Start a War (Saint View Psychos #1)(16)

I wasn’t surprised when she stuck to the streets of Providence. Her car might have been small, but it was an expensive European brand. She’d had neatly manicured fingernails when she’d taken my hand earlier, like she had the money to go to a salon regularly, and her shoes had been Italian leather.

It all spoke of money. A lot of money. More money than she should earn as a preschool teacher.

I noticed details. Details told me everything I needed to know about a person in under a minute.

A vital skill when you needed to kill them.

Not that I did that anymore.

New leaves had been turned over. New goals written down in the leatherbound book I kept in my bedside drawer, the one a therapist had made me start in the psych ward of the prison. It was the one thing I’d taken with me before I’d checked out.

Without their permission.

Even weeks later, I was still slightly annoyed my escape hadn’t made the news. It would have made the cat-and-mouse game I liked to play with the police a little more interesting, but alas, it seemed it was not to be.

I couldn’t blame the new warden. I wouldn’t have wanted a riot and an escaped prisoner on my record either. It reeked of incompetence, and that was something a man of any profession should fear.

Even ones in my line of work.

I kept low in my seat, sticking several cars behind Bethany-Melissa, though she had no reason to suspect I’d be following her. I doubted she was checking her rearview mirror for someone stalking her.

Which wasn’t very smart.

I’d talk to her about that. Once we were acquaintances, of course.

She pulled into the driveway of a large house in Providence, and I wrinkled my nose at it. Distasteful thing. Clearly designed by an architect to be edgy and modern. To me, it just looked pretentious.

It didn’t fit her. Despite her expensive shoes.

I parked several houses away, slumping in my seat some more, even though I’d chosen a car with the darkest window tint I could find. So even if she had glimpsed in my direction, she probably wouldn’t have noticed me.

I needn’t have worried. The moment she stepped out of her car, the front door to the house opened, and a man stepped out.

I sat up, the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickling with awareness.

He was attractive in his gray suit and neat haircut. Handsome in a movie star way, with too-white teeth and hair that he probably had highlighted every six weeks.

In his arms was the biggest bunch of flowers I’d ever seen.

My upper lip curled. With one look, I knew exactly who he was. Not his name or his age or how much money his bank account held. But enough to know the sort of man he was beneath it all.

His insides reeked of jet-black darkness.

They were apology flowers. I could see it in the way he swept Bethany-Melissa into his arms, thrusting them into her face while her body remained a rigid, unmoving board. She made no attempt to take them, backing away from his touch so quickly I was sure she hadn’t even consciously thought about it.

He let her go, but his wide smile betrayed his true personality. It morphed into something more like a shark with a mouthful of pointed, dagger-like teeth ready to rip the skin from her bones.

It was clear an argument had started from her lack of enthusiasm over his gift. His shoulders drew up toward his ears, stiff and tense. All the fake charm from a moment earlier disintegrating into a seething anger that had clearly not been buried too deeply.

She reached for the flowers, but he jerked them out of her reach, spitting words at her too low for me to hear, even when I cracked the window open an inch.

I rolled my head on my neck when the darkness inside me swirled and grew, just begging to be unleashed.

“Not yet.”

Nothing good came from being unprepared. Nothing good came from moving too quickly and losing control.

The darkness had its place in my life, but keeping it under control was key. Because once it was out, I couldn’t always get it back in.

She was crying again. I could tell by the shakes in her shoulders, and the boyfriend realized he was making a scene. His gaze darted to the houses around them, before he stepped in close to her and thrust the flowers into her arms.

She took them this time and then watched while he got inside his sleek black car. It zoomed backward out of the driveway at an extremely unsafe speed.

I ground my teeth when she jumped back like she was afraid he might hit her.

There were rules in my family about who we could kill. Killing women wasn’t off the table. Not if they deserved it. But I drew the line at children, even though we’d had contracts for those jobs before. The thought curdled my stomach. Children could change.

Adults couldn’t.

Which didn’t bode well for this new leaf I was supposed to be turning over.

I could be the exception.

Doubtful, the darkness whispered.

“Shut up.”

Bethany-Melissa watched her boyfriend drive away. Her gaze lingered on my car for a moment, and my breath hitched, even knowing she couldn’t see me inside. I waited for her to walk into the house, but once she’d disappeared, I turned the engine on. Making a U-turn, I drove in the same direction the boyfriend had and quickly caught him at the nearest stop sign.

I sat behind him, staring at his personalized number plates.

CALE8.

“So either your name is Caleb or you like kale but can’t spell,” I muttered to myself. “As much as I’d like to assume you’re an ignoramus, you’re probably not if you managed to obtain a job that pays enough to live in that ridiculous-looking house that cost more money that you have sense. So, hello, Caleb. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, except you have no idea I’m following you, do you?”