Chapter 15

Mills

God damn it. He almost had a heart attack when she startled them, then he almost had a second one when he saw her.

Perfectly calm, happy to see us, as if we were her—

He cleared his throat, eyeing Beast. For a moment he thought the towering man was about to smile. That would be even rarer than everything that happened to them up until that point.

But he did.

It was brief, just half a second, but it was there.

Mills burst out laughing.

“You should have seen yourself!” He said, “Jumping, afraid of the girl behind you.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

But Mills couldn’t do it, it had been a long time since he laughed like this.

“Were you hiding?” Mills asked.

“Just cleaning a drawer down here in the kitchen.”

No wonder I didn’t see her.

“Come in guys!”

She turned the lights on, their yellow tint cozying up the place.

“I guess we should go inside?” He told Beast, but the man was already a step ahead of him, going to the front.

Mills hadn’t been inside the house in months. When they bought it, they figured they would get rid of the last remaining pieces of furniture fairly quickly, but it turned out trying to give it away —or sell it— involved much more time than they had at hand and before long they just left everything there.

We’ll take everything out when we sell it, it can wait.

Light came out of the kitchen, he didn’t remember leaving a light bulb anywhere in the house.

His stomach rumbled.

Oh man, it smells delicious.

He went past the big stairs to the right of the entrance and followed Jena.

“You went out?”

She swaggered all the way into the kitchen. Chicken.

“I had to, not to be ungrateful but did you see what you wanted me to eat?”

Beast stood beside Mills, his eyes going wide. There were three big paper bags sitting on the kitchen’s island.

“All junk food,” she continued, “I’m sorry, but no one knows me here so I figured I could go out for a few minutes.”

“Where did you go?”

“There’s a small market about two miles from here—”

“What about the burritos we left—”

“Beast,” she said, her eyes fixed on his, “have you ever eaten one of those?”

Mills smiled, Beast was a fan of them.

“Well I—”

“So you know why I had to get rid of them.”

Beast stopped talking, it was like a punch in the gut.

“Finally!” Mills said, “someone said it.”

“What?”

“He loves that shit! Eats it three or four times a week.”

“Are you kidding me?” She said, unbelieving.

Beast shrugged, “it’s tasty and—”

“Bad for your health.”

Beast didn’t reply.

I told him how many times now?

“Okay.”

Mills turned to Beast, surprised. He thought he was going to say something, fight back like he always did.

Holy shit, this girl is magical.

She finished cutting up some vegetables on the counter and turned around with a big sandwich on a paper plate.

“Here you go,” she told Beast, “yours is coming up,” she told Mills and he could only smile.

This is perfect.

There was nothing to worry about. Jena was an entrepreneur after all, she could take care of herself. And she was right.

No one will recognize her out here.

“Chicken sandwich?” Muttered Beast under his breath. Mills looked at it and it was thick, she put a lot of veggies and cheese in there too.

Beast took a big bite and his eyes opened so widely he stopped chewing for a second. His senses came back to him when he saw Mills’ mocking eyes.

“Damn,” Beast said.

Jena giggled. The sound of her made Mills shiver.

“Glad you like it,” she said, still preparing his sandwich.

“Glad we have you around here,” Mills replied and she turned briefly to him, with a smile on her lips.

“Thank you.”

All day, all he wanted was to come back to her. He tried to push the feeling away but it was impossible. Just thinking about her made his heart rate go up. Seeing her smile almost made him burst out laughing in happiness.

The night outside was cold and dark, but in here, the warm light of the kitchen along with the smell made it feel as if he’d finally found a home.

Maybe in another life.

He couldn’t fool himself. He was, after all, a man hired for his ability to destroy.

He’d never built anything, never gave something to the world, only took things from it.

It was a slow descent to hell, and Jena deserved so much more.

“Here you go,” she said, handing him dinner.

Fucking hell.

“Try it!” She said with a huge smile.

He took a bite and it was even better than it looked. She was like a professional chef.

“Shit,” he said, his mouth full of food.

“I’d pay good money for this,” Beast said, and took the last bite of his sandwich.

“There’s more on the way,” she said, grabbing one for herself.

He looked at Beast, the man was smiling. He was glad he couldn’t see himself, he probably looked like an idiot too, trying to hold back, trying not to smile.

But he knew he couldn’t.

He couldn’t get away from her now.