Caution Tape (Mutual Monsters Duet Book 1) by Molly Doyle & J.D. Midnight

Author:Molly Doyle & J.D. Midnight [Doyle, Molly & Midnight, J.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-23T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Nolan

I’m discovering that there’s a routine to cleaning after a kill. Even a particular joy to be found. It is soothing, a sense of everything falling into the right place. As a child I enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, relishing the mild catharsis each time a piece fit snugly against its true other. Order.

After a kill, an eerie calmness pours over my body, and the routine is an extension of this. The shipping container is a perfectly segmented, compartmentalized aspect of my life, and the cleanup reflects that.

The table is stripped of all plastic and duct tape. Any debris left over from the body is deftly swept into a garbage bag. The floors, covered in a tightly orchestrated series of tarps and sealed plastic, are ripped up, everything balled up and tucked into garbage bags. I roll a pressure-washer into the container and slowly work my way around the entirety, blasting the steel sides with soap and water. The walls will begin to rust, eventually, but by then I’ll have moved on. A new location. A new routine.

The rolls of garbage bags and plastic wrap go into tidy little plastic bins and get tucked into the corner. Whatever tools I use are rinsed off with the power washer and stored in another bin.

It amuses me that, a few short hours ago, I was gleefully stabbing a man in the chest, his screams echoing off the harsh steel of the container, and now it looks pristine. I no longer need to night drive and hunt down wounded deer. I have this new life, this crimson mask to slip on at my leisure.

I’m blissful in these thoughts as I strip off the pants I have on and toss them into one of the bags. There’s a change of clothes waiting in my gym bag, but for the moment it is nice to feel the cool air on my bare skin. I relish these moments of tranquility.

There’s a noise at the door. A scraping sound. Someone is picking the lock.

Police would have barged in, yelling, with lights and sirens.

Someone looking for the victim would’ve knocked or called out.

So, who would be creeping around, trying to get the drop on me?

I grab one of the knives and snap the lights off, slinking back into the darkness of one of the corners. The container door pulls open a bit, and a flashlight clicks on. Someone steps through the gap and starts shining the light around. My eyes adjust to the darkness and make use of the light reflecting off the steel walls.

Cora.

All the talk, all the mind games, all the confrontation, and now she’s here, waving a flashlight around like she’s daring me to take her.

She moves to the center of the room, scanning the table with the light. She’d said we were more alike than I knew. If that were true, she would notice me. If that were true, her instincts would have sensed me, lurking in the shadows, watching her.

I’m reaching out and grabbing

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