“A serial killer. And what would lead you to believe that I could be a serial killer?”
“Oh, come on. It’s so obvious. You have weapons stashed all around the house.”
“I work in security.”
“And you have like, twenty rolls of duct tape stashed in various places. It’s like you’re just preparing for any situation where you might need to tie someone up.”
“Duct tape can be a quick fix for a lot of household problems. You never want to run out of that.”
“And then there’s that big bin with at least five large tarps. Who needs that much tarp? Serial killers.”
“It’s from when I painted the house. I don’t like to be wasteful.”
“And then you have a shovel in your shed.”
“Most people do.”
“You have rope in your front hall closet. Come on, even you have to admit that’s weird.”
“Alright, I don’t remember why I have the rope, but that still doesn’t mean I’m a serial killer.”
“And then there’s the wood chipper you have in the back yard. I’m not sure why anyone would need to have their own personal wood chipper, other than to get rid of a body. And then, you have bleach stacked up in your garage. Do you see how psycho that looks?”
“See, any normal man would see these as regular items that a man needs around a house. A woman automatically freaks out and assumes that I’m a serial killer.”
“That’s what a serial killer would say! And you were in the military. I’m sure you know hundreds of ways to kill someone without leaving any evidence behind.”
“That’s not really true. Any good medical examiner would find signs of why a person died.”
“And because you know that, it makes me so much more suspicious of the wood chipper. Just throw those bodies in there and no one needs to know about all the people that have gone missing on your property.”
“Well, I haven’t killed you yet. Although, I am considering it now,” he grumbled.
“That’s because too many people know that I’m here. You can’t just get rid of me without someone from your company getting suspicious.”
He snorted, “Are you kidding me? A couple of well placed bullets around the house and a busted in door?” He shrugged nonchalantly, “Everyone would assume you were taken by Xavier’s men.”
I pursed my lips, refusing to be bested here. “Fine, then tell me what’s with the door in the corner of the room over there.”
“Panic room. You already know this.”
“Not that door,” I smiled smugly. “The other one that has a lock on it. The one you told me never to try and open.”
“What exactly do you think is behind that door?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a spare room and you have a freezer inside where you hide limbs and you know, save the meat.”
“Cannibalism? You think I’m a cannibal?”
“Or maybe you have a trap door under the basement where you store dead bodies.”
“You would smell them.”
“Tokens from each of your killings,” I guessed.
“You’re right. You’ve got me. I can’t deny it any more. I’m a serial killer, but I promise to go to SKA meetings every week until I’m reformed.”
“What?”
“Serial Killers Anonymous.”
“Well, as long as you try to get help,” I sighed dramatically.
He shook his head and turned back to the movie, which we had now missed quite a bit of. His hands lazily continued to massage my legs. For just a few minutes, it felt like we were a real couple, just hanging out and watching some movies on a night in.
“So, why do you really have a wood chipper?”
✯✯✯✯✯
I was starting to doze off and I probably should just go upstairs and go to bed, but this was the most time I had ever spent with Jackson. I didn’t want to leave him just yet. After two movies, we started talking about our favorite movies and making fun of the ones we were watching. It was light and playful, and I got to see a side to Jackson that he never really showed me. His relaxed side. He was always so tense around me.
I struggled to keep my eyes open and every now and again, my head would dip and I would jerk upright again. After the sixth time of that happening, I felt Jackson pull me in closer to him so I could rest my head against him. My body naturally turned into him and snuggled into his warmth. He pulled a blanket over me and I drifted off to sleep.
I woke slightly several times. The first time, Jackson was playing with my hair, running his fingers through it over and over again. It felt so good that I drifted back to sleep. The next time I woke, I had just felt his lips against my cheek. I couldn’t be sure that I hadn’t dreamt it, but it felt so real that I sighed happily and went back to sleep.
The last time I woke up, it was the middle of the night and completely dark in the basement. The tv was off and Jackson was laying with me on the couch. My body was toward the inside of the couch and I was practically laying on top of him. My head was on his chest and his steady heartbeat thrummed under my cheek. His arm was wrapped around me, holding me close to him. I smiled, happy that things were finally starting to look up between us.
I jerked awake as Jackson practically jumped off the couch, tossing me to the floor. “Ouch,” I said as my elbow hit the table in front of us. “That wasn’t really how I planned on waking up.”
“We fell asleep,” he said, slightly panicked.
“Yeah, that’s usually what happens when you’re tired.”
I was squinting under the harsh lighting. He had flicked on practically every light in the room.
“We shouldn’t have been sleeping down here, together, I mean. It can’t happen again.”
“Relax, Jackson. It’s not like we were fucking all night. We were just sleeping. Besides, we’re both adults. It wouldn’t matter if we were fucking.”
Jackson looked at me almost as if he were in pain and then he shifted and I saw it. Jackson was hard and by the looks of it, very well endowed. I licked my lips, imagining what it would be like to taste Jackson, to feel his hard cock in my mouth.
“Would you stop it! I’m not a piece of meat.”
“That’s a piece of meat,” I said, pointing to his cock. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but it was early and I was still waking up.
“There aren’t going to be any more movie nights or me rubbing your muscles. No more letting you sleep on my shoulder. In fact, we’re not even going to be alone in the same room together. It’s not safe.”
“What exactly do you think will happen? Are you going to put me in your wood chipper?”
“Do you see this?” he pointed to his cock.
“Uh, I’ve been staring at it for the last few minutes, so, yeah, I see it. I could help you with that-”
“No, that is never going to happen. This,” he motioned to his very hard erection, “is not something that can happen again.”
“Trouble getting it up?” I asked mockingly.
“I don’t have any trouble getting it up. I just shouldn’t be getting it up with you.”
“Right, because I’m damaged and you’re a serial killer,” I nodded sleepily. “I’ll keep that in mind. Don’t fall asleep on the serial killer’s lap. He might fuck me before he kills me.”
“Do you take anything seriously?”
“I could seriously go for a cup of coffee right now. But if you said that you were going to tie me up naked down here to have some kind of serial killer ritual, I would probably take that seriously.”
“I’m not a serial killer!”
“Fine, we’ll go with your story. You’re just a normal man that knows how to kill professionally, has creepy murder weapons all over the house, and the means to easily dispose of a body.”
“I don’t have creepy murder weapons.”
“You have a sickle in your garage.”
“Would you stop giving me an inventory of what I have!”
&nb
sp; “Hey, it’s not like these are things that I particularly want to know. But you try sitting around a house all day long for close to nine months. You’d be taking a mental inventory of everything too.”
“We’re getting off track here. Like I was saying-”
“Yeah, I remember. No movies, no fun, no erections. Got it.”
“And no more snuggling together.”
“Admit it, you liked that.”
“I liked it as much as any serial killer likes sleeping with his victims.”
“Ha! See, I knew I could get you to admit it!”
He rolled his eyes at me and stormed up the stairs. Well, it had been fun while it lasted.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jackson
We were outnumbered with nowhere to go. Men surrounded us, their weapons trained on each of us. I didn’t know how the hell we were going to get out of here, but at least all of our families were safe. I dropped my weapon to the table as instructed, even though it killed me to do it. I still had another gun on me and I always kept a knife strapped to my ankle, something I had done since I got out of the military.
I saw Becky stand and press something on her computer. I wasn’t completely sure that she had activated our secondary measures, but I would bet that was what she had just done. All of our computer information would be transferred off site and as soon as that was done, the IT room would go up in flames. I just had to wait for the explosion and until then, fight like hell to survive.
As soon as Cap gave the signal, we all knew what we had to do. Unless he was incapacitated, he was the one that would make the first move. I steadied my breathing and glanced to the guy at my right. He was watching me, but he was also paying attention to his leader.
I saw Cap make his move out of the corner of my eye and took my chance. Grabbing the man’s gun, I pointed it up so no one else got shot and then twisted his arm, yanking the gun from his hands. He was so shocked at what was happening, that he wasn’t prepared for my attack. With a kick to the gut, he fell to his knees and I pointed the gun at his head. His eyes went wide, pleading with me not to shoot him, but he had come into our place of business and attacked. There was no mercy for someone like him. I pulled the trigger, barely watching as he fell to the ground, before I moved on to the next guy.
Men started rushing us, firing random shots, anything to take us down. I ducked down behind the conference room table and pulled my other weapon. I unloaded a clip as men continued to pour into the building. I couldn’t tell where they were coming from, but they must have found another route in since only a few came from the elevator. Sensors were set to go off whenever someone was on the roof, where I was guessing they came from, but somehow, they had bypassed our security measures.
Chills raced down my spine as I felt someone’s sights on me. I dove to the right, hoping I wasn’t jumping into the line of fire. A bullet burned through my flesh as it pierced my arm. Rolling under the table, I quickly checked the damage, seeing it was only a superficial wound. I grabbed the knife that was strapped to my leg and shot up on the other side of the table, slamming the knife into a man that was about to fire at Cap. He crumpled to the ground and I finished him, slashing my knife across his throat.
Cazzo was right next to me, grappling with another man. A boot shot out, catching me in the side when I couldn’t move fast enough. I crashed into the table, my foot catching on a chair. The man was thrown over my body, pushing me back toward the table. I couldn’t get my foot untangled from the chair and my leg bent awkwardly, sending sharp pains through my leg.
I bit my lip, holding back the curses that I wanted to shout. Shoving the man off me, I slid off the table, untangling the boot lace that had caught on the chair. I ducked just as a fist flew toward my face and used his momentum to throw him over my shoulder and onto the table. I spun around and snapped his neck before he could stand up and fight back. Arms wrapped around my shoulders and neck. I was just seconds from getting my own neck snapped. I lifted my injured leg, shoving off the table and pushing us backward until we crashed to the ground. I threw my elbow back, slamming it into his face twice before I rolled off and slammed the heel of my hand up into his nose. I heard the bone in his nose snap free from the rest of his skull and watched his eyes go dead as it pierced his brain.
Over the course of five minutes, our building turned into a war zone. Men were scattered all over, some dead and some wounded. We had taken out most of the men, but some of our own were down also. Fire was still spreading through the building and if we didn’t get out of here soon, we would all burn up. I limped around the room, searching for Gabe and Chance. Gabe was sitting on the floor against a wall, blood dripping from his head. I ran over to him and knelt by his side. Tearing a piece of my shirt off, I pressed it against his head, his eyes just barely opening to look at me.
“You doing okay, man?”
He tried to nod, but then winced.
“Just stay still. I’ll get Hunter or Rocco.”
My gaze swung around the room as I looked for one of our medics. Rocco was already patching people up and I called him over. The blood was still seeping from Gabe’s head when he got to my side.
“Let me take a look,” Rocco said, shoving my hand out of the way. Gabe grabbed my hand just as I was about to back up.
“Find Chance,” he muttered. I nodded and stood, going around the room, trying to see where he was. Then I remembered that he had been on his way out of the conference room. He had to be over by the elevators. My leg was killing me, but I pushed through the pain. He wasn’t by the elevator and as I searched the rest of the floor, I was beginning to get worried. He wasn’t in the conference room or in any of the offices. The smoke was getting too thick now and my eyes burned. Everyone had started to evacuate, but I couldn’t leave without Chance.
“Cap!” I shouted from down the hallway. He spun around and ran toward me. “I can’t find Chance. Has he already been evacuated?”
“He was taken,” he said angrily. “I couldn’t stop them.”
“We have to get him.”
“Too many of us are injured. We need to regroup and find out where they took him. Lola said he was dragged out of here and she caught the plates of the vehicle he was taken in. We’ll have Becky check camera feeds from around the town and see which direction they went. Right now, we have to make sure everyone else gets out.”
I didn’t like it, but he was right. We were in no shape to go after him when most of us were injured. I nodded and followed him to the conference room where it all began.
“Jackson!”
Chris was kneeling on the floor beside Ice, holding his hands to Ice’s chest. He looked like he was already dead.
“We have to get him out of here,” I coughed. “The whole place is going down.”
“We need something to move him on.” Chris didn’t even look at me, all his attention on Ice and keeping him alive. I tore off my shirt, handing it to Chris to press to Ice’s wound. I saw Lola and called her over.
“Help me get a door to carry Ice down on.”
We quickly went to work, trying to get a door off its hinges, but it was taking too long. Spotting a desk in one of the offices, I ran in and swept everything off it and threw the table over. Lola grabbed one end and I grabbed the other. The smoke was getting too thick to see anything and we were both coughing so hard that we could barely walk. Back in the conference room, Chris had wrapped another shirt around Ice’s mouth and nose to keep the smoke out of his lungs as best as possible. We quickly loaded him up and made our way to the back stairs. The elevator was no longer safe to use.
“Chris, grab the other end,” Lola shouted. “I’ll run ahead and get all the doors open.”
Chris switched places with Lola and we headed into the stairwell. With one glance back, I made sure no one was left behind. The dead were left behind. We had no time to get them out, and even if we did, they deserved to burn in here for what they had done. When we finally made it outside, ambulances we
re already standing by, waiting for more people that needed to be rushed to the hospital. I helped Chris load Ice into the back of an ambulance and then he climbed inside. A coughing fit overcame me and a paramedic tried to get me to go to the hospital, but I refused.
Looking back at the building, the whole thing was on fire. It would be nothing but ashes by the end of the day. Even though the panic room wasn’t attached to the main building, I still turned and ran for it. I had to get to Raegan.
CHAPTER FIVE
Raegan
It had been hours since we’d been brought here and I still didn’t know what was going on. Not that I was alone in that. Every other spouse was here with me and all the kids. They seemed pretty cool about this, though. Like this was all just routine for them.
“Hey, you’re Jackson’s girl, right?”
I looked at the short woman standing next to me. Her hair was pulled in a tight bun and she wore glasses that made me think of a nerd. I wondered who she was with.
“I’m not Jackson’s, but I am staying with him. I’m Raegan.”
“I’m Claire. It’s nice to meet you.”
“So, which man do you belong to?”
“Superman,” she said breathlessly.
“That’s cool. I would have chosen Iron Man, but I’m still new to this whole thing.”
She laughed and fanned herself. “Superman is Derek. This may sound crazy, but when I first met him, I thought he was Superman. There were just all these really strange things happening and he just happened to be there at the right time. What was I supposed to think?”
“I probably would have gone to serial killer first, but yours is more chipper.”
“Have you seen one of these guys kill yet?” I shook my head. It was kind of a strange question to ask someone. “H-O-T. That’s all I have to say.”
“Hot.”
“Oh, yeah. The first time I saw Derek kill, it was like eleven men or something. I actually watched him snap a man’s neck. I swear to God, I could have jumped him right there.”
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