Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 127476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
I point it at him, giving him time to come up with something to say.
His silence is deafening.
"Last chance," I tell him. "Make it profound."
He spits on the ground, a mixture of blood and saliva, before muttering, "Fuck you."
Admirable last words, although a bit cliché. Not the first time someone's said them to me in this place. I aim the gun and pull the trigger, the gunshot echoing loud as the bullet rips through his skull, ending him right away. His feet drag the cruddy ground as his body sways from the impact.
I drop the gun and walk out, discarding it there. It can't be traced back to me. Nobody will ever know I was even here.
I've said it before.
I'll say it again.
I'm not a good man.
I never will be.
I drive around for a while afterward to purge the adrenaline before making my way back to Brooklyn. It's still early, so I'm surprised to find Karissa moving around already, showered and dressed.
She's in the kitchen, wearing a pair of cutoff jeans shorts and one of my white undershirts overtop of a bright pink bikini top, the strings tied around the back of her neck. Her hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail, her skin free of makeup as she stands beside the refrigerator and shoves some bottles of water into a little foam cooler.
"Going somewhere?" I ask.
She swings toward me, smiling widely.
The sight of her smile makes my chest ache.
She's in an awfully good mood this morning for some reason, but whatever it is, I'll take it. Whatever makes her happy, I'm on board.
"Well, yeah… it's the fourth."
"The fourth?"
"Yeah, you know… the Fourth of July. Let freedom ring and all that jazz."
Ah. I didn't notice, but I usually never do. Holidays are just more days to me. A title and a national declaration don't give them meaning. She looks excited about it, though. "Huh."
Her expression falls at my reaction. "That's okay, isn't it? I mean, you've been feeling better, so I didn't think you'd need me, especially since you were gone this morning, and Melody called, so I thought…"
She's rambling.
Nervous.
"It's fine," I say, although I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, personally, her slipping into a large crowd somewhere in the city, possibly disappearing forever. More than once these past few weeks she's mentioned feeling like someone's watching her. It's only a matter of time before her observer decides to make a move. "Just… be careful out there."
She eyes me warily for a moment. "I will."
"Good, because you tend to find trouble when you're off on your own."
I'm only half-joking, but she smiles, amused. "What can I say? It's a talent."
I nod, my eyes lingering on her for just a moment, before I turn away, letting her finish what she's doing.
"Naz?" she calls out. "You don't want to go along, do you?"
The invitation surprises me. "I'll pass."
I stroll toward the doorway when her voice rings out again. "Are you going to follow me today?"
The question stalls me yet again. She's calling me out for keeping an eye on her, matter-of-factly, like she's truly curious about the answer. It's been a while since I've done it... since she's gone somewhere for me to do it... but I can't deny the thought crossed my mind.
Pausing, I turn back to her. "And if I am?"
"Then you might as well just come along," she says, shrugging as she uses the icemaker on the refrigerator to send a swarm of crushed ice down into the little cooler. "The whole watching me from afar thing is kind of creepy, you know. I get that you don't trust me, but stalking is only cool when Edward Cullen does it."
Edward Cullen… I can't place the name. "Edward Cullen?"
"Yeah, you know, the vampire? From Twilight?" She looks at me like she expects me to get it, but shrugs it off after a second and continues. "It doesn't matter. It's kind of creepy when he does it, too. The point is, if you're going to keep an eye on me, to make sure I'm being good or whatever, you should just come along."
It's peculiar to me, how casual she talks about the situation, but something she said rubs me the wrong way. "It's not that I don't trust you."
"Do you, then?" she asks. "Do you trust me?"
"No."
The response makes her laugh.
"But that has nothing to do with it," I say. "I do it so I know you're safe."
"I'm fully capable of keeping myself safe."
"You really think that, Karissa?"
"Yes."
"Well, you think wrong," I say. "You can't recognize danger when it stares you right in the face, sweetheart."
Real danger doesn't come with a gun; it doesn't come at you with violence or anger. When someone sees red, they get careless, emotional, and it's a hell of a lot easier to diffuse a ticking bomb with all the wires exposed than one that's quiet and hidden. The biggest dangers have smiles on their faces and sweet words on their lips. They don't threaten or coerce… they entice. They have the power to make you believe whatever they want you to believe, and they do it with manipulation, through seduction.
And Karissa has absolutely no idea when it's happening to her.
I know, because I did it, and she easily fell for me.
She crosses her arms over her chest. She's feeling defensive because of what I just said. Her eyes regard me for a moment in silence before she shakes her head, deciding not to engage in that argument. "Whatever. I just think if you're going to be out there anyway, you ought to just come along."
"I'm not going to interfere with your plans."
"It's not interfering if I invited you."
"Why would you invite me?"
"Because I want you to come."
I raise an eyebrow. "You want me to come?"
"Uh, yeah." She shrugs. "Otherwise, I'll just be paranoid all day, thinking someone's watching me again."
"What do you have planned?"
"We're going to the park near the bridge to cook out and hang out and swim before the fireworks. Melody will be there with her boyfriend, and some other people… friends of hers. It would be nice to have someone else there… someone to talk to. Besides, who knows? You might even have some fun."