“You,” I say slowly, “are not the only one I’ve been watching.” I reach around her and pull up a different camera, one of the cameras I hid at Mike’s place. And, what would you know, Mikehimself is on the screen, hunched over his desk in the far corner of the room, doing something on his phone while eating aHot Pocketor something.
I don’t like seeing him, and neither does Wren, based on the gasp she lets out right then. “Mike,” she whispers, almost in disbelief, and then she turns her gaze toward me again. “Why are you watching him?”
“I wanted to know more about the asshole who hurt you. Before I bring anyone to one of my mazes, I like to learn their routines, peer inside their heads as much as I can.”
“These mazes you keep talking about… do people sometimes not make it out? I can’t imagine people are happy with you if they reach the end. You should be in prison or something, at least for kidnapping. Even if your family has money, you can’t do anything you want.”
“You’d be surprised at what money can get you in this country,” I say. “But as to your question… would it scare you to know that sometimes people don’t make it out?”Sometimesis a bit of a stretch. More like never, before Logan.
She doesn’t say anything right away, but her eyes return to the screen, to her ex-boyfriend. I let her think it over, don’t rush her. When she finally speaks, she asks something I’m not expecting, “Did you ever think about putting me in one of your mazes?”
“It did cross my mind in the beginning, but that thought quickly changed into something else. I do want to take you somewhere, but I don’t want you in one of my mazes.” I dip my head beside hers and breathe her in. “I told you I want to take you to the woods somewhere, somewhere private, and let you run from me, and when I catch you…”
I don’t need to elaborate on what I’ll do. She knows. She knows, and that’s why she shivers and leans back against me.
“You’re taking this well,” I remark as she turns her eyes back toward the screen.
“Yeah, I am.” Even she sounds amazed at her response to this whole thing. “I don’t know why. It’s weird, it’s creepy, and totally illegal.” Wren quiets as she must grow pensive. “I should want to get out of this house and away from you as quickly as humanly possible—but I don’t. I still feel good with you.”
Now that is music to my ears. I admit, I was concerned at the possibility she would not react well to this information. I always knew there was something special about her, something that called out to my inner darkness, but I never imagined quite how well we’d fit together.
Wren puts it together like a jigsaw puzzle: “So, I’m assuming since you have cameras on Mike, you’re going to put him in one of your mazes?”
“I thought about it, but ultimately, I think that decision should be yours. If you don’t want me to, I won’t, but if you give me the go-ahead, I will leap at the chance.” And somehow I don’t believe Mike would succeed where Logan did.
“Hmm. That’s kind of sweet—again, in a weird, illegal kind of way.” She splits her time between gazing up at me and glancing at the monitor, at Mike. Her no-good, cheating ex who broke her heart before last semester began. In a way, her following heartbreak with Logan was all his fault.
I will respect whatever she wants, whatever she tells me. As difficult as it will be to leave Mike alone, if that’s what she wants, it’s what I’ll do. A part of me already assumes that will be her answer; though we connect on an insanely deep level, I don’t see her being bloodthirsty at all. She’s different than me in that respect.
After a while, after a long bout of pensive silence, Wren gives me her answer: “Leave him alone. I don’t want to see him or think about him. I want to leave him in my past, where hebelongs.” She turns away from the screen and faces me, angling her head back and causing her long brown hair to fall back. “How often do you take people and put them in these mazes?”
“It’s not as though I do it often,” I tell her. “It’s not a weekend activity or anything, but I have done it more than a handful of times. These… urges run in the family.”
“Your brothers have these same urges too?”
“No, theirs are much different than mine. We each took to the darkness in our own way.”
She studies me. “Do you have to do this? The mazes, I mean. Would you lose your mind if you didn’t do them?” It strikes me how genuinely curious she is about the entire matter, how calm she sounds as she discusses it with me. She truly is a remarkable girl.
And perfect for me in every way.
“I can hold back when necessary, if that’s what you’re asking. If you don’t want me to put your ex in a maze, I won’t.” I make an X over my chest. “Cross my heart, hope to die.” But as I say it, I realize that’s not what she meant.
“No, I mean, could your urges be moved somewhere else? Like, every time you get the urge to kidnap someone and put them in a maze, you instead take me somewhere new and chase me however you want to.”
Redirecting the dark urges inside of me. Not a suggestion I thought I’d hear from her. “I’ve never thought about it before. It might work. For you, I would try anything. If the mazes make you uncomfortable, I can do my best to adapt.” Softer, I add, “Anything for you.”
“It’s just…” Wren gives me a sort of sad smile. “I’d hate for you to get caught, somehow. I know this is new, but the thought of losing you makes my chest ache.”
I take her face in my hands, cupping those soft cheeks as I bring my top half down. “You won’t lose me,” I whisper, andthen I take those lips against mine and kiss her in a way our positions in the car would never have allowed. A long, slow, deep kiss, one where our tongues meet and dance together, and electricity zaps between us.
I only tear my mouth off hers to eventually murmur, “I told you, Wren, you’re mine, and I meant it. No matter what happens, no matter what you want from me, you’ll always be mine.”
She is putty in my grip, and her voice is light and feathery when she asks, “And Logan?”
“If you want Logan, then you can have him. I’m not opposed to being on the same side as him, provided he doesn’t ever hurt you again. I have the feeling he won’t, if you give him another chance, but again, that choice is yours alone.”
“Are you sure? You won’t get angry and jealous and decide to throw him into a maze?”