Lights Out: Chapter 24

To quote one of my favorite TV shows, “Everything hurt, and I was dying.”

Okay, so maybe not literally, but it felt pretty close. My shins throbbed. A deep, pulsing ache radiated from my right shoulder to my elbow. Despite the way I’d sidestepped Aly’s questions, I’d definitely hit my ribs.

I probably wasn’t in any position to teach my girlfriend a lesson about breaking her word to me, but was I about to tell her that? Hell no. The way she kept jumping every time I moved too quickly, like she expected me to pounce any second, was far too satisfying.

I reached for her front door handle a little faster than was necessary, and she flinched so hard that she almost fell sideways into a planter. Oh, this was too good. So good that I was starting to think it was better to delay the punishment I had planned and focus on mental warfare.

“You doing okay, babe?” I asked, fighting the urge to grin. “You seem kind of jumpy.”

She sent me a disgruntled look that had no business being so adorable. “I’m just impatient to get inside.”

Right. As much fun as it was to torment her, we couldn’t linger out here. Our clothes were still damp, and we needed to get out of them and check ourselves over for any injuries that might require treatment.

I slipped my key into the lock and opened the door for Aly, indicating she should go first. She passed me sideways, eyes narrowed and body tense like she was bracing for an attack. The urge to lunge was strong, but I held it in check. We’d been through hell tonight, and the last thing she needed was another rush of adrenaline when her flight or fight response kicked in.

A high-pitched yowl hit my ears as I closed the door behind us. Fred came skittering out of Aly’s bedroom with his tail held high and mouth wide open as he announced how pissed he was that we’d left him alone. Maybe it was time to start thinking about getting him a little brother or sister, someone to keep him company while Aly and I were working or having Mommy-Daddy time.

Before meeting Aly, I’d never let myself think about what having my own family might be like – I’d been too afraid of passing on my genes to contemplate it – but it felt like I was already forming one with this woman. Now that I trusted myself around small things, I couldn’t get the idea of a fluffy little kitten out of my head. It seemed like the next logical step, and I could already see it now: the four of us snuggled together on the couch, Aly sipping wine, and me rubbing her feet while we talked about our days, the cats curled between us.

Ahead of me, Aly leaned down and scooped Fred up. “We weren’t even gone that long.”

Fred headbutted her in the chin hard enough that I heard a low thunk from the impact.

I let them have their moment of reunion while I shucked off my jacket and unlaced my boots. By the time I reached them, Fred was purring loud enough to wake the dead, eyes closed in bliss while he made biscuits in Aly’s shoulder.

I ruffled the fur between his ears, grinning when he rewarded me with a little chirrup of welcome. “He’s probably just clingy after all the upheaval of the past few days.”

Aly hugged him closer. “Poor baby.”

“I’ll go start the shower,” I said, leaning in to kiss her temple. “We need to get cleaned up and warm.”

She turned to me, pupils dilating, cheeks flushing, and I knew she was thinking about the last time we’d been in a shower together.

I nearly groaned. More than anything, I wanted to be inside her again. I’d spent half the night terrified we were about to get caught and I’d have to watch my girlfriend get put into handcuffs. I needed the reassurance that she was safe, that she was okay, and nothing could give me that like having her wrapped in my arms, moaning my name.

“Don’t take too long,” I said before striding away from her.

I put my phone on the bathroom counter before starting the shower. I’d turned the device’s volume as high as it went because I was paranoid after Brad’s break-in and wanted to hear if any of the freshly tuned alarms I’d set for the doors went off. I didn’t love that Aly’s family had the keys to her place. They seemed as bad with boundaries as I was, and I didn’t trust their intentions. Maybe I could convince Aly to change the locks if she wasn’t already set on doing it. From the wary looks she’d given Junior on the ride back to the warehouse, she trusted him even less than I did.

I left the door cracked as I pulled off my damp clothes and set them on the tile floor. A glance in the mirror stopped me in my tracks. Deep purple was starting to bloom along my right side. I knew enough about first aid to realize it wasn’t a great sign, so I dragged in a deep breath to see how bad it was. My ribs pinched with discomfort, but the pain wasn’t as intense as the time Dad kicked me in the side with his steel-toe boots, so I didn’t think any were cracked.

I lifted my gaze and nearly flinched. I’d been so obsessed with Aly recently that I’d skipped my last haircut, and between how long it had gotten and the dark circles beneath my eyes from exhaustion, the resemblance to the monster who fathered me was uncanny.

Unable to look at myself any longer, I jerked my gaze away and got into the shower.

Fuck, what a night. I had no idea how I’d kept it cool inside Brad’s place for as long as I had. If not for my need to wipe Aly from Brad’s hard drive, I doubted I would have even made it to that computer.

The sickly-sweet smell of decomposition had plunged me into one of my most haunting childhood memories, and I’d spent the whole time in Brad’s house breathing through my mouth to avoid it. I swore I could still detect a hint of decay clinging to my skin, and, needing to be clean, I grabbed a nearby soap bar and started scrubbing it off.

I was still scrubbing when Aly slipped into the shower with me, and as much as I wanted her in my arms, I couldn’t make myself stop.

“Josh?” she said, placing her hand over my wrist.

“I smell it on me,” I blurted.

From the way her face crumpled, she knew without having to ask what I was talking about. She took the soap from me and stepped close, putting her nose into my chest. “You smell clean.”

“You’re sure?” I asked, hating how small my voice sounded.

She rose on her tiptoes and sniffed my neck. Next, she lifted each of my arms and gave them the same treatment. “Nothing but lemon verbena.”

I tipped my head toward the yellow bar in her grip. “Is that what that is?”

She nodded and set it on the soap tray, taking my hands as she turned back to me. “I’m guessing you recognized the smell of bodies because of something to do with your father?”

I squeezed her fingers, grounding myself in her touch. “Yeah.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I lifted my head, looking past her, and the words started pouring out of me before I could stop them. “It happened the summer I turned eleven. Dad took me with him into town for some reason. His car stank to high heaven, so bad that even riding with all the windows open, I was gagging when he finally parked. I asked him what it was, and he said he’d hit a raccoon the night before, and some of it must have stuck to the undercarriage and was rotting because of the heat wave. Back then, I did whatever I could to stay in his good graces, so I went to the trunk to find something to clean it off with. Before I could get it open, Dad pushed me away so hard that I fell onto the pavement.”

I lifted my right arm, bending it to show Aly my elbow. “That’s where this scar came from.”

She leaned in and kissed it, her expression full of sympathy. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

I nodded and let my arm fall back to my side. “At the time, I was used to his anger, but that day, he looked scared, helping me up when people stopped to watch, telling them it was an accident, and apologizing to me like he never had before. Instead of going into the store, he told me to get back in the car so he could drive me home and clean my scrapes. Instead, he dropped me in the driveway and then took off for two days. I’m not sure where he went after that, but when he came back, the car was so clean it looked new, and it didn’t smell anymore.”

Aly stepped in close and wrapped her arms around my waist, careful to avoid my ribs, her breasts flattening against my stomach.

Had she been naked this whole time?

Wait, of course, she had. We were in the shower. Jesus, I hated the way memories of Dad still put me in such a chokehold, blinding me to my surroundings.

“You think one of his victims was inside the trunk?” Aly asked.

I hugged her close and rested my chin on her head. “Yeah. Dad was pretty active that summer. I just wish I knew the exact date it happened.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because there are still several missing women he’s suspected of killing who have never been found. If the date lined up with one of their disappearances, it might give the family some sort of closure or help the cops find her. I even tried hypnosis once to draw the details out, but it didn’t work. I feel like a fucking asshole for not being able to remember.”

Aly pulled back, frowning. “You know it’s not your fault, right? That you shouldn’t feel any guilt over it? You were a child, and your mind probably suppressed as much as it could afterward to protect you.”

I nodded and tugged her back in. “I know that, but it still doesn’t make it any easier.”

“I understand,” she said. “It’s the same thing with me and the car accident. Not the memory part, but the guilt part. As much as I know it’s not my fault, I can’t shake the feeling of responsibility.”

“We’ve got some baggage between us, huh?”

Aly choked back a laugh. “Sorry. It’s really not funny.”

I took her by the shoulders and leaned back enough to look at her. “What?”

She scrunched her nose. “I just had a flashback to the other night and the literal baggage between us.”

I grinned. “I get it. It’s not ha-ha funny; it’s fucked up funny.”

The humor faded from her eyes almost as quickly as it had appeared. “I was so afraid for you tonight.”

Her words speared straight into my heart. “I was afraid for you, too.”

She shook her head, water droplets sliding down her face. “No, I mean it, Josh. I could not leave you behind. Not just because I couldn’t stand the thought of you trapped in that house alone with Brad’s poor victims, but because I didn’t trust Junior to keep his word about picking you up after.”

Ah, so she had similar fears about me making a great fall guy or, at the very least, being conveniently expendable. That wasn’t ominous at all.

Before now, I was chalking my suspicion up to paranoia, but knowing my girlfriend had come to the same conclusion made it feel like a much bigger threat. I’d have to be more careful around her family from now on. And I definitely needed to do whatever was necessary to stay on Nico’s good side.

I smoothed Aly’s hair back from her face, wrapping my fingers behind her neck so I could drag her closer. She came willingly, lips parting like she was subconsciously preparing for a kiss.

I dipped down and pressed my forehead against hers, feeling coldness steel up my spine as I remembered how afraid I’d been when she said she was staying behind. “You should have gone with them, even if it put me at risk.”

Her eyes flashed with stubbornness, and she tried to pull away, but I tightened my grip and held her where she was. The breath she released was ragged, and I didn’t miss the fact that even though she looked pissed, her nipples had tightened.

“That isn’t how this works,” she said. “You don’t get to sacrifice yourself for me. This isn’t the medieval times, and I’m not some damsel in distress.”

“The whole point of you staying in the van was so there was no sign of you at the house, Aly.”

“I know that,” she said.

“What if a neighbor saw you? What if a piece of your hair fell out, and the cops find it?”

Fast as lighting, she tipped forward and turned, breaking my grip on her. “My hair was in a braid,” she said, stepping as far back as the shower would allow. “And the closest I got to the house was when I helped you off the patio floor. The likelihood of them finding any sign of me is much lower than them finding some sign of you.”

I shook my head, closing the distance between us. “My hair was covered, and I had gloves on.”

“You might have left behind fabric strands.”

I tilted her chin up to make it easier to meet her eyes. “Fiber analysis is about as reliable as blood splatter these days, and all our clothes were generic polyester for a reason. Any fibers left behind could have come from anything.”

She huffed out a breath. “Fine. I’m sorry I broke my word to you, but I’m not sorry I stayed behind.”

I spun her around, wrapping my arms over her shoulders so I could lean down and speak my next words directly into her ear. “I wasn’t trying to sacrifice myself for you, and the last thing I think you are is a damsel in distress. I just want to keep you safe. And I’m sorry if I’m overbearing about it, but I care about you, Aly. I’m sure Tyler warned you that I tend to go overboard when it comes to the people I care about.”

“He might have mentioned it.”

Noticing that her skin was starting to pebble, I pulled her back beneath the water with me. “I guess we’re at an impasse then. We’ll both do anything to keep each other safe, even if that means pissing the other one off.”

She gripped my forearms and dropped a kiss onto the nearest one. “I’d rather have you care too much than too little.”

I squeezed her tight. “Same.”

We stayed like that for a few moments, the water running over us and heating our night-chilled skin until I felt like the warmth had finally soaked all the way to my bones, chasing away the last of the cold.

Aly hadn’t cleaned herself off yet, so I pulled my arms free and snagged the soap from its tray. I’d take any excuse to touch her, make her feel good, so I took my time rubbing it into her back, making it as much about loosening up her stiff muscles as it was about getting clean. The suds trailed down her skin, and I watched them slip all the way to her perfect ass.

My cock stirred to life as the sight of my naked girlfriend finally drove the lingering darkness away. We’d made it out. We were okay. We were safe. I didn’t know how long it would last, so I planned to make the most of whatever time we had, whether that be weeks or years or the rest of our lives.

I stroked the soap back up, my free hand trailing after it, following a long line of muscle.

Aly let out a soft moan and tipped her head forward. “That feels amazing.”

“Good,” I said, my voice rougher than I intended.

She turned toward me, lips parted as her gaze started to dip from mine to my straining cock. It jerked to a stop halfway there, landing on my side. “Okay, I cannot ignore your ribs any longer.”

The next five minutes consisted of us chronicling our injuries. After some painful poking and prodding, Aly finally agreed that my ribs probably weren’t cracked, just bruised. My shoulder and shins were in the same shape, and Aly, in full nurse mode, said I’d have to ice everything once we got out of the shower, which made me want to delay that moment as long as possible. The thought of pressing anything cold to my skin after how cold I’d been earlier was abhorrent, but from the stubborn look on Aly’s face, if I tried to argue with her again, I would lose.

Luckily, none of the scratches on our faces or necks from all the rogue tree branches were deep or long enough to require stitches. They were unsightly, though, and it made me glad for another excuse to stay locked up in Aly’s house for the next two weeks while we healed.

She stepped back after looking over the last of my scrapes, worrying her lower lip between her teeth in the way that drove me crazy. “Do you feel like we got off too easy?”

“Too easy? No,” I said, indicating my ribs. “But part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

She frowned and started soaping herself up. I did my best to maintain eye contact, but goddamn it, her tits were right there, dripping with suds, and I could already feel them filling my hands, warm and slick and sensitive to my every caress.

“Maybe it’s because we didn’t handle it ourselves,” she said, unaware of my plummeting thoughts. “At least, that’s it for me. I’m used to being in control all the time. The fact that I’m just supposed to trust an estranged uncle and cousins after they said they did their part isn’t sitting well with me. I want to know where the body is, who they’re going to sell Brad’s car parts to, exactly how they plan to trick the cops into thinking he’s fled to Canada.”

“Maybe you can butter Nico up with wine at family dinner and ask him then.”

She nodded. “It’s not a terrible idea. I really want to know how Junior had all those details about the investigation already.”

“Dirty cops,” I said. It was the most logical answer.

Her expression turned contemplative. “That’s what I was thinking, too.”

Unable to help myself, I reached out and stroked my hand over her shoulder. “As much as I hate the idea of dirty cops, having someone on the inside could benefit us. If they continue leaking the investigation to Junior, we’ll know if they find anything pointing to your family or us. Depending on how dirty they are, they might even hide evidence.”

Aly grimaced. “I don’t like benefiting from this kind of thing. It feels too close to what Brad was doing.”

I squeezed her shoulder. “Would you rather go to jail?”

“No,” she said. “I just don’t like it, and yes, I realize that probably makes me a hypocrite.”

I grinned. “Huge hypocrite.”

She slapped my hand away.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. “But a hot one.”

Her response came out muffled because of the way I’d smooshed her face into my chest.

“I’m going to assume you just called me hot, too.”

She reached behind me and pinched my butt hard enough to make me jerk forward, which pinned my dick between our slick skin. I expected her to pull away and say something snarky, but she writhed against me instead. My need for her returned in a rush, all other thoughts drowned out by the memory of how good it felt to shove my cock inside her tight, wet pussy.

“Aly,” I said, stepping away from her. “I want you so bad right now, but if I don’t eat something soon, I’m going to pass out.”

Her face fell, but she caught it and shook her head. “No, you’re right. And same.”

I lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. “Also, I’m not too proud to admit that I’m in so much pain that I don’t think I can worship you the way you deserve right now.”

She nodded, her expression full of understanding. “I can wait until you feel better. I know it’ll be worth it.” She lifted a hand to show me her wrinkly fingertips. “And I’m starting to prune, so I’m good with getting out of here.”

I turned away so she wouldn’t see me smile. Should I have felt bad for lying to my girlfriend? Maybe. But I had a feeling that when I woke her up in a few hours, she’d be more than willing to forgive me for it afterward.