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“Nina, please, please, leave.”
I looked to Devin only briefly as his eyes implored me to go. Aiden kept his eyes on the girl, looking her over as if he was proud of his handy work.
“What the fuck is going on?”
The girl finally turned toward me to leave the shed, giving me a small smile as I choked back the bile threatening to make its presence known.
She was completely destroyed from the head down. Small cuts and gashes encompassed the entirety of her body, and what I couldn’t see I could make out through the fresh stains on the robe. As she came closer, I could smell the urine soaking her hair. I took a tentative step back as not to touch her. Blood was clotted and crusted around her nose, and her neck was lacerated from burns—either by rope or something more painful. My whole body cringed in sympathy.
As she got closer, I asked, “Can I help you? Take you somewhere? To a hospital?” I offered. Her lips were swollen, and her cheek was purple.
“I’ll see you soon, Aiden,” she voiced back at him, ignoring me completely. I stood there in shock, completely dumbfounded as I heard a set of tires pull up and then speed away with her departure.
“Aiden?” I didn’t know if I was talking to him or to myself.
I looked at Devin who shook his head as he returned my stare.
“Nina, please leave.”
“I really never wanted you to see this,” Aiden said, ignoring Devin altogether and flipping my attention back to him. “But I don’t like to hide. I’m not a fan of denying who I am. But seeing your face now, I know it would have never worked between us.”
“She needed help! Medical attention!” I screamed at the both of them. Devin, now standing next to me, reached out for my hand.
“Nina, put down the gun.”
I pointed it at Devin and cocked the hammer.
“Tell me what the hell is going on, or I swear to God you both will need medical attention.”
Aiden chuckled as Devin watched me closely. I was definitely a loose cannon. There was no way to undo what I had just witnessed.
“You ruined her,” I whispered to Aiden.
“I liberated her, and myself. Nina, it was consensual.”
He took off his hood, and I physically cringed, even though I knew it was Aiden. The confirmation shook me to my core. Aiden eyed me without a hint of remorse. He picked up a tool from the small bag he had on a table next to the chair and began to clean it as he spoke.
“I have cravings you can’t meet, and only women like her can supply what I need. Needs you couldn’t possibly understand or—” he gave me a wicked grin “—maybe you could. I think that’s one of the things that attracted me to you—your inability to keep your morality when you were hungry. Maybe that’s why I was so drawn to you in the first place. But there’s a big difference between you and me, naughty girl. I own my darkness. You resent yours.”
I bit back another wave of nausea as I stared A
iden down. He was completely calm.
A chameleon. A shrink. A master fucking manipulator.
“But you’re—”
“I’m what!” he snapped, ready for my reaction. “I’m what, Nina? A fucking figment of your imagination? Yeah, I can play that part. The caring, sensitive lover, tortured artist? I’ve got that down pat, too. A slacker bar owner with no ambition, an old soul with comforting words of wisdom? I am all of these things, and I am this, too: the man who likes to play with his food before he devours it. I am not ashamed of this. It’s a part of me. But unfortunately, I have to hide it from the narrow-minded like you, and him, and the rest of the world. You are my hindrance.”
“I’m calling the police,” I said, backing away as far as I could from both of them.
“Please, by all means,” Aiden snapped. “And what will you tell them?”
I had nothing. The girl had left on her own and promised to see Aiden again. This was wrong, so fucking wrong. I looked to Devin who was trying his best to remain standing. He was growing pale with his blood loss, and I knew I needed to get him seen. At the same time, I wondered, who the fuck was he?
I swiped the moisture from my face, envying women who suffered unrequited love. At least they would never have to see the monster their object of affection would become.
How do you know when you’re falling for a manipulative psychopath? The answer is: if they do their job, you won’t. He told me he was a chameleon. He’d told me. As if he read my mind, he snapped his tool kit shut and fixed his gaze on me.
