Chapter 25 - Callum

What would surviving the darkness of my mind look like? Beyond what I’ve already had to do.

I know what it would look like.

I’d belong to Stone.

I’d give myself over to him completely. I wouldn’t give a damn who he killed, as long as he killed for me.

I’d be his.

Utterly, unequivocally his.

But he’d be mine too.

I heard him that night in the hotel room while he was warming his fingers in my ass and I was drifting off. He’s given himself to me, so why can’t I give myself to him? Is it just stubbornness? Is it fear? Is it that what little light my soul might possess is trying so damn hard to keep the dark from snuffing it out before it turns black?

I’m so tired of being stubborn and afraid that I almost don’t care about the rest.

That’s where my head has been all night. Not on the game that we just lost. Not on where my feet are taking me. They’re on autopilot, and I can only hope they’re taking me in the direction of home.

If they took me to Stone’s instead, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I’m so far out of my head that I don’t realize I’ve made it to the end of the parking lot until I’m starting down the path between two of the academic buildings on my way through campus. I also don’t register the sound of footsteps behind me until they’re right on top of me.

A hand comes over my mouth, keeping me from crying out in shock. The next thing I know, my back is pressed against the wall of the nearest building, a second hand on the back of my head to keep it from hitting the brick.

“It’s just me.”

Stone’s voice reaches me less than a second later, preventing me from panicking for longer than two spiked heartbeats. Why he couldn’t have announced himself sooner is beyond me.

Did he think I’d run from him?

I’m guessing that’s exactly why because his hand is still over my mouth, his body trapping me between him and the wall.

“I have to break my promise to you again, Callum.”

Well, that sounds ominous.

However, I don’t freak out or struggle because despite what he said, I’m not afraid of him.

“I have to force you to do something. I need you to come with me somewhere tonight. It’s not my apartment, but I can’t tell you where.”

The first place my mind goes is that he’s finally going to kill for me again. I didn’t realize how much tension I was holding onto until it fades away.

Stone must feel it because he says, “It’s not a kill.”

The disappointment that follows makes something abundantly clear.

I want him.

I want his kills.

And I don’t think I care what else comes with it.

Stone’s hand falls away, moving to the wall beside my head. His eyes plead with me in the dark. “Don’t say no.”

“If I do?”

One corner of Stone’s mouth tilts up. “I can always stuff you into the trunk of my car again.”

I roll my eyes, but I can’t tell if it’s a joke.

“Come on, Cal. Please, trust me.”

His brows are pulled low, that familiar sight of an internal struggle happening just behind his eyes. He doesn’t want to force me. If I had to guess, he hasn’t even made a decision as to if he would go through with it.

I choose to have mercy on him and not make him decide.

“Fine.”

A faint burst of warm air ghosts across my lips as he lets out a sigh. It tastes like relief.

I don’t know if I’m upset that he’s still treating me so carefully or in awe over whatever superpower I have over a literal murderer. If I steered into the latter, maybe that first part wouldn’t bother me so much.

Placing my palm against his chest, I push. He goes back easily.

I can’t help but grin. “You’re kind of my bitch, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he responds without a second’s hesitation.

Shaking my head, I laugh. “Come on, bitch.”

We head back toward the lot, and I follow Stone to his car. It roars to life, and the seat rumbles beneath me as he navigates out of campus and to the highway.

“You still can’t tell me where you’re taking me?”

His eyes remain on the road ahead. “Pennsylvania.”

“Excuse me?”

My heart is immediately in my throat. I’ve been back to Pennsylvania for games, of course, but the thought of returning there with Stone sets me on edge.

He reaches over and takes a hold of my hand, giving it a squeeze. Taking his gaze off the road long enough to give me a comforting smile, he says, “Trust me.”

I can trust Stone. I do trust Stone.

“Okay.”

He takes his hand away, and I almost reach for it back. Because I know I’m closer to reaching a decision about him. About everything.

But I’ll wait until whatever it is Stone has planned.

We get into Pennsylvania a little after midnight. I must have drifted off because when my eyes open, I realize the car is no longer moving.

Peering out the window, I see we’re parked in the driveway of a single-story, red-brick house in a nice, quiet neighborhood. I look to my left to see Stone scrolling aimlessly on his phone.

“How long have we been parked?”

“About fifteen minutes.” He turns off his screen and faces me. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

Despite having just slept in a car, I was fucking out. I haven’t slept that hard in days.

The light from the front porch floods Stone’s face, and the easy smile there brings me closer to forgetting all about whatever stupid morals I might still be clinging to.

I could try to save my soul at the risk of losing my mind to the shadows. Or I could let Stone save my mind and worry about my soul later. He’s saved me so often, maybe he’d find a way to save that too.

“Where are we?” I ask as I look back to the house.

“My home. Well, my family’s home.”

My gaze snaps back to him. “Why?”

I feel like I’m supposed to be freaking out right now at the thought of meeting Stone’s family. But I’m not. Maybe just a little surprised.

“You’ll see,” is all he says before he opens his door and gets out of the car.

I follow him out and to the front door of the house. He unlocks it with the keys in his hand, and we step inside. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I don’t think it was something so… normal .

A brown leather couch and loveseat set take up most of the living room, surrounding a mahogany coffee table. Even though it’s well past midnight, light from a lamp on one of the end tables casts the room in a dim yellow glow. Family photographs take up space on a couple small bookshelves and hang along the walls. Above the fireplace is a large portrait of a young Stone with his sister and their parents. There’s a small, wooden cabin and a lake in the background.

Stone has told me a little about his family. How his father died when he was twelve. How his mother overworks herself as an ER nurse. How his older sister still lives at home to help out their mom and works out of their father’s old office as an IT analyst.

I guess even though I knew all of that, I hadn’t tried to picture what the home of people who raised a serial killer would look like.

“My mom’s at work right now,” Stone says as he peers around the corner into the kitchen where the light above the stove is on. He turns back to me and asks, “Would you like something to drink?”

“I’m okay.”

I’m more curious as to what we’re doing here.

“Alright. Come on.”

He heads down a hallway, and I follow after him. There are more framed photos lining these walls too. Some are of his parents. Some are of him and his sister. There are pictures of graduations, birthday parties, and vacations. They look like such a happy family.

Something in my chest aches. Something for me and something for Stone too.

We come to a set of double doors, and Stone knocks. Two seconds later, there’s a mechanical whirring and then a click, like an electric lock.

When he opens the door, the first thing that strikes me is the contrast between this room and what I’ve seen of the rest of the house.

Here’s the lack of normal.

There are at least half a dozen screens of various sizes taking up the far wall. A corner desk is situated on the right side of the room with another desk pushed up against it. The only light comes from the glow of the monitors and rainbow LEDs beneath the desks and flashing from several keyboards.

It’s like some kind of evil lair.

I turn to Stone and arch a brow. “IT analyst?”

“Among other things.”

The feminine voice comes from further inside the room. When what appears to be an expensive gaming chair swivels around, I spot Stone’s sister perched on it with her legs crossed.

I think I’d recognize her even if we weren’t inside this room in this house. They look so much alike. Same ivory skin and beautiful smile. Same piercing eyes, though hers appear to be a brighter shade of green. Most of her hair is black like Stone’s, but the front sections around her face are a hot pink.

She beams at her brother and hops out of her chair before crossing the room and throwing herself at him.

“It’s about time, jackass,” she says as she pulls back from their embrace and slaps him on the shoulder.

He chuckles. “Good to see you too, Lace.”

She turns to me, still smiling. “This must be Callum.”

I peer at Stone with another raised brow.

“What?” he asks with a shameless grin. “I can’t shut up about you. Are you really so surprised?”

Shaking my head, I turn back to Lacey with my cheeks a little warm. “It’s nice to meet you. I hope you haven’t believed everything he’s said.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “He’s never lied to me before.”

“Just by omission,” Stone admits.

“See, even that’s the truth.” Lacey laughs quietly as she faces me. “He’s already told me what you came to hear.”

“What I…” I look between the both of them. “I’m sorry. What?”

“You know. About how he chooses his victims. Or, technically, how I choose them for him.”

Holy fuck.

Well, if Stone was planning on dropping a bomb on me tonight, mission accomplished.

When my eyes find his, I see a familiar look in them. He’s watching me, studying me. Scouring through everything he sees while dissecting my reaction. I’m not sure what he witnesses there because I have no idea what the fuck to think right now.

Turning back to Lacey, I ask her, “You know what he does?”

She laughs again. “Of course. His first victims were the three men who assaulted me when I was nineteen. It made us both feel a lot better.”

Now it’s just bomb after bomb. They’re exploding in my mind, and I have a feeling I’m going to be experiencing the aftershocks for a long time after tonight.

Lacey was the person Stone was talking about when he said someone close to him had been attacked. He spent a long time researching what comes after an assault like that. He killed for her. His first kills.

His protective instincts clearly didn’t start with me.

It warms my heart that he loves his sister that much. That he’s capable of that.

I admit I feel some relief.

The way Lacey speaks makes it sound as though it’s no big deal. I know that can’t be right. At the very least, she’s done a lot of healing. Maybe more than I have. It would be selfish of me to be jealous, so I focus on her last words instead. Sure, I don’t think it’s abnormal to rejoice in your assaulter’s demise. However, the pure delight in her tone makes me wonder if she could share some of Stone’s psychopathic tendencies.

But the biggest revelation is that Lacey knows . Not only does she know, but she chooses his victims for him.

“How?” My voice cracks on the one word. I clear my throat. “How do you choose them?”

“I’ll show you,” she says, sounding very happy to do so as she grabs my hand and pulls me toward her impressive setup.

Stone follows us, remaining silent.

Lacey plops herself down in her chair and rolls it until she’s in front of a different keyboard. She starts typing, the clacky sounds of the mechanical switches filling the room. The largest screen in front of us shifts between several windows and applications. Meanwhile, other screens appear to be running computer code or operating on their own.

“Here.” She points to one of the smaller monitors where mugshots are scrolling by along with names and information. “Registered sex offenders.”

“That’s it?” I ask, a little less impressed.

She laughs and shakes her head. “No.”

I roll my eyes, but I can’t suppress a grin.

They’re also both smartasses.

“It’s just one reference I use,” Lacey says. “Among many others. Most of the names I send to Stone aren’t on this list. It’s the ones who haven’t been caught and punished we’re more interested in.”

“So how do you get those names?”

Stone’s hand touches my lower back. I peer at him over my shoulder to see him staring at the biggest screen, his jaw ticking. He’s gravitated closer to me, like he’s afraid I’ll simply vanish at any second.

Lacey pulls up a Tor browser. I recognize it because I used it once a long time ago.

“There are a lot of websites on the dark web that are safe spaces for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors. It’s not just for criminals, you know. I created my own site after Stone came to me and said he wanted to do more, that he wanted justice for more people than just me.”

I look over at Stone again. This time, he meets my gaze with a pointed look.

So his sister doesn’t know about his baser murderous impulses.

I can live with that.

Especially if this means Stone is killing people who deserve it.

What that means for Eric’s uncle, I don’t know yet. Right now, that’s the last thing on my mind.

Because when Lacey pulls up a forum under a URL consisting of a string of random letters and numbers…I recognize that too.

“Usually, I’ll wait until these names have a couple of cases against them,” she says as she tabs through several threads. “Unless the crime is more severe or there are innocent lives at risk. I like to make sure before I send them to Stone so he can pick off the scum of the universe one by one. But then there’s…”

I’m not paying attention to what she’s saying anymore. My eyes go a little out of focus, RGB lights blinking in my periphery.

“Callum?”

Stone’s voice pulls me back into his gravity, and I turn to face him. “It was you.”

His body is rigid, his mouth in a thin line. The rise and fall of his chest is a little harsher than usual, matching the flicker of fear in his eyes.

“You killed my stepdad.” The words come out as a shaky whisper but full of conviction.

I know .

Stone doesn’t so much as blink as he holds me a prisoner with nothing but his eyes. They’re as captivating as ever. He’s afraid I’m going to go running at any second, but even if I tried, I think I’d just get lost in the forests that make up his soul.

“Woah.” Lacey breaks the brief silence. “Who was your stepdad?”

I don’t break the connection between me and Stone by looking away as I answer. “Lewis Gibson.”

“Lewis Gibson. Lewis Gibson.” Lacey mutters his name several times. I don’t hear the sound of keys, so I think she’s trying to remember the name instead of looking him up. “Oh shit. I’m sorry, Callum.”

I don’t know what she’s apologizing for. For what he did to me? For everything I shared in that forum because, like she said, it was a safe space? For having her brother kill him?

“Lace,” Stone says, gaze still locked with mine. “Can you give us a minute please?”

“Sure.” There’s the creaking of her chair, the hum of the electric lock, the sound of her footsteps, the opening of the door. “Just please don’t fuck in my office.”

Then we’re alone.

Stone’s Adam’s apple moves with a swallow. “Callum, I—”

“You saved me.”

His lips part, and a rush of air bursts past them. His shoulders slump as though the weight of the world has lifted off them.

Did he really think I’d hate him for it?

How could he have thought I’d be anything but grateful?

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I couldn’t tell you Lacey knew, not without her permission. I’ve never told her I enjoy killing just to kill. She might suspect it, but if we stick to my killing the scum of the universe as she likes to say, then she doesn’t have to worry about me going off the rails. But I couldn’t tell you that either because then you might’ve guessed I was the one to kill Lewis. And…fuck, Callum. I was scared. I can’t—”

Taking a step forward, I place my hand against the side of his face. “You saved me, Stone.”

He leans into my touch. “You had to move to a whole different state. Leave your friends behind. It changed your entire life.”

“For the better .”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he says as he places his hand over mine, holding it to him. “I just don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. I don’t think I could accept it. I’d do anything to keep you. And we both know if I hurt you, I’d have to hurt myself too.”

I grin and shake my head. “That’s so fucking toxic.”

His other hand comes up and wraps around my throat in a show of possession that I don’t have the strength to fight.

That I don’t want to fight anymore.

“Do you understand what I’m telling you?” he asks.

His fingers tremble around my neck. His entire body damn near vibrates with the effort of holding back what he really wants to say.

He’s holding it back for me.

But he doesn’t have to anymore.

“That I’m yours.”

Another breath full of tension expels from his lips and passes over mine as he leans forward, pressing his forehead against mine. “Say it again.”

“I’m yours, Stone. I belong to you.”

Then he kisses me. And I know he’ll claim me so thoroughly I’ll never doubt it ever again.