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My shoulders caved as I glanced between the women. “Yes,” I confessed shamefully. “Every couple of days or so.”
“Oh my God,” Cora whispered, sagging against the couch and rubbing at her temple as I continued.
“I know how it sounds. Trust me, I do. But when he’s there, I feel safe with him. I don’t feel like I need to be protected from him. And that line he always gives me, I mean, it’s ridiculous because it’s my apartment. He doesn’t have to look very hard for me. But I want him to find me. I want him to stay. I’m honestly devastated when he leaves.”
“Willow, psychopaths can be sexy too,” Cora said as if I was missing something so incredibly obvious. “This guy sounds certifiable. He’s letting you know he’ll stalk you and can get into your apartment.”
“No, that isn’t—” Hands like ice gripped at my spine and had that same nauseating feeling racing through my veins as I wondered if I had been letting some deranged murderer into my bed. If I was justifying what he was doing and saying because he fucked me in a way I hadn’t known was real.
But it was more than that.
He consumed my every thought. My body burned wherever he touched me and ached for him on the days he stayed away. My soul felt at peace when he wrapped me up in his arms. My heart soared whenever his rough laugh edged into our conversations.
Everything about this month said this was different. Said all those fears weren’t valid.
And I knew fears. I’d lived through them. I still saw the worst kind of evil when I closed my eyes.
The man in my bed may do sinful things to my body, but we wouldn’t have felt so right if he was capable of the same depravity.
“Wait, what’s his name?” Rorie asked suddenly, looking anxious at whatever thought she’d just had.
“Right. Yes!” Cora said excitedly. “Rorie’s husband’s a cop. He’ll stop this guy.”
“I don’t—I don’t actually know,” I whispered, and felt like I withered under their alarmed expressions. “He gave me a ridiculous nickname, so I did the same. We’ve never called each other by anything else.”
“What is his name?” Rorie repeated, enunciating each word and sounding more worried than before.
“Diggs,” I said with a helpless shrug because I knew that wouldn’t help anything.
Cora was ranting about the possibility of a Ted Bundy wannabe in Wake Forest, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her friend. If someone could be made of stone, Rorie would’ve been as soon as the nickname passed my lips.
“Do you know him?” I asked Rorie uncertainly, watching her reaction carefully.
After tense moments passed, she wet her lips and said, “You need to stay away from him.” Before I could repeat my question, she added, “Stay away from him and everyone he’s associated with.”
My eyebrows lifted, and Cora jerked back to look at her.
“Wait, you do know him?” Cora asked.
Rorie’s gaze darted across the floor for a while before she cleared her throat and said, “My sister-in-law, Jessica, married into his family. Sort of,” she added on as an afterthought. She finally met my stare, and I felt my gut clench at the whisper of fear in her eyes. “I’ve met all of them at one point or another, but I only know a few of them. And they’re...they have good qualities. Jentry wouldn’t—um...”
Her head shook fiercely as she backtracked, “Jentry’s my husband. He wouldn’t let them into our home if they weren’t good. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous people, Willow. You need to stay away from them.”
“Ted-Bundy dangerous?” Cora asked hesitantly, then lifted her arms to look at them. “Oh my God, I have chills.”
“No,” Rorie quickly assured her, even though her attention stayed locked on me. “Just trust me. Whatever’s been happening between you and Diggs...you need to end it. Now.”
I studied her for a while, trying to figure out what she knew but wasn’t telling us. Trying to figure out exactly how dangerous these people could be if a police officer would allow them into his home.
Then again, I’d known Diggs was dangerous from that first night. I’d sensed it.
But it hadn’t been something malevolent or something to run from. It had been something that lingered beneath the surface. Something that had been more intoxicating than anything.
I’d known from the beginning that the real danger had been the effect he would have on me.
“His name is really Diggs?” I asked, the words coming out slow and awkward as I tried wrapping my head around what I’d just been told.
“Nearly that entire family goes by nicknames,” Rorie said with a shrug. “I’ve only ever heard of him referenced by that name.”
