“What are you doing?”

“I’m saving you from me.” He pressed his forehead to mine and breathed me in. “I want you to live your life, Lyla. Get married. Have beautiful babies with your red hair and beautiful green eyes. I want you to forget about me.”

“Never,” I said desperately.

“Then you leave me no choice.”

Turning me, he handcuffed me with Douglas’ handcuffs. I pulled against the restraints, trying to figure out when he took them from Douglas’ body.

Afterwards, he turned me to face him once again.

In the distance, I heard the police officers outside issue another warning. If he didn’t go out, they were coming in. Either way, my gut told me this wasn’t going to end well.

“Are you going to kill me now?” I asked. The cuffs behind my back clacked against the wall as I struggled to get free.

His rough finger moved across my cheek and his eyes moved over my face, taking me in and devouring me whole.

“I love you more than life, Lyla… more than my next breath. I love you in an impossible way that burns my skin and scrambles my soul. It’s you. It will always be you.”

Stepping away from me, he moved to Douglas’ body once more. Bending, he reached for the revolver clipped to his side and plucked it from its holder.

I closed my eyes, my fear, hurt, and love combining to make me feel sick to my stomach. Mentally, I prepared myself for the end. He was going to shoot me. Sure, he was saying words of love, but he was sick… he was disturbed and unhinged.

He moved toward me once more, the gun heavy at his side, and I held my head high, looking death in the face. “I love you, Christopher. No matter what you do to me, I love you. I know you’re sick. I understand you can’t help it.” I meant my words.

Pain flashed across his eyes once more. “No. You still don’t get it. I’d never hurt you. Not ever. It’s you, Lyla. You’re everything to me.”

Moving in, he kissed me again, his warm lips marking my memory. He moaned against my mouth, and I could taste the tears on his tongue.

When he pulled away, I sucked in my breath.

He backed away from me and toward the front door with his eyes locked on mine.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

He didn’t respond. Instead, he smiled and mouthed the words I love you once more.

It wasn’t until he was pulling open the front door that I realized what he was doing, but by then, it was too late. I moved away from the wall, tripping over my own feet to get to him, but he slammed the door behind him in a loud crash.

Silence swallowed me whole for a few seconds, and then the loudspeaker sounded once more.

“Put the gun down or we’ll shoot.”

A moment of silence and then a single gunshot echoed loudly, making me jump, and that single gunshot was followed by many more.

Chaos ensued once the silence settled in. Officers rushed my apartment, finding me handcuffed on my knees in front of the door. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face, and the screams of a desperate woman lit up my living room.

I glanced up just as Charlie filled my doorway, and that was all it took. I broke like a priceless vase—like a doll that had been laid on the floor and stomped on. I would never be the same again. I was altered so deeply that I was sure I could feel the cracks as they formed on my soul.

CHRISTOPHER JACOBS LEFT this world in a blaze of glory. At least, that was how the news reporters said it. They liked to add that extra bit of drama for ratings. I watched the news on Diana’s flat screen and cried while the reporters went off about what a terrible criminal he was and how the world was safer without him.

Little did they know he was only doing what he did best… he was protecting me. Sure, it was from himself, but he’d loved me too much to let the monster that hid within him get me.

Charlie and the boys helped me pack up my apartment. I couldn’t stay there knowing what happened in there. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing Douglas dead on the floor or Christopher saying goodbye. It was too much.

Instead, I put all my stuff in a storage, packed what I needed until I got back on my feet, and crashed on Diana’s couch, which wasn’t as comfortable as I’d hoped it would be seeing that she was dating a new guy who liked to come over all the time.

Still, anything was better than the shadows that crept through my apartment, filling my sleep with nightmares, or the memories that hid in the walls, waiting to haunt me. Not to mention the terrible stained floor that was just beneath the new carpeting. I knew in the back of my mind that I was being unreasonable, but it didn’t matter.