I asked him last night why he was still here. He never gave me an answer, but I have a feeling it’s because he’s not done killing. And whoever this senator is, I’m pretty sure they’re next on his list.
14
INTRODUCING DICKWEED
Hazel
Wright peers out the windshield,eyeing the pale green front door of the worn-out house. “I hate to be the voice of reason, but this is a shitty idea, Hazel.”
“Hey, you go out fighting crime at night and getting stuck on fire escapes, you don’t get to question the sanity of my ideas,” I argue, even as my stomach cramps and hives break out on my skin.
Livi taps the back of the driver’s seat and waits for me to turn around before signing,“Do I get to?”
“You help her so, no, you do not.”
Wright grumbles that it was only one fire escape and flicks open her knife. “Fine. What’s the plan exactly and does it involve me finally getting to cut off dickweed’s dick?”
“Would he just be weed then?”Livi signs.
“Both of you stop it. And no, it doesn’t.” Their inane chatter calms my nerves a little, but I’m on edge and know if I don’t do this soon I won’t do it at all.
“Hazel,” Wright argues.
“You agreed to wait in the car,” I remind her, tearing my gaze away from the house to pin Wright with a stare that is at leastsomewhat stern. As much as I might want her to come with me, I know Tommy’s more likely to talk to me if I’m alone.
Wright twists her lips. She doesn’t like this and worry for me squirms in her eyes. It takes me right back to the day she found the bruises on my wrist and I finally told her how bad things had gotten with Tommy. I kept telling myself it wasn’t abuse because he never hit me, but I didn’t realize how shredded my nervous system was from always bracing for his anger.
It was Wright who sat with me on the floor of her dorm and told me abuse doesn’t always look like being beaten. It can be gripping your wrist so hard it leaves bruises. It can be throwing glass against the wall next to you. It can be forcing your jaw still when you try to turn away from a kiss.
My lips tingle, but for once I don’t think about Tommy taking my mouth, I think about Flynn. About how it would feel to have his lips on mine, to thread my fingers through his hair and draw him closer, tasting him because that’s whatIwant to do.
It doesn’t bode well that my relationship with my stalker is healthier than my one with Tommy. Flynn is nothing but protective and he would be furious if he knew I was here.
“Ugh,” I groan and lean against the headrest. Putting myself back into Tommy’s orbit is definitely a bad idea but hey, I slept with a serial killer last night so bad ideas are par for the course these days.
I put my hand on the door. “Just, wait here okay. I’ll go say hi, ask him about the society, and then we can leave.”
“And if he asks why you want to know about this society that’s supposed to be some big secret?”
I open the door. “I guess we’ll find out.”
“Hazel,” Wright calls after me but I’m already walking across the overgrown yard to the front of the house.
I don’t actually know whether Tommy will even be here. When he never answered my text, I got Detective Derek to lookup his last known address but all that came up was his mom’s house.
I rap my knuckles against the flimsy door. A cascade of barks has me jumping and I take a step back.
The man who answers the door is barely recognizable, the boyish charm he used to have aging rapidly under the stained vest top and greasy hair. He shoves the vicious looking dogs back and turns to face me, a spliff hanging from his lips. Lines crease his skinny face. “Hazel?”
I brush my hands on my dress. “Um, hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Can we talk for a moment?”
One of the dogs jumps up, the rottweiler barking at me like I’m his next meal. Tommy shoves him down again and steps outside, closing the door behind him. “Come on.” He jerks his head and I follow him across the yard to a small trellis table by the back gate. He taps his spliff against an empty can of Red Bull then leans against the fence beside me.
“Didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” he says, glassy eyes sweeping over my body.
