed if someone was there eavesdropping.”
“Guess he just sucks at his job.”
Her eyes narrow at me. “Or you had the same training and know exactly every procedure, every security measure to counter it, because you work in the same company.”
This is cute. “Or I’ve been tailing your lawyer, listening to her calls, reading her emails. I’ve done it before. I followed her to get Saldana’s book. Or, unlike your lousy bodyguard, I didn’t lose your husband’s trail and know exactly where he is and what he’s been up to. These are more believable scenarios than my being Morrison, don’t you think?”
“Morrison? How the hell did you know about Morrison? I only had this conversation with Tristan in the cabin. We’d only just arrived. There is no way you could have already known where I was then or had the time to bug the cabin.”
“Then it’s Brandon. He’s too young to be your stalker, but he could be an accomplice. You trusted the wrong bodyguard, the one who has been working with me all along. He let me in your house that night, and he told me about Morrison.”
“That’s impossible. We never told Brandon which bodyguard I suspected.”
“Then, my darling butterfly, the only explanation left is,” I trace the line of her throat down and back up, “I’m not really here, and all of this is happening in your head.”
She bares her teeth at me. “Don’t you dare. Last time we met you punished me for telling the world you were a lie, a prank. You are real, as real as the blood you spill in my name.”
“You’re right. Last time we met was amazing, too good to be true, but it was real. A memory branded on my soul. But now… Your bodyguard did his job this time. No cell service. He didn’t tell anyone where he took you. No trails. Nothing to track, even the internet proxies route your location to… Where was that again? Hmmm… It looks like I don’t remember that…becauseyoudon’t remember it.”
A new terror blanches her face. “I’m not crazy. I didn’t hallucinate you.”
