33. DEAN

The satisfied grin on my face hasn’t left since I left Willow passed out in our bed after chasing her all around the house and fucking her senseless each time I caught her. By the end she couldn’t even stand up but she still kept coming all over my cock.

God, she’s such a good girl for me.

“It’s exhausting isn’t it?” I chuckle, as I glance over at Bones who looks like he’s not slept in days.

His usual kempt hair is put up in a messy bun and there are deep, dark circles under his eyes. It’s been weeks since he took the girl from Abato’s house and I have to say I’m surprised he still has her. I’ve never known him to have any interest in an actual relationship with someone let alone having someone live with him. I know the guy likes his own space.

Ever since we first met, Bones has always told me everything going on in his life but with this girl he’s not told me shit. I don’t even know her name. Whoever she is, she's clearly gotten under his skin.

We pull up onto the driveway of Willow”s old home. The windows are mostly dark apart from a dimly lit one on the ground floor. I’ve been researching the best time to take Henry, Willow”s father, since she first mentioned what he’d done to her.

Although he’ll never hurt her again now that she’s with me, I can’t let what he did to my girl stand. He’ll pay for every second of life he took from her with his own.

Bones runs his hands over his face and my attention goes back to him as he asks, “how did you do it man?”

“Fed her, kept her clean and well fucked,” I shrug as I smirk at him.

“Those are the easy parts,” he mumbles to himself as we get out of the car. “I mean how did you get Willow to fall in love with you?”

A possessive urge to tell him not to say her name ever again comes over me but I ignore it. I know he’s not interested in her like that and I’m still deciding if I want her involved in this side of my life.

“You sure it’s not just lust? I wasn’t sure at first either,” I say as we walk side by side up to the front of the house. With our hoods pulled up to conceal our faces, we hover outside the door to finish our conversation before the fun for the night begins.

“I don’t know, man. Just like you, I’ve never been in love before. What’s it feel like?”

I try to think of an explanation for how I feel about Willow but it’s difficult to put something like that into words so I put it in the way we’re both familiar with.

“Think about what you would do for this girl. Would you kill anyone that hurt her? Does it feel wrong to be away from her for any amount of time? And I mean any, like you can’t stand being in a different room from her.” When I’m not with Willow, it’s like I’m missing an entire part of myself. I feel like I did before she was in my life, I didn’t know it then but I was an empty shell of myself. Being with Willow has shown me what it truly means to be happy. I know that living without her isn’t an option, I’d rather die than spend a single second in this world where she’s not mine.

Bones flexes his jaw as he considers my words. “That sounds like obsession.”

A few beats later we knock on the front door and Henry answers, dressed like he just crawled out of bed. He frowns at both of us as he looks us up and down then he closes the door just enough to obscure our view of his home like we’re a pair of criminals about to break in.

“Henry Hills?” I ask, giving him a concerned smile.

“Yes,” he says hesitantly.

“I have some news about your daughter. Can we come in?” My fingers twitch at my side eager to wrap around my blade and start carving it into him. Not yet.

“What? My–Willow, you know where she is? Who are you? You don’t look like cops.”

“Maybe you should sit down before we talk,” Bones adds, his charming mask fixed back into place as he smiles at Henry.

He looks between us again before finally opening the door and letting us in.

The house is dim inside, lit by only a few table lamps this late at night. As Henry leads us through the house, I spot his keys on a side table and quietly grab them to pass back to Bones.

We should just knock the guy out and stuff him in the trunk so we can get back on the road as quickly as possible. But I need to see how Willow lived, what her old room looks like and if it’s been left untouched since she left. I know she disappeared on him with only a vague note left for him to find.

“Where’s my daughter? Is she…is she safe?” There’s something in the way Henry says the word safe that makes even Bones look my way. If this guy really is how Willow described then I’m sure the only thing he’s worried about being safe is her virtue. Which, thanks to me, is long gone.

“Oh she’s very safe,” I smirk.

Henry blinks as he looks up at me from where he’s leaning his arms against the back of a chair. In the light of the dining room I can see how tense he looks. He doesn’t look like a father that’s lost his only daughter, there’s no signs he’s been kept awake at night worried about her wellbeing.

“You didn’t look for her,” I say coldly as I glance around the room. It’s a nice place he’s got here. A perfect showroom for someone trying to portray the idyllic happy family life. I’m sure there’s plenty to steal if we wanted to kill him right here and make it look like a break in but I’ve got bigger plans for him. Ones that involve his daughter and lots of blood.

“Of course, I looked for her. She’s my daughter. I thought something terrible had happened to her!” He snaps as he stiffens and straightens his back. I’ve got quite a few inches on him and he’s so scrawny that I’m sure his bones would snap easily enough.

“Is that why you didn’t go to the police and report her missing? Because you’ve just been so worried about her wellbeing.”

“I—I did. What are you talking about? I’ve been nonstop looking for her.”

Bones leans against the doorway and sighs loudly. “Don’t bullshit us” I’d already told him everything I found on Henry, including how he never went to the cops and even posted on his social media that Willow was away on a gap year, finding herself before she started college.

“I’m not—what are you—,” he cuts off when I pull my knife out and press my fingertip to the end, twisting it until a single drop of blood bubbles up.

“I’d like this part of the night to have as little bloodshed as possible so it can all be saved for the big event, but if you lie to me then I’m not responsible for my actions.”

“What do you want with me?”

“With you? Shouldn’t you be asking how we know about your daughter? Or do you really not care about her?”

“I care! Of course I do but she’s the one that ran away, the little bitch. Whatever she's done, I don’t want to hear it. She’s already dead to me.”

My eyebrows raise slowly at his change of tune. “Bones, get the car ready,” I say, my voice low and seething with promises of all the hate I’m going to bestow onto this man.

I hear Bones chuckle to himself before his footsteps recede to go and open up the garage so we have some privacy when we get Henry into the car. It’s a quaint little neighborhood and there were already curtains twitching when we were waiting on the doorstep. It was dark enough to conceal our features and I switched out my car”s plates to a new set of fake ones beforehand so there shouldn’t be any repercussions for us later.

“What’ll it be, Henry? The clean way or the bloody way? Either way you’re coming with us tonight.” I step around the table towards Henry and he bolts for the door.

Before he can make it through the hallway I’m on him, punching him on the side of the head so his face slams into the wall. He groans and tries to turn so he can fight against me but I grab his hair and slam his face into the wall again.

“If you do anything stupid I’ll cut your balls off right here,” I warn him and he freezes.

Grabbing a zip tie from my pocket, I yank his arms behind his back, securing them together tight enough that the ties cut into his skin.

“Where are your manners, Henry? You’ve not given your new son in-law a tour of the house!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he blathers as I push him towards the stairs.

“Up!” I snap and he looks at me over his shoulder like I’m crazy, like everyone does. When he doesn’t move I kick him in the back of the knee and he falls forward, his chin bashing against a step. He cries out as blood flies from his mouth where he’s bitten into his own tongue.

“Don’t keep me waiting, Dad. Hm, should I call you Dad? Doesn’t sound right. How about scum? Or piece of shit? That sounds more fitting for someone who”d treat their only daughter like crap for their entire life.” I pull him to his feet before pushing him forward again, he finds his footing this time and propels himself upstairs.

“Which one is her room?” I ask as we reach the top.

He nods towards a closed door up ahead and says, “there, it’s locked.”

“And why’s that? Force of habit?” I sneer at him before kicking the lock in with my boot. The door flies open and bounces loudly against the wall. “If you try to run, it won’t be fun for you,” I call back over my shoulder before stepping inside.

A nervous energy courses through me as I enter Willow”s room. I’m not sure what I expected but being smacked in the face by everything that’s her wasn’t it. Her smell is the first thing that hits me and my cock stirs in response.

I flick the light switch on and see just how small the room is. A single bed sits next to the window and the only other furniture is a bookcase, a dresser and a small desk cramped into one corner.

I know from just the briefest glance that this room couldn’t belong to anyone else. She’s really left her mark here. Her sketches decorate the walls and everything’s so soft and pastel from the bedding to the clothes hanging over the desk chair. I run my fingers over it all imagining her touching it all.

Just how many hours did she spend cramped in here?

This is what I want our house to be like, warm and lived in. I want Willow’s mark on everything, I want to see her in everything I own.

There’s a large sketch book left open on her desk and I wonder why she didn’t take it with her. As I look around, I see just how much she had to leave behind and I know she must have been desperate to only take the few essentials I found her with.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing but I grab an empty rucksack from the floor and gather up all her sketchbooks before gently putting them in, being sure not to damage any of the pages. Then I carefully take each piece of her artwork from the walls and slip them inside the bag as well. Everything else in this room can be replaced if she wants but I know her art is what brought her some security whilst she was here and is irreplaceable.

Hoisting the bag over my shoulder, I close the door behind me. The spot where I told Henry to stay put is of course empty. When I head downstairs, I find him lying on the floor with Bones massive platform boot covering most of his face.

“Caught us a rat,” Bones sing-songs. “Car”s ready, can we leave now?”

“Please, just take whatever you want! Just don’t kill me!” Henry”s cries are muffled and I think he might actually be crying from how pathetically wet his voice sounds.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” I say ignoring the mess of a man on the floor.

“Finally,” Bones sighs with relief before bringing his boot down hard against Henry’s head knocking him out cold.

I get to work binding his ankles and slapping a piece of tape over his mouth before helping Bones carry him through the house to the interior door in the kitchen that connects directly to the garage.

“Abato and his wife were using her to have a baby,” Bones says out of nowhere and I almost drop Henry on his head. I’m tempted to, just to give him another bruise to match his already purpling eye. “She was just meant to be a bit of fun. I saw her and knew I couldn’t leave her there but I didn’t think I’d end up getting attached. The shit they did to her, Dean.” I can see the mix of anger and frustration in his eyes as he struggles with his emotions.

Bones’s girl seems to have a lot more demons for him to conquer than mine does and I know it’ll be a battle for him but it’s one he’s more than capable of winning.

“You don’t want to hurt her,” I say, understanding what he’s going through. “But you can’t help yourself.” Bones nods solemnly and I add, “if you need my help with anything just ask. Feel like I owe you a few now.”

“Don’t worry, I’m keeping count.” He shrugs himself off and we close the trunk on Henry. “Let’s go burn this fuckers place down.”

In the kitchen, I turn the gas on whilst Bones pours gasoline down the hall. He lights up a cigarette taking a long drag before placing it down on the edge of a table so the end hangs over the spilt gasoline.

We leave in the car and in the rearview mirror I see the orange glow of the fire as it spreads behind the windows of the house as we drive further away from it.

I’m reminded of the first fire I started and how, just like then, I’m taking another huge step forward in my life.

“Willow’s really changed you.”

“Can you stop saying her name already? I really don’t want to have to punch you in your pretty face but I will.”

Bones snorts out a laugh then says, “see! You’re such a softie now. The old you would have smacked some sense into me then told me to suck it up and move on with a kill or a fuck.”

“Or both,” I smirk.

That’s exactly what I’ll be doing soon and I can’t wait, my cock’s already hard just thinking about it. I never considered it before but my job’s going to become even more fun now that I get to fuck Willow after every kill.