A Love So Deadly Read Free Page B

room, reaching up to adjust something in the shadows near the rafters. I can’t see what it is, but his next words give me a pretty good idea.
    “You can give me your partner’s name and address, and I’ll send him a free preview,” he says, still tinkering in the shadows. “Everything’s ready to go. I installed the camera and the new recording system a few weeks ago so I’d be prepared…just in case.”
    “In case of what?” My throat threatens to close as a red light flashes on above Pitt’s head and I realize I’m being recorded.
    “Well,” Pitt says, voice pitched differently, lower and more confident, as if he’s aware of being on camera, too. “As soon as I realized the DVDs were missing, I knew that there was a chance they had been destroyed, or hidden somewhere I’d never be able to find them. I knew there was a chance they were gone forever, and I would need to find…a replacement.”
    I swallow, pulse fluttering wildly at my throat as Pitt walks toward me.
    “Well, not a replacement. No one can replace Mother,” he says, voice soft, chilling. “Nothing can ever take the place of the memories you stole from me, but new memories can be made.”
    Not new memories, new trophies.
    Gabe and I may, or may not, be sociopaths, but Pitt is a flat out psychopath, a monster with a taste for human suffering who looks like he’s on his way to being a serial killer.
    If I don’t find a way to escape, Pitt will kill me…eventually, of that there is no doubt in my mind. It will simply be a matter of how many days, or months, or years he’ll keep me captive, torturing me the way he did his mother, before he gets bored and decides it’s time to slip a lethal overdose into my food.
    The thought sends a wave of terror and rage sweeping through me so powerful my trembling becomes quaking. I grit my teeth and clench my hands into fists, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t quit shaking like it’s nine degrees in the attic instead of ninety.
    “Take off your shirt, Caitlin,” Pitt says, a gleam in his eye that is more predatory than sexual. But it doesn’t matter, because I’m not wearing anything but black bikini panties under my sleep shirt and I refuse to be all-but-naked in front of this man.
    “No,” I say, in a low, firm voice that sounds like I’m talking to a dog. I might as well be. Pitt’s worse than a dog, he’s an abomination, a freak of nature that should have been put down before he could grow fangs.
    “Take it off,” he repeats. “We earn our privileges here, and clothes are a privilege, not a necessity. Not in heat like this.”
    “No.” I edge toward the mattress, eyes darting back and forth, scanning the floor, looking for something to use as a weapon.
    “You’ll be more comfortable,” Pitt says in an upbeat voice. “And I bet your partner will enjoy seeing you naked. You’re fucking him, aren’t you?”
    I press my lips together, fighting a whimper as Pitt gets closer, so close he’ll be touching me soon if I don’t do something. Find something.
    My panicked gaze lands on the box of stuffed animals, but there’s nothing in the soggy cardboard filled with moldy toys that will do any damage. Pitt is only five six and on the slim side, but he was strong enough to carry me out of my house and up the stairs to the attic. I have to find something heavy or sharp or—
    The tea set.
    The porcelain tea set that made me want to cry last time I was in this attic is still there on the ground, laid out for a party. The cups and saucers are too small to do any damage, but the pot is grapefruit-sized, maybe big enough to knock Pitt out if I use enough force, and take him by surprise.
    I turn back to Pitt and reach for the bottom of my shirt. “Okay.” I edge along the end of the mattress, toward the tea set on the far side. “I’ll take it off, but I don’t want you to look. Turn your back.”
    Pitt stops, crossing his arms. “Why would I do that?”
    “Because you’re not