a pony, bought me a car, yada yada yada.” She laughs, the sound as cruel as she is. “I tricked him into thinking I wasn’t going to kill him after all, that he’d really gotten through to me.” She pulls a heartfelt face. “Then I spiked his Ensure.” She howls with laughter.
What a nutjob. I wait for her giggles to subside. “What about Jamie’s coworker Sarah?”
“Dead.” She laughs again. “That bitch was stealing commissions. That was money out of Jamie’s accounts, which means it was money out of my accounts.” She’s quietly trying to wriggle out of my knots around her wrists. It won’t work, of course. My knots are quite honestly epic. Houdini wouldn’t have a chance. “She cried and said she had a family and yada yada yada. Pffft.” She shakes her head. “Get fucked, bitch--that was the last thing I said to her.”
I’ve heard enough. “Well, it’ll be good to be rid of you and your psychosis.” I pull my favorite knife from the sheath around my thigh.
“My psychosis?” She barks a laugh. “What about yours?”
“Excuse me?” I mean, yes, I kill people. Yes, I will probably do it again. But now that I’ve found Jamie, I’ve only killed for her. If just knowing she exists has caused this profound of a change in me, imagine how good of a person I’ll be once we’re married. A fucking saint.
“You’re stalking Jamie, dipshit.” She rolls her eyes again. “You really want to know why I picked her? It’s like I said, I saw her, and I knew right then and there I could be a better Jamie than she ever could. You’re stalking a woman who can barely walk through her house without running into something, has weird bruises from falls she can’t even remember, has walked out of her goddamn house not wearing a shirt because she forgot, has never put her trash out on the correct day, and can’t even seem to piece together the fact that a stalker and serial killer is now her boyfriend!” She finishes on her last whoosh of air, then takes in a big breath. “So, yes, you are a psycho to pick such a dumb bitch to stal--”
I move so quickly I don’t think she feels the knife. Not at first. But when she does, the surprise in her eyes is a delightful reward.
“No one talks about my dreamgirl like that.” I wipe the blade on her sleeve. I’ll deal with the body later. For now, I need to see my girl.
“No!” She yells through the door.
“Please just let me in.”
“Not a chance!”
“Jamie, look--”
“Oh, I looked all right.” Her voice is high, raging as I press my forehead to her front door. “I looked in your house. Thanks for the lockpick and the knowhow, Silas. I got into your dining room.”
Shiiiiiiit.
“I can explain.”
“Explain?” Her tone is even shriller. “How can you explain to me why you have a camera in every room? Every. Room. My bathroom! My bedroom! EVERY ROOM, SILAS. No, Toby, no, I will not keep it down.”
“Jamie—”
“You’re a stalker! You killed Trevor.” She hisses that last part.
“He hit you.”
“That doesn’t mean you can kill him!”
“I’ll kill anyone who hurts you.”
“No!”
“What?” I eye the locks. I could pick them all, but that would shatter her trust even more. Shit.
“Don’t kill anyone else, okay?”
“Like, ever? Or just right now?”
“What?” She lowers her voice, and I’m pretty sure she’s talking to Toby. “What the hell does he mean ‘ever’ or ‘just right now’? Not killing people is clearly a FOREVER sort of thing. How do I attract these people? How, Toby? Wait … Are you a killer, too? Are you like, some sort of robot murder cat? Are you a spy for Silas? I’ve seen you getting pets from him!”
“Jamie, Toby’s just a cute, chubby cat. And I’m just the man who loves you.”
“How can you love me if you stalked me?” she counters.
“I stalked you because I love you.”
“That’s not love. That’s control.” I can hear her stamp her foot.
“Okay.” I sigh.
“Okay?”
“I mean, yes. I can see what you’re saying. I wanted to control what happened to you, so I watched you when I shouldn’t have. I also really enjoyed seeing you.”
“Did you watch me in the bath?”
I swallow hard. Shit. I can’t lie to her. Not now. Not when I need her trust so badly it hurts.
“Silas?”
“Yes. I mean, yes, I did watch you.”
“Oh my God,” she groans.
“Jamie, please. I know it’s wrong, okay? I know. But you