Darkly, Madly Duet

by Trisha Wolfe

“I want you. You’re my doctor. So be my fucking doctor.”

“It might be difficult for small towns to be open-minded enough, to be objectionable about one of their own. No one wants to think a killer hides among them.”

“Go ahead,” he dares. “I’ll snag the first reporter interview I can to announce that your father was a monster that you put down.”

“All those missing girls. Did you see them? Witness their torture? How long were you a part of it before you decided to kill your father?”

“Three months.”

“Lucky for you the coroner was a drunk. Couldn’t tell the difference between peri- and postmortem injuries. That car crash didn’t kill your father. He was already dead when you decided to take out a tree.”

“I need to know how you felt,” he whispers. “In that moment. When you killed him…how did it feel? What did you use?”

“I’m your monster. Tell me, and you’ll own me. Completely.” He strokes the side of my hand. The rattle of his chains forces my eyes closed. Memories awakened. “You want to tell me.”

I straddle the man who threatens everything. My freedom. My morality. My sanity.

“A key,” I whisper with trembling lips. “He wore a key around his neck. To a dark basement cage where he kept them. I tore it free and drove it into his jugular.”

“I felt…free,” I admit. “Disembodied. Like I could do anything.” “You can,” he coaxes. “It’s in your nature.”

“We were designed for each other. Don’t you feel the pain when we’re apart? Don’t you want it to stop?”

“You’re mine, London. We can dance this violent dance until we bleed each other dry, or we can surrender. Your choice. But I will have you.”

“Then it’s my mission to resurrect her.”

She’s a born killer. It’s in our DNA. A genial road map of an exterminator.

She’s punishing me for my behavior—for knowing her sins.

“And there’s our reasonable doubt,” the lawyer whispers to me as he slides into his seat. Reasonable doubt. For the other kills. Not enough to keep me from serving that life sentence…but maybe enough to keep me off of death row.

I glance around the room once more, noting London’s absence with a set jaw. She’ll be here. It’s not just my fate riding on her testimony. Her life depends on it.

“And then there was you.”

“You can’t fear losing what you never knew existed. You changed everything, London.

I want what we could mean together.”

“Yes,” I say. “I’d been fantasizing about it during those months. Obsessing about the different ways…how it would feel—” I cut myself off. “I didn’t sneak down there. I knew he was aware, that he’d follow me to the basement. I brought him down there on purpose.” I turn my head away.

And there’s nothing you can say or do to bring her back. My own father failed, and so there’s no hope for you. My will is stronger than my sickness.”

“Your pain didn’t die with your father, and neither did your compulsion to kill. You’ve been able to channel that need through your patients, but it’s getting harder, isn’t it?”

“I could never share you with another, London. I’m too selfish.”

When I give in to the desire and our eyes meet, no words are needed. I see it there on his face, the understanding of what I’ve done. I’ve secured my lie by misdiagnosing a patient in open court. No one will hear or believe his claims about me. I have sabotaged not only my career to do so, but any chance he had. I’ve just sentenced Grayson to death. My secret will die with him.

I suppress a smile. I loved every second of watching her embrace her killer instinct.

London has nothing to feel ashamed about. Who wouldn’t defend their life? I’m a threat she can’t allow. I gave her no other choice.

“I do, Your Honor. I proclaim that Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

“You’re welcome,” I say to him with a wink.

My angel of mercy to take away the pain.

Her deep brown eyes are wide as she stares down. I try to count the specs of gold. They blur and dim until I lose sight of her all together. I’m able to mouth one word to her before the lights go out.

“Careful, detective. Someone might think you’re insinuating a respectable doctor poisoned her own patient.”

You wanted this. I did—I wanted Grayson’s death. I wanted the threat eliminated. My perseverance is stronger than my feelings for him.

Grayson and I share a connection…we’re bound together by some dark force…and yet I know we’re different. I’m better than him. I’m better because I’m stronger and I deserve to be the one to go on and to continue to help people. And for that to happen, he must be the one to fail.

“I’m sure once I’ve cleared him for questioning, you won’t have another chance to speak with him. He’s been asking to see you since he woke up.”

“I noticed that. His brain scans were impressive. It’s a shame that someone with so much potential resorted to… Well, it’s a shame.”

“Thank you,” Grayson says, “for saving my life, doc.” I suck in a breath and face him. “Did you attempt to take your own life?” “Did it hurt you?” “What?” “Did saving my life hurt you?” He nods at me. “You’re back. You’re limping.”

“No, I didn’t try to take my own life.” His accent is thicker with the sedative.

“Sorry, doc. On this one, you couldn’t be more wrong.”

“In five seconds, I’m going to pull the trigger. Do you want yet another life on your conscience?”

“You’re an animal,” I say. A smile kicks up the corner of his mouth. “Takes one to know one, baby.”

“If you kill me, then you’ll never truly have your revenge. You can’t destroy a dead person.” Grayson grabs the nape of my neck and hauls me up, bringing me close. “I wish you would’ve talked this dirty during our sessions.”

“Let go of it. It gets in your way. I would’ve done the same to you.”

“Do you need your glasses to see?”

“I have an astigmatism. So, yes…and no.” He removes my glasses and places them in my bag. He then turns my back to his chest and presses the barrel of the gun to my head.

“You used me,” I accuse. “To be fair, we used each other.” I open the door.

“I know. It was brilliant, by the way.” I stuff the gun behind my back and lift a section of the car ceiling, sliding it back. “You should feel proud of that—the way you callously led the jury to kill without remorse. They have you to thank for not losing any sleep over it. Took less than two hours to convict me.”

“You have less than one minute to make your choice,” I tell her. “In ten minutes, they’ll have downtown secured and blocked off. Then we have twenty minutes to make it out of the state. So you get one of those minutes. Decide.”

“You’re giving me a choice?”