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“I thought you hadn’t found a body?” I ask absently, still incapable of ungluing my eyes from Richard’s lifeless form. It wouldn’t matter even if I did, I’d still see his body crystal clear in my mind’s eye.
“I haven’t.”
God, somehow that makes all of this even worse.
When Kai speaks again, his voice is still soft and soothing, even though his words are anything but. “There’s more than just him.”
It’s enough for me to tear my gaze from Richard and gape at him. “W-what do you mean?” My stomach rolls just thinking about there being pictures of other dead people in the box, and my brain goes into overdrive trying to figure out who else this psycho could have killed. Surely he wouldn’t have gone back to those few guys from college whom I slept with? He’d already scared them off, and other than Richard, there was no one else. So who the hell else could be dead?!
Tactfully reaching into the box, Kai lifts out the bundle of photographs. He’s careful not to let me see them as he flicks through the first however many before lifting them off the top of the pile and setting them upside down to one side. I can only guess that they are more of Richard, and before I can punish myself any more than I already have by demanding to see them, I instead focus back on Kai as he spreads the remaining photos out on the tabletop.
My hand flies to my mouth, and I gasp as my eyes bounce from one photo to the next. Images of Hawk and Wilder coming and going from the house, of Kai in the front door or peering out a window, even one of me sitting in this very kitchen late one night making a hot chocolate. Upon seeing it, I snatch it up and walk shakily over to the kitchen window above the sink. There’s a small outside terrace with steps leading down to the garden below, which is also accessible via the double doors at the back of the large gym in the basement, and it only takes me a second to realize the photo has been taken by someone standing near the steps.
“H-he’s been watching us.” I spin back to face them. “Allof us.”
“Yeah, and he doesn’t seem to be too happy about the fact that you’re living with three guys.” Wilder plays it off as a joke, but I can see the worry in his eyes as he turns the photo in his hand around for me to see. It’s one of him walking on campus—demonstrating that this psycho hasn’t just been watching the house—but what is even more disturbing is the fact that his eyes have been crossed out. I stare in horror at the image before anxiously crossing back over to the table and glancing over all the others.
They’re all the same. Every image of Kai, Wilder, and Hawk has their eyes or faces scored out. Some have been done so vigorously that the person has torn right through the photo.
I’m still staring slack-jawed at the photos when Hawk speaks up, his tone all business as he, presumably, directs his question to Kai. “What do we do? How do we deal with this?”
My thoughts race as I try to think through the fog of panic clawing at my insides.
This has to be Steven.
I hadn’t even realized I’d spoken that thought aloud until Kai responds.
“It’s not Steven, Em.”
Lifting my head to look at him, I insist, “Ithasto be him. He must have followed us home yesterday. H-how else would this person know where I’m staying?”
“Em.” The steel in Kai’s tone stops my rambling. “It’s not him.”
My lips part to argue further, but Kai lifts his hand, and I spot something I hadn’t noticed before. The knuckles on his right hand are red and swollen.They didn’t look like that yesterday. And he and Hawk would have worn gloves if they were sparring this morning. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him what happened, but he speaks first.
“Just trust me, Em. It’s not him.”
I meet his eyes that are such a similar color to mine, only lighter and filled with so much more warmth and conviction, and I find myself believing him. “Okay.”
But if it’s not him, then who is it?
Frowning, I go back to scanning the photos on the table while Kai and Hawk talk back and forth, spitballing ideas. I’m not paying them—or Wilder—any attention as I reach for the box, spotting a piece of paper wedged at the bottom of it. Ensuring I only touch the edges, I extract it from the box and unfold it. My breaths are unsteady and rough, and the world around me feels as though it disappears as a whooshing sound rushes through my ears.
Noneof them can give you what I can. When will you open your eyes and realize it should be you and me? How much longer will you make me wait, Em? Am I going to have to dispose of every man in your life before you see what’s right in front of you?
“I have to leave.”I’m still staring at the note, my words too quietly spoken to be heard over the argument that seems to have broken out between Hawk and Kai. But the more I think about it, the more I realize I’m right. Lifting my head, I repeat myself in a tone that slices through whatever they’re bickering over. “I have to leave.”
Both of them turn to stare at me, blinking before my words register, and their eyebrows dip in mirrored aggravation.
“Hell no!”
“You’re not leaving!”
They both speak at the same time, their words brokering no argument.
Tough. I refuse to let anyone else suffer because of me. I willnotlet them end up like Richard.
“I have to! You’re all in danger if I stay here.” Kai opens his mouth to argue, but I already know what he’s going to say, and I cut him off before he can get so much as a word out. “I won’tletyou put yourselves at risk for me.”
