Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Ty

M y hands clench into fists at my sides.

I’d love nothing more than to kill Keith all over again. Keith and that damn bastard Carl Rylee. I want to torture them for days, months even, for what they did to Lakelynn. Too bad, I didn’t. Mr. Rylee was my first kill. I ended him quickly in an angry rage. With Keith, I took a little time, but not enough, as I was in a hurry to get back to Lakelynn.

My entire life revolves around her. I want to be with her night and day. The only time I’m not is when I’m taking care of things I need to do—like cleaning up my murders or participating in illegal fights so I can provide for her.

Fucking Keith up felt good. I’d do it again if I could. Just hearing his screams as I cut off his fingers made my dick hard. Shoving that empty beer bottle up his ass, assaulting him as he’d planned to do to my Lakelynn, was more than a little satisfying.

I’m tempted to mangle Keith’s lifeless body even more after watching Lakelynn toss and turn all night. She whined and begged for Mr. Rylee to stop as her nightmare haunted her sleep.

It fueled my rage. The memory of coming home to find Lakelynn battered and bruised consumes me. I’ve regretted the choice I made that night for years. If I’d stayed home instead of sneaking out after we fought, I could have prevented it. She was only sixteen years old when Mr. Rylee took her virginity. She didn’t deserve that fate; no one does. Every time should be a choice, not something that’s forced.

It was hard for me to stay where I was last night, watching Lakelynn suffer through the cameras and sensors I placed in her apartment. But I had to take care of Keith the way he deserved and then get rid of all the evidence, like paying off a hacker buddy to wipe the street cameras.

So my only option was to keep an eye on Lakelynn from my tablet screen all through the night and in the morning when she left for her run. I’d just finished my tasks when I noticed she forgot her keys. I intervened then.

God, letting her see me in the daylight is another form of aphrodisiac.

The image of Lakelynn standing in the hall replays in my mind as I walk home. Her face was flushed with exertion, her hair falling out of her ponytail, and the way her chest rose and fell rapidly from her quick breathing. God, she was so fucking beautiful.

I stop at a street vendor to buy two breakfast burritos. The man doesn’t comment on my strange appearance, but I can tell it takes him effort not to. I grab my order and walk on, unbothered by the vendor’s wariness of me.

A child plays with a basketball outside a row of townhouses. He’s practicing dribbling. It bounces away from him, toward the street. The boy gives chase. In the distance, a car drives closer.

They’ll collide if the boy doesn’t stop.

Fuck it.

Raising my arm, I chuck one of my burritos. It hits the boy in the head and he topples to the ground.

“Oh, my God!” A woman walking down the sidewalk rushes to the boy’s side. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

I scoff. I don’t give a fuck about her or what she thinks about me. Ignoring her screeching, I pass by them at the same moment as the car does. Neither notice I just did that kid a favor. Instead, the woman clings to the child, as if to protect him from the creepy masked man. Her fearful gaze stares up at me.

Good. They should be afraid. I’m pissed off I lost my breakfast. It lies in a scattered mess on the sidewalk.

“You're fucking welcome,” I snap.

Continuing on my way, I turn down an alley sandwiched between business buildings a block and half later. The homeless gather around a fire barrel, warming their hands. I stop to do the same.

Luther nods at me. I pass the extra burrito to him.

“Thanks, man,” he says.

I grunt in reply.

Luther doesn’t have a drug or alcohol problem. His homelessness is more prestigious, or so he says. He’s here doing research for a documentary about homeless people and the epidemic of it. I fear he may have gotten too comfortable. He’s been living out here with the rest of us for six months now.

Maybe he just needs that one big break to make it, or he could be telling the truth and have a decent amount of money hidden somewhere. There’s no telling, but I don’t pry or judge.

I’m out here too. I make enough money to survive without struggles, but I’d rather support Lakelynn and give her the life she deserves than use it for myself. Her wellbeing comes first.

It’s not too bad out here, honestly. No one has the balls to make a move on me here, thanks to my reputation at the fights and the mask I always wear. When I walk, the crowd parts; when I look at someone, they move their gaze away.

Except Luther. We have a mutual understanding of respect that we’ve built the last several months he’s been out here. He splits his breakfast with the guy standing next to him. Ever the good guy.

I pat his shoulder before walking over to my tent. I unzip the opening, slip inside, and zip it back to ensure privacy. My minuscule amount of belongings are where I left them. I dig my tablet out of my hoodie before lying down on my sleeping bag.

Once it’s powered on, I check on Lakelynn. She’s fast asleep on her bed. After a night of tossing and turning and then going for a run, she must be exhausted. I watch her sleeping form. One bare leg peeks out of her blanket, revealing her hip clad in a pair of black lace panties. Her wavy blonde hair spills over her pillow.

She’s so beautiful, with a youthful look of innocence. The same innocence I saw in her years ago. Things could’ve been good for us. We could’ve been together. Once upon a time, we could’ve been possible. Until that asshole Mr. Rylee ruined everything. Until he put his mark on her soul and ripped away the light in her eyes.

Our lives were changed forever after that fateful night. My hands stained with blood and her entire being stained with violation.