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I nodded, trying my best to remain silent as Devin stared out the window and into his past.
“When we were sixteen, I caught Aiden getting rough with his girlfriend. She left the house crying, and Aiden closed up for a year after that. I think he was searching for a way to control his urges and thought he’d found it in her. He seemed heartbroken by it.”
“You mean he’s capable of love?”
“I don’t know. I’ll never really know.” Devin continued to stare at the building.
“Needless to say, when he started dating heavily in high school, I became concerned, constantly on his ass, riding him over how to treat girls. We fought a lot, mostly out of my fear he would do it again. I loved him, but I was afraid of what he’d do even then. I could see it in him. He was a lot like his father, but I never voiced the concern to my parents. High school ended without incident, but what I didn’t know is that he’d spent his senior year experimenting on Eileen’s sister, Sandra.”
“What?”
“Aiden’s first victim was Sandra, my ex-wife’s sister. She’s a fucking monster in her own right and encouraged him in his sickness. I never knew of the connection until after I was married. This was hidden from me.”
I nodded.
“After graduation, Aiden came to me one night, completely covered in blood and crying for his soul. He was talking out of his mind, and I kept asking him whose blood it was, but he refused to tell me. I was sure there would be a dead body or something by morning, but nothing ever came of it. And he never confided in me again after I went running to my mother. I was freaked out. I didn’t know how to help him. My mother made excuses for him, and less than a week later, it wasn’t even an issue. I knew then he might be a lost cause.
“When we graduated high school, we parted ways, two different men. After years of only holidays together, I began to notice Aiden coming back into himself. He seemed better, happier. I was happy for him, no longer afraid of the monster he might become. When I decided to move to Charleston, he came with me. He was the first investor in my firm. I felt like I had my brother back. He’d told me in school he’d treated himself by learning about his urges and learning to control them. I saw what you saw when you met him.”
My heart was pounding as he continued. He let out a harsh breath. “Two years ago, and a month before I met you, Aiden mutilated the governor of Georgia’s daughter.”
“Oh, God, Devin.”
“Aiden was fucked and was actually forced to relinquish his fortune to buy his way out of it. He was forced to sell his shares in my company to pay the good governor, who took the loss of his twenty-five-year-old daughter’s innocence and turned it into profit. When Aiden came to me to liquidate his shares in order to pay him off, I flipped my shit, going to the governor myself, pleading for him to do the right thing and hold Aiden accountable. Aiden found out, and we had a blowout. He’d just cost me my company and ruined his own life.
“At the time, I had just asked Eileen for a divorce. She was determined to find leverage on me, and her sister gave it to her. Sandra is the one who sets up the meetings between Aiden and the women he tortures.”
I felt my stomach roll again as I twisted my hands in my lap.
“Anyway, Aiden encouraged Sandra to tell Eileen, knowing the damage it would cause. Eileen jumped on it and offered to bail me out with her father’s money, and I took it. She also agreed to keep quiet about my help in the cover-up. No one would invest that amount of money in a company. It was either sink or swim.”
Don’t I know that saying.
“You didn’t cover anything up, Devin. You were just aware.”
“Isn’t it the same?” Guilt covered his face as he finally looked at me. “I may not be the monster, but I’m the monster’s cloak. I’ve thought of a million different ways to handle the situation better since having met you.”
I let my tears fall as he looked at me the way he always did when he was sincere. I just didn’t realize it until that moment.
“You fucked my entire world up, too, but in a good way.” He winced and covered his arm as his lips turned up in a smirk. “You were so damned crazy with a need to fit in, you didn’t see how fucking immaculate you were as is. I fell in love with you our first meeting, and have regretted it ever since.” He chuckled as I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I’m not a good man, Nina. The things I’ve done have ruined me from ever being truly good for any woman, but I couldn’t shake the way you made me feel. The way you looked at me. I wanted to deserve it. I lied about my marriage, I hid these things from you, and you had every right to flee.” He faced the window again.
“I think Aiden witnessed his father’s sickness vividly when he was young, and something happened that he never confessed. He had a thirst, and he was ashamed of it, at least at first.
“A few months after Aiden was taken from him, his father was found hanging in that shed. He’d burned his house to the ground before he did it. Aiden’s mother was already long gone. She’d run off with some junkie from the club, and Aiden inherited all of his fortune.” He cleared his throat, as if to keep his sadness away. “I lost my brother a long time ago. I should never have let it go this far. Part of me didn’t think I should be responsible for his shit. I told myself I wasn’t his keeper. I ignored it, acted like it had nothing to do with me. I had a life to live of my own. I had broken all ties with him personally, but once I saw the two of you were involved, there was no escaping it. And you wouldn’t let go of the goddamned land.” He shook his head slowly back and forth with a small smirk.
I stayed quiet as I pieced together my time with Aiden. He was every girl’s dream, and he’d made it that way, making it impossible to believe anything different. He’d played his part so well, I couldn’t help but wonder if any of it was genuine.
“Why didn’t you just tell me,” I cried as I trembled, knowing the truth.
“I wanted to protect you from the truth. I didn’t want it to taint and change you the way it did me. I did everything I could to prevent it from happening again. I paid off every employee at The Rabbit Hole to tip me off if Sandra and Aiden ever met there. I closed this place down,” he said, pointing to the boarded up shack, “to keep him from meeting contacts here. That’s how I discovered him tonight. I didn’t realize that shed is where he took his victims until the governor’s daughter told me. And it was his sick ritual to do it there. I forged the deed and sold that fucking land, continually flipping it to keep it from him, keeping him in the dark as to who owned it so he couldn’t strike. As soon as the owner became public record and Aiden could track their whereabouts, I’d resell it. You were on record as of this morning as the owner. He knew it and took full advantage, brokering a deal with Sandra tonight at The Hole. He pays Sandra serious money, and Nina,” Devin deadpanned, “the women go willingly.”
I shuddered at the sound of her screams. I could still hear them so clearly.
“You’ll never be the same after seeing that and knowing him…intimately.” I cowered away from his stare. “I had you watched. I warned you away. I’d only discovered you started seeing him again forty-five minutes before I saw you at the club. I was already looking for you. I was going to tell you about Aiden then.”
I saw the pain etched on his face at the memory of seeing Aiden and me together. “If that’s what if felt like seeing Eileen on my desk, I deserved it.”
