“Are you fucking serious? You stalked me and found out where I lived.” I let out a bitter laugh at the memory. That had been one of the first red flags I’d ignored.
“I’m a fucking cop. You think I can’t easily find people’s addresses?” I scoffed. “Nice place, by the way. You pay for it with blood money?” The pitch in my voice told me I was close to losing it and I was sure Nate heard it too. I needed to take a deep breath and get myself back under control.
“And I’m here,” I said, pausing as I fished around in my pocket, never taking my eyes off him, “because you left this at the house of the guy you threatened at the club.” My hand shook as I thrust it out and opened up to reveal one of the cufflinks I’d gotten him for our one-month anniversary.
“You know, when you killed him,” I finished, gritting my teeth.
He didn’t reply, but then again, he didn’t need to. He knew I had him dead to rights. The evidence was literally in the palm of my hand. Nothing he said or did could make it any better.
A cold shiver ran through my body as I realized I was never making it out of the house alive. This time, the monster was going to kill me.
It made something in me snap. Made me braver as I unleashed everything that raged inside of me.
“You fucking asshole. You couldn’t have just tried to befriend me?” I yelled, as if that would have been any better. “No, you had to go and make me feel like I mattered? What even was the point of our talk over our anniversary dinner? Why did you even bother to admit to being a psychopath?” I was so stupid.
There was a scream bubbling up inside my chest. Nate told me he’d never hurt me, but this hurt worse than any physical pain he could have inflicted on me.
“None of it was real.” My voice was so low even I could barely hear it. My body trembled, but not just from fear.
And that was what I hated the most. The emotional pain he’d dealt me, the betrayal. I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts away that tore at my heart. “You told me you couldn’t feel the same way, but you still were able to make me believe like you cared, like I mattered. As if I were someone important. But it was all lies!”
Nate flinched. It was barely there, but I caught it.
“It wasn’t. I know this all seems… impossible. But I never lied to you. And you are important, so don’t you dare start that bullshit.”
I nodded, taking his words in but not believing them. “Answer me one question honestly. Just one.”
“Anything.” Nate’s shoulders sagged as though he thought we were finally getting somewhere. But I knew better.
“Did you know who I was when you sat next to me and started talking to me at the wedding?”
I watched as Nate’s mask slipped into place. He said he never lied to me, and maybe that had been the truth. But I’d never asked such a blatant and direct question before. Maybe it was his way to keep from lying. It was unnerving to see and I shuddered at the sight.
“Put. The. Knife. Down.” I said each word on an exhale as I steadied my gun at him. “Don’t make me shoot you, Nate. Be smart about this.” Despite my bravado, I wasn’t sure if I could actually shoot him if it came down to it. But I hoped he didn’t know that.
“Let’s talk about this,” Nate said, as though I were being unreasonable.
“Sure.” I shrugged. “We can talk about this down at the station once you’re processed.”
Nate threw me a wry smile. “Now, now, little bird. We both know that isn’t going to happen.”
My heart pounded in my chest. He was going to make me shoot him. Or he was going to attack me and kill me.
Fuck.
The next thing I knew, Nate was taking a step toward me, and I pulled the trigger. But he was too fast, anticipating my move and the shot went wide as he spun out of the way.
I blinked as my brain tried to process the movement, and that gave Nate the opportunity to turn things around on me. He came up behind me and wrapped one strong arm around my throat while the other grabbed my hand and pried the gun from my grip, causing it to drop to the floor with a clatter.
As his body molded to mine, my stupid brain’s first instinct was to lean into him and tilt my head to the side to give him access. But it only took a second for reality to sink in, for me to remember that it wasn’t a lover’s caress but the threat of a murderer.
I threw my head back and caught his nose. He grunted but didn’t let go, his grip on my throat tightening.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the knife in his hand until he moved the position of his arm so the blade was pressed against my jugular. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and immediately stilled.
“Good, little bird.” Nate chuckled, his breath tickling my ear. Despite our situation, my traitorous body lit up at his praise. “We can either fight or fuck, whichever you’d prefer, though I think you know which I’d rather.”
Bile rose, and I gagged as I swallowed it back down.
