Even in sleep that day still fucks with me. Listening to him scream at me. The disgust in his eyes.
The day he treated me as a stranger. A stranger he hated.
“You are not my son,” he yelled pushing me out of my own home. The only home I had ever known.
“And you don’t come back here until you work that evil out.”
“Evil?” I laughed in his hypocritical face.
“I can smell it on you,” he growled at me. “It stinks boy.”
“That’s you, old man,” I laughed again. “And that’s the difference between us. You reek of guilt and I cannot comprehend the purpose of it.”
“Until you’ve done something you can actually be proud of, stay gone.”
I was barely sixteen years old.
I’ve been called selfish and cold.
Labeled dangerous.
Told I was evil.
However, I was also impatient, short-tempered and territorial, so let’s not leave those out.
And as far as the world was concerned, I didn’t exist.
In my line of work, that’s the way it had to be. To do what I did, be who I was, I was nonexistent.
Until I started getting her text messages, I had even convinced myself that I didn’t mind.
Being the first of my kind, I helped create the rule book. At that time, I had nothing to lose, no one to miss me, so I gladly took orders when issued and one of those was this cell phone.
While I worked independently, I was never truly alone. Someone was always watching, listening, recording.
So, messaging her back was the cruelest thing I could have done to her.
But, when it came to her, I lost all rational thought.
I cared nothing for hearts and flowers or any other shit women went on about.
Feelings, in my opinion, should be kept to yourself, or seared from your soul.
But fuck, I had to have this woman, if only once.
She had become a necessity within seconds of seeing her face. Initially, I thought she had the wrong number. But as her messages increased, I realized she was grieving the original owner of this number. However, it was mine now so I felt proprietary over her. Hell, I wanted to own her.
And she was no ordinary woman either.
No, she was wild as hell. Beautiful and defiant, raw and impulsive. Her short stories were so insane they were hard to believe. But, she always sent proof of her antics and my phone never left my hand unless I was working. Shit, I slept with the damn thing in my hand.
She had become my oasis, my lifeline.
And I knew responding to her would break the spell, so for a full year, I didn’t.
Until she said she was going to start dating again.
I lived and fucking breathed to see what would be in her next text and I’ll be damned if I lose this woman to another man.
She was mine.
I was hers.
And I didn’t even know her name.
Of course, I could have found out. That would be an easy thing to do. The problem was, if I knew then so would he. Plus, the unknown…God, how I craved it. This woman didn’t just exist, she lived. She was adventurous and brave. Her impulsiveness called to me. Hell, I jacked off regularly to just the blush of her God damn cheeks.
Yet, I felt her loneliness as it echoed my own. I dreamt of her, woke up to her and had to have a taste of her.
Just once, I needed to gorge on her, fill myself up and die a content man.
Nothing I did was by accident. Calculation and I go way back. So, this behavior was out of the norm for me but I didn’t give a fuck.
In less than twenty-four hours, I would find out if she did for me in person what she’d done in text messages. And depending on how that went, I’d then ask if she was fucking insane for meeting with a complete and total fucking stranger.
When I made the decision to respond I knew it would bring consequences.
Because my world held no place for her, I left it behind knowing that eventually that world would come for me.
Yes, I was a dangerous man. I was a hunter, a leader, a ghost. I held no remorse over the things I have done. I have no feelings one way or the other as to what I’ve become either.
But, for the first time in my life, I desired. I yearned. I craved.
No force could stop me now. Not even, him.
Not until I was ready.
The darkness that drove me was steering straight for her and my heart willingly went along for the ride.