X Marks The Stalker: A Dark Romantic Comedy (The Hemlock Society Book 1)

by K.N. Wilder

“You’re the most emotionally constipated man alive, Xander. The only thing you’re capable of feeling is mild inconvenience.”

Different crimes require different candies.

“Hunger is the enemy of justice,”

“are you watching her sleep?” He’s pointing to a particular surveillance shot showing Oakley crashed on her couch, hand still clutching a highlighter. My face heats. “It’s surveillance.” “It’s stalking with extra steps,” Calloway says,

Something’s wrong.

Everything looks normal, but the air feels...violated. The hairs on my neck rise.

“I should feel worse about watching someone die,” I whisper to the empty room. “But all I feel is...rage.”

This isn’t just observation anymore. Oakley Novak needs a guardian angel, even if she’d consider me the devil.

me.

“Stalking is such an unpleasant term. I prefer targeted observation with occasional nutritional intervention.”

“Stay still,” I remind her as she tries to move against my hand. “Your job is to take it, not control it.”

“I don’t want justice anymore. Justice is too clean for what they’ve done. I want vengeance.”

“You here, with me,” he whispers, eyes burning with reverence, “is everything. I’d burn worlds to keep this moment. To keep you.”

“The juxtaposition of your journalist ethics against your darker impulses is...chef’s kiss. Literally my favorite ethical conflict right now.”

“Well! This has been absolutely thrilling. A midnight summons, a damsel in distress, the breaking of sacred murder club protocols... I haven’t been this entertained since we eliminated that art critic who called my installation ‘derivative.’”

Death has a boardroom, and it smells like old money.

“These are obscenely comfortable. Nothing says ‘I condemn thee to death’ like doing it from an ergonomic throne.”

Most gorgeous vigilante murderer ever

“Of course I came back for you, you stupid stalker nerd. I love you.”

“We kill because we need to. It’s a compulsion, a drive that cannot be ignored. Xander must watch. Calloway must create. I must execute justice.”

“Your destiny finds you, no matter what.”

“The question isn’t whether you can kill, Oakley. It’s whether you need to.”

“You see all my broken, obsessive pieces, and instead of trying to fix them, you just hand me better tools.”