Monster mate, p.9
Monster Mate, page 9
He chuckled when she bit his peck. “All of it, OK? All of it.”
“And you’re not going to do it—any of it—again, right?”
“Right. But you don’t have to be smug about it.”
Another ass squeeze. “I do, actually.”
She groaned. “Fine. Where should I start? What do you want to know first?”
“I want to know everything. But why don’t you start with the man who threw a brick through our window? I’m going to need some details before I kill him.”
Roxie mustered what was left of her strength—which wasn’t much—and rolled off Riordan’s chest. She let her forearm flop over her face. “See, this is why I didn’t want to say anything. I don’t want you to kill anyone.”
“You would protect this man who has made your life so difficult?”
“No, I would protect you! I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
He sighed. “We can argue about that later. Go ahead and tell me the story now, please.”
She sighed right back at him. If he could be quietly annoyed, so could she. “I had finally finished my nursing assistant program and gotten a job at the extended care facility when I met Neil.”
Riordan growled a little, but started making casual, slow circles over her skin with his palm. He was obviously trying to soothe her, and she appreciated the gesture.
“He was the grandson of one of the residents,” she went on. “Or so I thought. He was everywhere I was for a solid two weeks. My gut was telling me that was weird. But my head was telling me I was being paranoid because of my background. Just because people had hurt me doesn’t mean all people will, you know?”
“I do know,” he said quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple.
“He was really nice to me. Attentive. Had a coffee for me, exactly the way I like it, from my favorite coffee shop, every morning. Again, I thought it was a little weird, but everyone I worked with thought it was so romantic that I ignored the red flags. Winston was the only one who said Neil wasn’t worth my time, and I ignored him, too. Mostly because Winston hates everyone. But I eventually agreed to go out with Neil.
Everything was fine at first. He called me a lot, always wanted to see me more between dates, but when we were together, he never did anything to worry me. He even arranged for his mechanic to fix my car when it broke down. I hadn’t asked, of course. He just did it.”
She swallowed hard. She wasn’t proud of how easily she’d accepted his money. “I never should’ve taken anything from him. The way he did that without asking was another red flag. But at the time, I was so overwhelmed and just—I don’t know—happy, I guess, that I wasn’t on my own and someone was looking out for me just once, that I didn’t refuse it. Loneliness and desperation made me…weak.”
Riordan tugged her a little closer. “I understand. You didn’t do anything wrong. Accepting a gift, freely offered, doesn’t obligate you to behave in any particular way. It was not transactional. But I imagine he took it that way?”
She nodded. “On our first date after he paid for the car repairs, he started talking about how much easier everything would be when we were married. We’d never talked about marriage before. Hell, we’d never even slept together. I had no idea why he was talking like we were already engaged. At first, I laughed. I thought he was joking. But he wasn’t.”
Roxie told Riordan about how Neil’s face had turned red, how clipped and angry the conversation became when she told him they were nowhere near ready to talk about marriage. Then she told him the part that still chilled her to the bone.
“He said, ‘You can’t even afford to fix the blinds in your bedroom or the dishwasher in your kitchen and you think it’s a good idea to refuse me so easily?’ That’s when I realized he was talking about things in my house I’d never mentioned. Things he couldn’t possibly have known.”
“Unless he’d been in your house.”
She sniffled. “I didn’t say anything at the time. Just told him I needed some time to think. I put some money down on the table for my half of the restaurant bill and got out of there as quick as I could. When I got home, I searched my place from top to bottom and found two cameras and two recording devices.”
Roxie felt Riordan’s muscles tense. “He stalked you like prey.”
“He did. That’s when I started digging. Turned out he wasn’t related to anyone in the nursing home. He’d followed me there. He’d probably been stalking me for months before he approached me at work.”
“Tell me you didn’t confront him,” Riordan said on an infuriated hiss.
“I didn’t. I went right to the police and filed a restraining order.” She snorted. “Not that it did any good. He confronted me at work the day he was served.”
She rubbed the scar on her temple. “I guess his plan was to knock me out and either kill me or kidnap me, because he punched me without even saying a word. I wasn’t ready for it, so it knocked me down. I hit my head on the bumper of my car. It didn’t knock me out, though. Thank God. And I’d never told him about my martial arts and self-defense training. So, he was pretty shocked when I kicked his legs out from under him and twisted his arm behind his back until it snapped.”
“That’s my girl,” Riordan said against her temple.
“I told him I was calling the cops. He told me he’d kill me before he let me leave him. And you know what? I believed him. I believed there was fuck all the cops could do for me, and one day, I’d let my guard down and that motherfucker would kill me. So, I ran. I grabbed Waldo and Winston, and I ran.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “And here I am.”
She squealed when Riordan flipped their positions, pinning her under him. “And I am so fucking glad.” His mouth captured hers and he kissed her breathless before pulling back and resting his forehead against hers. “Thank you for trusting me with your story. You’ll never regret it. I promise you.”
Roxie kissed him again, because she didn’t want to tell him what she was thinking.
No. I won’t. But you might.
CHAPTER 21
“You can’t do that!”
“The hell I can’t!”
Winston rolled his eyes as Riordan crowded Roxie up against the kitchen counter and tried—again—to get her to listen to his plan. “I don’t know what’s worse. Listening to the two of you bicker like an old married couple, or listening to the barnyard noises coming from your room when y’all are making up.”
Roxie blinked. Winston could hear them having sex? Gross!
But that wasn’t the point. The point was that Riordan was trying to make a logical argument for hunting down and killing her ex. Sure, the guy was an abusive, stalking asshole, and she certainly wouldn’t shed any tears if he met an unfortunate (or very fortunate, as the case may be) end. But that didn’t mean Riordan should go after him.
“You’ll get caught,” she argued. “Then you’ll go to jail. Forever. Murder, even for monsters, is frowned upon.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I wouldn’t get caught. I’ve read all about how people get caught, and I wouldn’t make those mistakes. No DNA left behind—not that they’d be able to identify my DNA even if they found it—and I’d have an alibi.”
“I’d alibi him,” Winston grumbled, yanking a carton of milk from the fridge and drinking directly from it. He belched. “That fucker deserves what he gets.”
Riordan gestured to Winston. “Thank you. See? This can all be taken care of today. I’ve already tracked down his current address.”
She sputtered. “How’d you do that?”
“I traced his credit cards.”
He said it as casually as she might suggest ordering a pizza for dinner. As if just anyone could trace someone’s credit cards. He’d probably read a book about it.
But again, not the point.
“It’s not worth the risk,” she insisted.
“Your safety and comfort aren’t worth the risk?”
“He makes a good point,” Winston added, reaching for a doughnut from the box Riordan had picked up while she’d been sleeping off her sex coma. “You were all ready to run again. If the abusive fucktrumpet was dead, you wouldn’t spend all your time looking over your shoulder anymore.”
“You’re not helping, Winston,” she said through clenched teeth. “I can’t let you do it. Killing someone is a big deal, and I can’t let you do that again.”
Riordan rolled his eyes. “I reaped souls for thousands of years. What’s one more?”
Winston crammed the whole doughnut into his mouth and sprayed bits of glaze on the counter when he said, “It’s community service. If the guy wasn’t harassing you, he’d just move on to someone else. Killing him protects everyone in town.”
Riordan nodded. “He’s right. And it’s not like the police would ever find the body. Pretty sure they wouldn’t have jurisdiction where I’d send him.”
Roxie shuddered. She still had nightmares about three headed feral hogs occasionally. “I just…”
The ring of the doorbell cut off whatever she was going to say next.
Imagine her surprise when Riordan opened the door and found a uniformed police officer on the other side.
Great. They’d been having a casual conversation about killing someone while a cop was standing on the porch. That tracked with her usual luck.
Riordan, calm and collected for someone who’d just been plotting murder, crossed his arms over his chest. “How can we help you, Officer…?”
The young officer looked a little shellshocked. Roxie could relate. She was still a little shellshocked when she looked at Riordan, too. But eventually, he pulled himself together enough to say, “Childs. Officer Childs.” His gaze shifted to Roxie. “Are you Roxie Rowe?”
She licked her lips. “I am. What’s this about?”
“I’m afraid the investigation into the fire at your residence has been deemed arson.”
Her gaze shifted to Riordan, then back to Officer Childs. “Oh. I see.”
His gaze narrowed a smidge. “Fortunately, one of your neighbor’s backyard cameras got a clear picture of the suspect. He was identified as Neil Hardy of Oaks Port. Your ex-boyfriend, am I correct?”
“Yes,” she said carefully. “I have a restraining order against him.”
He nodded. “We’re aware. I was curious, though, why you didn’t mention him to us as a suspect initially?”
Riordan took a half step forward. “Does she need a lawyer?”
Officer Childs cocked his head to one side. “Strange question for an arson victim. But, no. She’s not being charged with anything.”
Roxie had to repress a nervous laugh. “I didn’t think to mention it because I assumed the fire was electrical, not arson.”
He stared at her for a moment like he could see into her soul before nodding and saying, “I figured it was something like that.” He handed her his business card. “If he shows up here, or if you see him anywhere, you call me, got it?”
The subtext was clear. Call me instead of sending your scary monster boyfriend out for some vigilante justice.
Just look innocent. Don’t babble. Don’t act shifty. “I understand, sir,” she said.
When Officer Childs was pulling out of the driveway, Riordan led Roxie back inside. He laid his hands on her shoulders. “What about now? Can I go kill Neil now?”
She shook her head. “No.”
His chin hit his chest, and Winston grumbled unhappily from his spot on the sofa.
Roxie gestured to the door. “Did you guys miss the cop at our fucking door? We can’t go off half-cocked and kill him now. We need a plan.”
Winston looked confused. “So, you’re saying we could go off…whole-cocked?”
“Yes, whole-cocked. We’re coming up with a plan to get rid of him without any of us going to jail.”
Riordan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “And what if he comes at us first?”
“Then whatever happens to him will be self-defense.”
Winton gave a fist pump. “Now we’re talking!”
She gave Riordan a stern look. “That motherfucker burned my house down, damn it. I need to be the one to reclaim my independence. I’m done running. So, if—when—he comes after me, I’ll be ready and I’ll defend myself. Got it?”
He looked mutinous as fuck, but eventually grumbled, “Got it.”
OK. Good. Now, all they needed was a plan. Easy, right?
She’d later find out she should’ve known better.
Nothing was easy in Sanity Falls.
CHAPTER 22
Promises were a tricky thing.
He’d promised Roxie he’d let her take care of herself and that he wouldn’t take any proactive moves against Neil on her behalf.
But he’d never said he wouldn’t do a little reconnaissance, right?
It was probably a gray area of the promise he’d made to Roxie.
Oh well, if she was angry with him later, he could beg for her forgiveness. Maybe do that thing with his tongue and tail that she liked so much.
Come to think of it, he’d very much like to do that thing again, even if she wasn’t angry with him later.
But that was beside the point.
The point was that he’d told Roxie he had to run an errand while she took Winston to his physical therapy session, and that hadn’t been a lie. It just so happened that his errand was to check out Neil’s home, see what he was up to, and determine what his next steps might be in regard to Roxie.
Fortunately, the street Neil lived on was quiet, and since it was the middle of the day in a working-class neighborhood, not too many people were out and about, because it would’ve been difficult for a 7’-tall, horned monster with a tail to blend into a crowd.
It was also a low crime area, so it didn’t appear that too many homes on this particular street had security cameras.
Not that security cameras would help much when the intruder was a teleporting demon. He could move so fast that to the human eye on camera, he’d look like nothing but a technical glitch.
So, he’d been hiding in the wooded area across the street from Neil’s house most of the morning, watching the entrances and exits, seeing if the bastard would be dumb enough to come home while the cops were actively searching for him.
Unfortunately for Riordan, it would seem that Neil wasn’t that dumb.
There hadn’t been movement in the house all day. The place was empty and there were no indications that the police were watching. He was going in. And if he left fingerprints or DNA at the home, it wasn’t like the local cops would have a single fucking idea what they were looking at, so them being able to track him down for questioning was unlikely.
There was a part of him that hoped he was wrong as he teleported into the living room of Neil’s two-bedroom bungalow. If he was home, Riordan could kill him quietly and quickly, then chuck his body into an alternate dimension where the humans would never have to deal with him again.
But alas, the place was empty. Empty and revolting. His nose involuntarily crinkled as he glanced around.
Clearly, Neil hadn’t lived here long. If he had to guess, he’d say this house was just a convenient stronghold that was close to Sanity Falls…and Roxie.
There was very little furniture in the living room, but what was there (a dirty plaid couch, a folding card table with one lopsided chair, a tv on a stand made out of concrete blocks, and a Rubbermaid tub for a coffee table) was covered in empty takeout containers, open soda and beer cans, and questionable stains.
Neil had given up on hygiene long ago, it would appear. He was either too far removed from sanity to care about cleanliness, or he was so focused on something else that household chores didn’t even cross his mind.
And when Riordan walked into the bedroom (after completely bypassing a bathroom that smelled like week-old roadkill), he realized it was probably both.
The man was far from sane, and his complete focus was on Roxie.
The bedroom contained nothing but a ratty Queen-sized mattress…and pictures of Roxie.
Neil had wallpapered the entire 10’ x 12’ space with surveillance photos of his mate. There were photos of her at the Monster Match, at the supermarket with Winston, taking Waldo for a walk, and being released from the hospital.
There was even an entire wall of photos that seemed to have been taken close to his property, maybe with a telephoto lens, because there he was, kissing Roxie in the solarium, the garden, and backyard.
The truly bone-chilling ones, though, were of Roxie with him in their bedroom. In those shots, there were slashes across her throat, as if Neil had angrily scratched them with a blade of some kind before pinning them to the wall.
He’d been intruding on Roxie’s every private moment since she arrived in Sanity Falls, and he was angry in a big, dangerous way.
No matter how much Roxie wanted to reclaim her independence and take care of this problem herself, it was just too dangerous. Neil was too dangerous. He needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Riordan turned on his heel, ready to get out of this physical manifestation of psychosis, and caught sight of something in the closet that captured his full attention.
Bags of fertilizer.
He could only think of one thing a person like Neil (who clearly didn’t do any yard maintenance) would do with bags of fertilizer.
Making bombs.
Neil could potentially kill half the town with a well-placed bomb.
God help them all.
He needed to find Roxie and get her to safety now.
CHAPTER 23
“I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Roxie put her car in park in front of Riordan’s house and pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. “The big deal, Winston, is that there aren’t a ton of facilities who offer water physical therapy in Sanity Falls. We can’t afford for you to alienate anyone—anyone else, that is—at that YMCA.”
Winston sniffed indignantly and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s not my fault they can’t handle the truth.”
