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No, he’d want to kill me the same way, be there, up close and personal when it happened.
I took the long way home. I meandered through the pitch-black streets of Eastcreek, in no hurry. The roads weren’t lit like city streets were; there was nothing lighting the way except the dim headlights on my car. Some old song played on the radio, and I turned it up loud and hummed along, getting myself ready for whatever I’d find once I got home.
I had a small house of my own that sat on a ten-acre plot of land, mostly wooded. A tiny house that needed some renovation, but I worked on it whenever I could. I just redid the roof last summer. This year’s project was the kitchen, but again, I’d wait till summer before tearing it apart.
Two bedrooms, one bath, a tiny living room adjacent to the kitchen; it was small, but it was home. It was all I needed. I tried to save as much as I could for a rainy day fund while still updating the house—though the latter was mainly to keep myself busy when I wasn’t on the job. These past few years I’d refused to keep idle hands.
And still, it’d been a lonely existence. Maybe that’s why I’d found myself so drawn in by Brianna. She was new, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale life. She wasn’t like anyone else in Eastcreek. She was beautiful, confident… different. That last one, I think, played the biggest part in all of it.
She was different, and I wanted nothing more than something to rip me from my routine. Something, someone to make me feel alive again. These past few years had gone by like a movie, like a boring movie, and half the time I’d felt like a zombie, day in and day out, doing whatever I had to to survive. Allying myself with the devil and his brood because I had no other choice. Alistair had owned me from the moment I’d killed my brother all those years ago, and he never let me forget it.
I thought a lot about Brianna as I drove home, how she’d looked at me when my hands had been around her neck, what she’d refused to say aloud but what we both knew to be the truth. She wasn’t a normal girl. That wasn’t why she was here. She’d been picked, chosen for Gareth, someone who could stand up to the likes of him.
Maybe that’s why I was drawn to her so much. Because, like Gareth, there was a dark, depraved part of my soul that recognized the fact she wasn’t afraid. There were monsters in this world; I was one of them. And if there were monsters, there were those that were made for the monsters, like Brianna.
Brianna knew the truth about me now. There was no hiding it anymore. She knew what I’d done, but she hadn’t turned away. She’d been all fire and fury, but she’d also been all hunger and desire. Things had changed when she’d found out the whole truth; her hunger for me had only grown… and that told me all I needed to know.
It wasn’t any wonder why Gareth wanted to kill me. I bet he’d kill a whole lot of other people in order to keep Brianna to himself. A girl like that, someone who could stare your inner demon in the eyes unflinchingly, someone who could look at your sins and accept them, was special indeed.
The only reason I didn’t lose myself in certain thoughts of her, and her body, by extension, was Gareth, how he surely would be waiting for me at home. Mano-a-mano we’d work this out, and only one of us would be the victor.
Before I pulled into my driveway, I turned my lights off, and I didn’t pull all the way up to the house. I parked my car a ways away, quietly shutting the door so as to not alert whatever surprise was waiting for me in the house. I didn’t see Gareth’s car, but he could’ve hidden it in the woods around the house, could’ve pulled the car around back and used the house itself to hide it.
The house was so old, it didn’t have a garage, so every time I came and went, I had to go through the front door. With the key in my hand, I walked to the door, my senses on high alert, and I stuck the key into the lock and pushed inside.
The front door opened right into the small living room. It was dark. I kept the blinds closed, so not even the moonlight could get in. I couldn’t see shit, so the first thing I did after walking in was go for the light switch near the door.
A figure hiding on the other side of the door leaped into action, lunging for me right as I flicked on the main light in the living room. Something cold pressed against my neck. I reacted by grabbing the figure by the midsection and throwing him aside, right into the back of the couch, and the force of the movement caused him to topple over it—but he didn’t stay down for long. He hopped up on his feet, ready to attack again.
Gareth.
Gareth stood, wearing all black and glaring at me like I was his personal albatross around his neck. I was everything wrong, and he was here to make it right. Something silver flashed in his hand, and it was only then I felt a warm line of blood ooze from a wound in my neck.
I didn’t take my eyes off Gareth. I lifted a hand and touched my neck to find a shallow cut just under my jaw. The asshole had tried going for the carotid artery and missed.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Gareth?” I asked, and it took everything in me to remain outwardly calm. In reality, my heart pounded and my hand twitched, wanting to reach for the gun on my hip. I could shoot the motherfucker dead before he could lunge over the couch at me. The couch separated the door’s entryway to the rest of the living room area; he’d either have to jump up or rush around, and either way, I’d be faster with the gun.
Gareth clutched the switchblade like it was his lifeline, and he lifted it up, pointing its sharp end at me. “Brianna’s mine,” he growled out the words and bared his teeth at me, as if he was ready to bite into me and tear my flesh from bone, all to make his point.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I spoke, setting my hand on my gun and drawing Gareth’s attention to the firearm. I think that was the only reason he didn’t outright lunge for me again. He had to be smart, otherwise I’d just shoot him dead.
He snickered. “Oh, I’m pretty fucking sure she’s mine. I just fucked her brains out.” He shrugged, running a tongue over his bottom lip, as if he could still taste her. “I had to remind her that my dick is the only one that should ever find its way between her legs.”
“Sloppy seconds, eh?” The smartass remark got him to step to the side, his path around the couch, but the moment he saw me unlatch the holster of the gun, he stopped. “I’ll be honest with you, Gareth: I always wanted to wipe that fucking smirk off your face. I never forgave you for what you did to your mother.”
“Considering you killed my father, I think that makes us even.”
Now it was my turn to smirk. “He was running out on Veronica. He didn’t deserve her… just like you don’t deserve Brianna.”
Gareth bared his teeth at me again, and he said, “The only reason she’s here is because of me. Alistair got her for me, not for you!” His voice rose; he was shouting now, but I didn’t flinch. I continued to glare at him, even as he went on, “If you think I’m going to stand back and let you take her from me, you’re stupider than I thought.”
He moved fast, faster than me. In the time it took me to unholster the gun and aim it at him, Gareth had already jerked his arm toward me, letting the switchblade go and throwing it straight at me. Once I knew what was happening, I tried to duck, but the damned blade still managed to lodge itself right in my shoulder. Searing hot pain coursed through my body, and I grimaced as I stumbled back, slamming my back against the door, and went to grab it and pull it out.
Luckily it hadn’t hit anything too vital, but I’d have to be sure to keep the wound clean.
While I was too busy focusing on the knife, Gareth rushed around the couch and came at me. He slammed into me hard, knocking the breath out of my lungs in the process. The kid was stronger than I gave him credit for; he managed to knock the gun out of my hand. It clattered to the floor and slid under the couch after he kicked it away.
That was fine. I had the switchblade now.
