Page 26 of Edging Sanity

Bronwin frowned like the answer was obvious. “No.”

“Pity. Well, there is power. It just doesn’t look like what you think. You get it, don’t you, Rowan?” Delilah asked innocently, turning to Rowan who narrowed her eyes. “You’ve killed before. You know the thrill, the adrenaline. That feeling when you watch their life dissipate into the nothingness it should have always been.”

“Delilah,” Bronwin cut in sternly. “We are not here to talk about Rowan.” Bronwin knew all about Rowan’s time in the marines. She’d somehow managed to get Rowan to spill many of her dark secrets from that time within their first year of working together. Probably a testament to her being a good therapist. But Rowan hadn’t shared everything.

“But don’t you find it fascinating?” Delilah pushed, a wicked smile on her lips. “That she’s here, working, living a normal life. She’s not haunted by her demons, her past. It’s almost like she enjoyed the killing. How many people did you kill? Do you remember your first?”

Yes.

“Delilah,” Bronwin’s voice cut through the air, harsh enough that Delilah finally relented, turning her gaze away from Rowan. “How do you know about Rowan’s past?”

“Military history isn’t hard to get.”

“It’s supposed to be,” Rowan grumbled, knowing full well that her files were classified and that Delilah would have only been able to get her hands on them by doing something very illegal. Which she didn’t put past her in the slightest.

“Remember what I said about good behavior,” Bronwin reminded Delilah when she turned back to wink at Rowan. “We are here to focus on you. Let’s keep it that way, please.”

Delilah sat up, flicking another salacious glance to Rowan before relenting and doing as Bronwin wanted. “Well, for me,” she began, “the memory of their screams, their whimpers, their pathetic pleas followed by the sounds of their last breath, it’s how I fall asleep at night. The images of their broken and mutilated bodies, the regret that washes over their features when they realize what I’m punishing them for… There is no better high than that.”

Bronwin’s hand moved furiously over her notebook, scribbling every word Delilah said. “And what made you realize that this was something you wanted? This… vengeance?”

“Careful, doctor,” Delilah frowned. “You’re inferring a different motive.”

“Then correct me. What was your motive?”

“Fun,” Delilah shrugged. “Boredom, sometimes.”

“But you only preyed on pedophiles and abusers?”

With that, Delilah launched back into her practiced history, the explanation of her actions was the same lie that she’d given the courts during her trials. Rowan didn’t believe a word of it.

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

“She didn’t like that I know about your past.” Delilah pouted, barely waiting for Rowan to close the door of Bronwin’s office. The officers—silent as ever—fell into step behind them as they returned to Delilah’s room.

“How did you know?” Rowan asked, keeping her voice low but unable to resist the bait now that the secret was out.

“Tell me about your first kill and I’ll tell you,” Delilah whispered, leaning her head on Rowan’s shoulder only to be promptly shaken off. Delilah sighed. “She doesn’t like me talking about you at all, does she?”

“No.”

“Do you?”

Rowan side-eyed her, again refusing to answer. This time, Delilah didn’t fill the silence, waiting instead until they were back in her room and Rowan was removing her cuffs.

“Why doesn’t she like me talking about you?” Delilah asked, shaking her hands out and rubbing her wrists even though the cuffs weren’t tight enough to cause discomfort.

“Because she thinks you’re obsessed with me.”

Delilah tilted her head to one side, studying Rowan. Rowan stepped back but hadn’t made a move to leave yet. “I am obsessed with you,” she admitted eventually, smiling then sauntering up to Rowan and pressing a hand to her chest. “You should be flattered.”

Rowan swallowed, grabbing Delilah’s wrist and pulling her off. “I don’t want you obsessed with me,” she hissed, taking a step forward, forcing Delilah back until they hit the wall and Rowan was entirely too close. Since they were being honest with each other now, she didn’t see the harm in telling an admission of her own.

“I want you addicted,” she whispered in the small space between them, her eyes flicking to Delilah’s lips before returning to meet her piercing gaze. “Obsessions die. They don’t last. But addiction? It’s a disease that stays with you for life. It alters your brain chemistry and sinks its claws into you and never lets you go. It’ll always be there, lingering in the back of your mind.”

“That’s where you want to be?” Delilah asked, her pupils dilated and her smile wicked sharp. “Always with me?”