AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dead.
I try to make myself blush, asking, “Red or white?”
“White and sweet,” he says, “like I like my women.”
A gag, it hits me, and it stops my eyes from rolling. “See you there.” I move to step inside the store.
“Where you going?” He barks like he owns me.
I turn, tasting sweet thrill. “To get candy, of course.”
It doesn’t take much time. Why would it? I’ve been planning this for years.
At the dock where I’m picking TJ up, I pull the throttle back, slowing my approach to it over an hour later. I’ve replaced all the deck boards on Ms. Ryan’s dock, so it’ll be ready for this. And if Ms. Ryan witnesses this crime, she’ll never tell.
They say women have big mouths. Maybe some do. Our hearts are bigger, though, able to keep a guilty secret for any woman who needs protection.
They gently clank, the wine bottles I brought on board.
Usually, it’s a rookie mistake to have glass on a vessel. But glass bottles have corks, ones you can punch a tiny needle through, filling the bottle with something extra.
That’s what I’ve been waiting for. Well, one thing. The right poison. Using what TJ has against his victims, I love the poetic justice.
And the other thing I’ve been waiting for? I wasn’t prepared for it.
How much I’d fall back in love with Redix—not that I ever stopped. How his laughs filled my heart. How his smile soared my soul. How when his lips were on mine, the world stopped. And when his body joined with mine, I didn’t need anything else.
My love lives with him.
What is he doing now? Detoxing with shakes so bad they’re torture? Beating himself up for relapsing? Feeling guilty that he cheated on me? Wanting to be free of this? How has this burdened him for so long?
For ten years, he fought to survive it.
This is what I’ve been waiting for; it’s my turn to fight for him. He’ll be free.
And the victims? They’ll get justice. And they’ll be no more after tonight.
Once we catch Derek. Once we get that last shred of evidence we need on Gentry. Once I give TJ everything he wants, I’ll get it too.
Answers. Proof. Revenge.
Standing on Ms. Ryan’s dock with the full moon behind him, even TJ’s silhouette is wicked.
“I thought you were standing me up.”
He’s annoyed I made him wait fifteen minutes… because impatience reveals the truth.
“It’s a no-wake zone. I had to go slow.” I don’t kill the engine. Reversing back, I edge the boat to the dock, close enough for him to jump aboard. “And we have all night.”
He likes that answer as he lands on the deck and steps my way. “Where we off to?”
Cupping his hand, he blazes up a blunt without asking.
“I got a spot I like.”
I’ve scoped it for years. Noting how vessels rarely go by. How even as the tides change, I have enough depth not to run aground. How the hungry gators like it too. They’ve been good company over the years.
TJ uses the time to scope me. Standing beside my captain’s chair, he marks every spot down my body, plans he’s been making since I was fifteen.
