Chapter 19

AIDEN

Icouldn't believe I asked a serial killer if he was going to kill me. Then again, I couldn't believe my boyfriend was not only a serial killer but the same one who had kidnapped me when I was a teenager and let me go.

Sure, I didn't remember the actual events that happened during the time I'd disappeared, but I wasn't stupid. There was the scar and the questions from the cops, not to mention the reporters and their news stories. I knew I had somehow escaped death.

My heart raced as I watched him stand and start to pace. There was nothing I could do but sit there and wait for him to seal my fate.

"You still—" he started but cut himself off. "Fuck." Nate spun away from me and shoved his hands through his hair, tugging on the strands. When he turned back and looked at me, his eyes were full of sorrow, and my heart sank.

He shook his head as he slowly made his way back over to the bed, but he didn't kneel or get on it with me. Instead, he looked down at me as though I'd just broken his heart.

"Little bird…" His voice cracked. "I could never kill you. Don't you see?" He let out a resigned sigh. "Because it might have taken me a long time to figure it out, but I was finally able to put words to how you made me feel. And those words were that I love you. Or, at least, in the only way I can."

A shudder ran through my body, but it wasn't one of fear or disgust.

The worst part was I believed him. But we could never be together. I was a cop, and he was a serial killer. We could never work.

"Right." His mask started to slide back in place, his voice going cold and distant as he took a step away from me. "Well, I suppose this is the part where you tell me you have no choice but to turn me in and ask me not to do anything stupid."

Confusion clouded my thoughts. He was right. It should be what I did next. So why hadn't I thought about it before he mentioned it?

"No," I said, shaking my head. My heart raced, and there was a lump in my throat that was damn near impossible to swallow.

My limbs felt like rubber as I slid off the bed and my heart gave a triumphant fist pump at Nate's instinctual reaction to make sure I was able to stand without falling over.

"Stop." I had no idea what I was saying, but I didn't want the mask, only the real Nate. "Just stop, Nate." My hand reached out to the nightstand at my side to steady myself.

Nate's shoulders slumped, and he looked defeated. He looked around, but from the look on his face, he couldn't find what he was looking for. With a sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Here," he said, holding out the phone to me. "I don't know where yours is, but I guess you can use mine to call whoever you need to. And don't worry, I won't do anything stupid."

Shocked, I stood there not moving. Even when he took a tentative step towards me and placed his phone in my hand before he turned and walked out of the room.

"What the fuck?" There was no one left in the room to answer me, though. I looked down at the phone in my hand and frowned.

He really thought I was going to turn him in.

Fuck, he was an idiot.

I threw the phone on my bed and walked as quickly as my throbbing body would let me. I let out a relieved huff when I found him sitting on the couch, where I had been earlier.

"You're a real stupid sonofabitch, you know that?" I practically yelled, making him jump, his eyes wide as he stared up at me. "Why didn't you kill me? You had my unconscious body bleeding out in your arms. Instead, you took care of me, brought me home, and tucked me into bed. Why?"

Tears pricked my eyes and blurred my vision as I stood my ground.

Nate cocked his head, confused. "I told you why. I said I couldn't."

"Exactly!" I threw my hands up, well, as best I could before I winced and wrapped my arms around myself instead. "You couldn't do it. You couldn't kill me. And you didn't think, that in the four days I sat here, alone and confused, that I didn't come to the same fucking conclusion?" I stared at him as though he were missing a few marbles. "Dumbass," I muttered.

"Wait. What?" His eyes were wide as he stared at me and tried to make sense of what I said.

I shook my head and let out a brittle chuckle. "I couldn't do it any more than you could." My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath. "Believe me, I thought about it plenty. Hell, even now, I know it's the right thing to do." I bit my lip, looked down at him, and shook my head.

Nate slowly reached up and tugged at my hands, which still gripped my upper arms, and pulled me gently, just enough so I took the couple of steps needed to close the distance between us. His hands rubbed up and down my arms, a look of wonder on his face as he stared up at me.

I knew what he was thinking, because I'd been thinking the same thing ever since I woke up alone in my bed after our confrontation.

That we'd never have this again.

Never touch, never kiss, never love.

But there we were, and it was right there for us, if we were brave, or stupid, enough to reach out and take it.

He let go of my hands and went to my hips, gently easing me down so I straddled his thighs, watching me for any sign of pain or hesitance. But there was none. Nothing ever felt more right than being with him, as crazy as it sounded.

"What does this mean, little bird? I need you to be very clear and very plain about what you want." His words were slow and his caress on my hips and lower back was soft and soothing.

"I… I don't know how we can make this work. But I love you, baby, and know I can't turn you in." I shook my head. "But I'm a cop, and I don't know how I can go to work every day knowing what I know." My words were soft and anguished.

"We could leave," he suggested, his warm palms blazing a path of heat and love everywhere they touched. "Fly away with me, little bird."

I scoffed at the suggestion, but his eyes told me how serious he was. Swallowing my words, I considered his.

"How? Where would we go?" I shook my head, reality crashing down on me. "I can't leave my parents. After what they went through before, I couldn't disappear on them. Not again." A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I leaned forward and put my head on Nate's chest.

"You could just quit your job. We could stay here for a while, and then go." When I went to interject, he put a hand over my mouth and continued. "I don't mean run away. We can plan a move, maybe in six months or so. But you wouldn't be able to tell anyone but your parents." He let out a sigh. "Eventually, though, we would have to move on to somewhere more permanent, but no one would be able to know about that."

Was that something I could do? Could I give up my job?

"I can't just quit my job, baby. I have a mortgage and bills to pay." While I would have loved to give in to his idea, it wasn't feasible. Though, that didn't mean I couldn't start looking for a new job right away.

"Sure you can. I'll pay off your mortgage and pay your bills. In fact, you could just move in with me."

I barked out a laugh so hard I had to clutch at my side as it felt like daggers were stabbing me. "Fuck."

Nate looked at me with concern. "You okay?"

I nodded and felt him relax under me.

"What was so funny anyway?" The perplexed look on his face made me snort.

"Well, everything we just went through aside, it's kind of soon, isn't it?" I paused, another question demanding to be asked. "Okay, I need to know. What the fuck is with your house?"

Nate cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," I said, drawing out the word, "it's like a fucking mansion. Is that really your house? Why? How?"

He let out a chuckle, and his cheeks actually turned pink with embarrassment. "Yeah, that's my house," he said with a shrug. "I mean, I don't know why I didn't say anything. I guess I don't really think about it."

"Are you secretly rich or something?" My eyes narrowed, but I let out a chuckle.

"Aiden… I… I didn't think it was a secret."

My jaw practically dropped to the floor. "Wait. What?"

"I told you, I own properties, rehab them, repurpose them, and sell them."

"Riiiight. Like a flipper." I was so confused. I'd watched house flipping shows, so I knew there was money to be made, but it wasn't mansion kind of money.

Nate shook his head. "Shit. Yes, but no. I guess we never really got into it and talked about it. At the time, it was easier the less you really knew about me." He shot me an apologetic smile.

"So I do residential and commercial properties. There are a multitude of corporations that I operate under—we won't get to that," he said with a look that had me biting my tongue. "But I inherited my parents' development company when they died."

He stopped and bit his lip, and it made me want to throw up. Nate was never nervous. I'd never seen him have a nervous tic once since I met him.

I reached out and cupped his face in my hands, but I didn't say anything. He just needed to know I was there with him, to ground him, the way his hands rubbing small circles on my back grounded me.

He blew out a breath and then took a deep one. "When they died, the company was worth just under a billion dollars, and now, just that company is worth double."

My body went still, eyes wide, lungs frozen, and I stared at him.

To be honest, what he said broke my brain. It was incomprehensible to me and I realized then that was a sort of wealth he'd always known. In fact it was probably what had kept him out of prison.

"Holy shit," I muttered. "And you have other companies, too." He started to say something, and I moved my hands from his cheeks to his mouth, shaking my head. "I don't want to know."

My eyes fell closed, and I tried to relearn how to breathe properly. His hands kneaded into my skin helped ground me. When I opened my eyes and stared into his, all I saw was his love for me.

It might not look the same as it would on anyone else, but that didn't make me doubt it. In fact, it made me love him even more. There was nothing he wouldn't do for me, and he proved that by killing for me—even if it had been completely unnecessary.

Fuck, I was in love with a serial killer.

But as I leaned in and brushed our lips together, I knew no one would ever love me as completely or as fiercely as Nate.

"I love you, baby," I whispered against his lips and sealed my fate.

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