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I reach up and curl my hand along the side of her neck. The gesture convinces her to return to me. She shifts and lays back down at my side, halfway on my chest.
“I would never do anything you didn’t expressly consent to,” I say in a soothing tone. I stroke her back and hold her close. “The games we play are just that… games. You understand the difference, don’t you?”
Lyra tilts her head back to look me in the eyes. There’s a shine in hers. “Of course I do.”
I kiss her on the mouth,almostfeeling sorry for her.
* * *
I’ve taken a leave of absence. Horschman protests and threatens to cancel our partnership. He claims he can find another private physician to go into practice with. I tell him to go ahead and fuck himself.
I’ve never needed the money. I’ve never needed a stable career.
These are simply things I’ve done to preoccupy myself between my homicidal escapades.
It’s all part of the carefully crafted veneer that I’ve built. The mask I wear to conceal what I really am from stupid people and society.
With my new abundance of free time, I decide on my next kill. It’s time I eliminate Lyra’s junkie ex that’s begun sniffing around her again.
The loser doesn’t realize I know he has; that I’m well aware how he’s shown up outside her apartment building and raised his voice at her.
On three separate occasions, I’ve caught him following her to the Velvet Piano.
Lyra, being oblivious to her surroundings, doesn’t know that he does.
It seems Grady has decided he’ll simply stalk her if she won’t otherwise give him the time of day. The spat they had outside her apartment building revealed he’s aware she and I are dating. He must think I won’t find out about his preoccupation with her.
What’s even more amusing is he seems to think he can go to the authorities and drum up suspicion.
He’s reported to the detectives investigating Maximillion’s murder that I was angry and irate at the piano bar that night. They’ve even reached out to Lyra for more information. So far, his accusation is baseless and can’t hold water.
Particularly considering I replaced the security footage they’re looking for—footage of Maximillion’s murder. It doesn’t help that I’ve otherwise never spoken to Keys a day in my life.
In the eyes of the law, Grady looks and sounds like a delusional, drug-addled liar.
However, I cannot risk that he’ll continue causing trouble. It’s best to remove him from the equation altogether. Something Imeantto do the night I ended Maximillion instead.
I begin putting the pieces together, sorting out when I’ll capture him, what drug I’ll give him to make him overdose, and where I’ll dump his body to eventually be found.
I’m checking a local map of Stockman, one of the poorer neighborhoods in the city, when the spy app on my phone vibrates.
Lyra’s walking home from one of her piano lessons. Grady’s waiting for her. I listen in as he confronts her, and she demands he leave her alone or she’ll get a restraining order.
“You wouldn’t,” he says.
“Try me! You’re giving me no other choice. I’ve told you. Leave me the hell alone!”
“That guy is dangerous! You know what happened in his family, right? Has he ever told you, or lemme guess, Mr. Doctor hid that from you?”
“I don’t care! Grady, get the fuck out of here, or I’m calling the cops!”
Lyra rushes up the stairs leading into her building. A second goes by where it seems like he’s tempted to follow. He edges forward as if about to bound up the stairs after her, then he thinks better of it.
A thick pulse throbs in my neck. My gaze is hard and focused on my phone screen.
Their confrontations are escalating. Each time he becomes more aggressive, more intimidating.
Grady Williams is a dead man.
