My entire body felt like it was being held down with bricks. My head pounded, and while I’d never done drugs in my life, I had a sneaking suspicion I was under the influence of something by the way my heart was racing and the double vision. I tried moving, but it was like my brain was unplugged from the rest of my body.

“Oh, Mr. Shay, good to see you’re awake.” I’d heard that voice before, outside the club. “Don’t try and move, it would be pointless.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t. What the hell was wrong with me?

“You’re probably a little disoriented, I imagine it’s a terrifying feeling.” The man chuckled. “Let me position you better so you’re not on your stomach and can look at me. Not making eye contact is so rude, isn’t it?” He spoke like he was sorry for inconveniencing me, but at the same time, was going to continue to do so.

Suddenly my body was hoisted up. While I wasn’t a large man, I knew it was dead weight so this guy was obviously in good form, which only scared me more. Where was Ray?

My head fell forward so that all I could see was the man’s shoes. The sound of plastic and the scraping of a chair echoed. The smell was oddly familiar, and I was able to move my eyes. The floor was covered in broken linoleum and gray concrete underneath. Again, the familiarity niggled at my mind.

My body was dragged until I was laying on what looked like a blue tarp. It was in that moment I realized where I was, seeing the white fairy lights above my head and the man-made tropical leaves in Lily’s Oasis. The one place I found peace.

“Hey,” the guy said snapping in front of my face. “I really love what you did here. Looks so peaceful. I can see why you’d bring Ray and want to make it special.”

I followed the sound of his voice with my gaze. Did I know him? I remembered Benji and how when I saw him approach at Epiphany I wanted to tell him to go away, I didn’t want him to blow my cover.

But he smiled at me like he knew. And it was confirmed when he leaned down and whispered words into my ear that made cold fear race through my body. “It seems you’ve been waiting for me,” Benji had whispered. “I had to get things set up so Ray, Bradford, and all the lingering cops wouldn’t follow us. Now, it’s about to get loud and wet, but there’s someone I need to take you to. So, don’t make a fuss.”

Benji, Finn’s son? I never saw it coming. I knew he worked with his father, but it never crossed my mind Finn would be some sadistic fuck. But the man I was with now was definitely not Finn.

In the brief moment I saw Ray’s face through the crowd I shouted his name even though I knew he saw me, it was all I could do. It was pure madness and I was yanked away and tossed in a car.

Then a voice said, “Time to go to sleep.” A prick in the neck and now I was at my oasis, with a serial killer, no Ray, and the feeling of utter loss.

“Allow me to introduce myself.” The man crouched in front of me. “My mom liked to call me Charlie, but I hated that. Then in school they called me Charles. I equally hated that. My middle name Barron was just as bad. So, I decided to just use C.B., and then of course, my last name Daniels.” He held his hand out to me and chuckled. “Right, no handshake.”

C.B. Daniels. Now that was a name I knew. Ray’s ex-partner. Richie was right to watch him. We should’ve paid more attention.

“I don’t know if Ray will find us here, but I think we have some time to play before he does.” His smile was blinding and not in the way that was charming. It was slimy, bright white, fake. He was an average looking man with brown dull hair, brown eyes, and a medium build. Absolutely nothing special. No wonder no one could remember seeing him. There was nothing that stood out about him.

I watched helplessly as he brought over the black doctor’s bag I remembered seeing when I walked in on him carving up Francis.

“The first night Benji told me he saw you at Epiphany I knew something was up,” he huffed as he opened the bag. “I had Benji set up a system to rig the place and I watched you.” The sudden expression of disgust on his face and the slam of the bag would have made me jolt away if I could. “You were baiting me with your whorish ways. I bet Ray thought you were new to it all, but I know your type. Any port in a storm.” His sinister eyes met mine and he held up a scalpel. “Any dick too.”

No. That was so far beyond who I was. And if the fact this guy didn’t slice up his victims as they lay helpless made him crazy, his delusions sure did.

“I’m sure if you could talk you’d tell me what I’ve heard many times before, that you aren’t a slut. That you don’t open your legs for anyone at all.” He scoffed as I watched him sanitize the scalpel. Odd thing to do, but this whole situation was my worst nightmare.

“I wanted to get to you for a while now. At first it was when you walked in on me with your roommate. That was a huge shock. It’s not easy for something like that to get past me.” He stared into the shiny weapon. “Then you went to Ray, and that was when I knew you had to go.”

He placed the scalpel on a crisp white sheet beside the chair. I followed as much as I could, but not being able to move my head left me limited.

“You were seducing him at every chance. Convincing him you loved him I bet.” He shook his head, once again disgust was directed at me. “Pretty boys. You flutter your eyes and make men swoon at your feet. It’s pathetic.” He gripped my hair and pulled my head back, the pain was quick, fierce and my inability to scream explained exactly why none of his victims could call for help.

“Ray always wanted me, always,” he shouted in my face, spittle spraying over me. “But boys like you always kept pulling him away. I knew I was going to have to give fate a push and begin ridding the world of all of you one at a time. I knew Ray would finally see me as I saw him without the distraction of all you little sluts.”

When he released my head, it fell forward. I wanted so badly to scream, fight back, tell Daniels he was a lunatic, if for no other reason than to get the last word.

I didn’t want to die, but more, I didn’t want Ray to die. I knew he’d figure it out, he was brilliant. I knew Daniels and Benji would pay. But my heart ached because I’d never get my forever with Ray. I’d never see his smile, hear his muffled irritation when I organized or cleaned something in his house. I’d never do all the things I’d hoped to do.

“Ray needs to see how ugly you really are inside. I will take away all the things you whores seduce men with. Your eyes, your skin, your little pathetic dicks.”

C.B. gripped my chin painfully forcing eye contact. “We should begin. This will hurt a lot I’m sure. But in the end, realize what you are and that you deserve every second of it.” He narrowed his eyes. “You could have avoided all this, Andy, if you never called Ray. Let that fester in your head while I dismantle your body a piece at a time.”

He reached for a pair of scissors. “First, let’s take off your hooker gear. Look at your disgusting body.” He cut and tore at the fabric. I felt every piece being removed. The chilly air against my sweat soaked skin covered my flesh in goosebumps. He maneuvered my body until every stitch was gone and I sat there naked, paralyzed, and helpless.

“There.” He was slightly out of breath. “I just don’t see what Ray sees in you pretty boys. Pasty skin, lanky, it’s gross.”

This was nothing I didn’t hear my whole life and normally it would hit me hard, but his words didn’t faze me one bit. Ray made me feel like I was the most gorgeous person in the world. And if I was to die here today, I’d die knowing that I was loved and cherished.

“Let’s begin,” he said.

I said a silent prayer to who I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure if there was a God or a giant bug in the sky, but I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to hurt, and I didn’t want Ray to find me mutilated like I did Francis. Right as Daniels was about to slice something across my chest, a sound came out of my mouth.

“What?” He halted, and I tried to take advantage.

“Th… Thank. Thank you.”

He crouched down again, his face before me. “How’d you speak? I gave you enough to paralyze a horse.”

“Thank you.” I spoke more clearly that time.

“Thank you?”

“For freeing me.” Yeah, two can play the crazy game.

“Freeing you?” I could tell he was completely bewildered.

“Yes. I… wanted to.” I swallowed. My voice felt like sandpaper. “I wanted to get away, from Ray.”

C.B.’s laughter was maniacal. “You expect me to believe that?”

I tried nodding, but that was still a no go. “Yes. He just…. All I ever heard about was this partner of his. The one… the one who got away.”

The brief softening of his eyes told me that was something he longed to hear.

“Me?” Daniels voice cracked.

“Unless he had another partner.”

I knew Ray had never worked with anyone else, and I knew Daniels was aware of that fact, too. I could only hope that he didn’t see past my ruse and I could buy Ray time. Time to find me. I only hoped he remembered this place and that Benji was spilling everything.