Filed to story: The Mindf*ck Series Read Online Free
“He’s a stupid fuck,” Logan mumbles, running his lips over my forehead. It takes me a second to realize he’s talking about Kyle.
“I agree. But the sheriff is sending four deputies with him. Just letting you know,” Leonard says, but his eyes shift to me for an eerily long second.
I ignore his eyes like I have all morning.
Four deputies? Only two will go in with him. Those can be easily dispatched-well, as long as those two are on my kill list. So far, there’s only one deputy who is innocent of the crimes committed ten years ago, and then the two dispatch officers.
The other two deputies will be outside, watching for any suspicious man.
They’ll never know.
“Grab some sleep. We’ll go see Carl when you’ve had some rest,” Logan tells Leonard, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“I’ll only need about three hours,” Leonard grunts as he stands.
While he’s leaving us, I study Logan’s temple where he has four stitches.
Logan doesn’t say anything else before his lips come down on mine, surprising me with an intense, deep, bone-crumbling kiss. I lean into him as he lifts me up, putting me on the counter. When he steps in between my legs, I spread them wider in invitation.
Someone knocks on the door, and our kiss is broken, leaving both of us panting as I put my forehead on his chest.
“Yeah?” Logan calls out, staying put where he is.
“Just making sure you’re okay,” Lisa says through the door. “I have coffee if you want to unlock the door.”
She really wants to be cut.
“I’ve got coffee, and I’m fine. Thanks,” Logan says shortly before kissing me again, pulling me to him by my hips.
I break the kiss as Lisa knocks again, but I ignore her calling his name.
“Are you really okay?” I ask him, ignoring the pang of panic for how close I was to being too late.
“Yes,” he says softly, brushing his lips over mine. “Go away, Lisa,” he adds louder.
She huffs loud enough to be heard, but Logan lifts me, carrying me to the bedroom again. Our room is right beside where Leonard is trying to sleep, so I aim for quiet when Logan puts me down on the bed.
I hiss out a breath when he starts tugging my shorts off me.
“Leonard is-“
“Already snoring by now. He sleeps like the dead, and won’t hear a thing.”
I grin against his lips when he kisses me again, and my shorts fall off my legs. I keep kissing him even as he basically tears my panties away. And our lips remain fused together when he finally thrusts in, taking me slowly, longingly, and reminding me how much I love him.
“I love you,” I whisper into the air so quietly that I don’t think he hears it.
I just hope our love is truly strong enough to conquer all.
Sweaty and breathless, he thrusts in over and over, and I claw his skin, holding onto him, needing every second of closeness I can drag out. Our lips clash, unable to find a rhythm for a smooth kiss, and he pumps his hips harder, hitting that spot inside me that sends me spiraling and has me calling out his name.
When his hips still, he nuzzles the side of my face, shuddering as he finds his own release.
“I love everything about you,” he says softly, brushing his lips over my jaw.
Grinning, I hurry to the bathroom to clean up, and he slaps my ass on my way. I’m slowly calming down now that he seems okay.
As I exit the bathroom, the faint music of a familiar song and the distinct voice of a too familiar woman hits me like a ton of bricks.
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word. Momma’s gonna buy you a mocking bird.
I turn the corner, looking in on the living room as Logan studies the TV, and tears fill my eyes as my heart plummets to my toes. My mother’s smiling face is on the screen. She’s happy, oblivious to the harsh future ahead.
I remember this night so clearly. She died before she could see how bad this town got.
And if that mocking bird don’t sing, Momma’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.
She pulls out a gaudy piece of costume jewelry that resembles a diamond ring, and hands it to the young girl at her side. The young girl with bright green eyes and a little tremor in her hand, because she’s on stage and scared. But the girl’s mother soothes her, cupping her chin, making the child focus only on her and not the audience.
And if that diamond ring don’t shine-
The video pauses, and my heart stutters in my chest as Logan swings his gaze to me.
“You okay?” he asks, studying me with a frown.
Clearing my throat, I nod. “Yeah,” I say hoarsely, hearing the strain in my tone. “Who’s that?”
I point to the frozen screen with my mother’s smiling face.
“Jasmine Evans. I’m trying to see anyone in the audience who might have been more enamored than anyone else, since the unsub is using this night to terrorize the town.”
He looks back at the screen, presses play, and I watch my mother sing to the young, innocent child I used to be. I’m smiling up at her on the screen now, no longer aware of all the eyes from the audience. She could do that-soothe me with just her eyes.
A tear trickles down my cheek when she bends, kissing my forehead in the old film. She was the best at this role. It was the same play every year, and my mother spent three of those years on that stage because people were entranced by her voice and emotion.
She should have been an actress and spread the same love and joy throughout the world with just her smile.
I used to want to be just like her.
Until them.
Until they ruined me and turned me into this.
The mirror still shows the same eyes, but all else is different. It’s like seeing a different person. A person who has devoted her life to real justice.
“The film just stays focused on her. I can’t seem to get a view of the audience,” Logan says, interrupting my thoughts as he fast-forwards through the footage of my better memories.
“No one could look away from her,” I say to myself, wiping a tear from my eye.
He doesn’t hear me, and I hold back the inner plea for him to watch the entire thing, to see how incredible my mother was. To get a glimpse of who I might have been.
But I simply bite my tongue when he ejects the DVD and puts in a new one. My stomach roils when I see the footage of my father’s trial replacing the sweet memories of my mother on the screen.
As he watches, I return to the bedroom. It’s like I told Hadley-the mind is just too fragile for some visual stimulants, and I know my limits.
Chapter 8
The secret to being a bore…is to tell everything.
-Voltaire
LOGAN
“Where’s Craig?” Leonard asks, breaking the silence in the car.
“Conveniently, the director called him to aid in a media thing upstate. Johnson is currently handling all media for this case.”
He mutters something under his breath before adding, “It’s pissing me off how obvious it is what they’re doing, yet no one is helping us stop it.”
“We just need evidence. We also need the entire story.”
“It’d be a lot easier to piece together this puzzle if our killer would just spell it all out for us. It’s obvious he wants us to know the truth,” Leonard grumbles.
He’s been lost in thought for most of this trip.
“He wants us to figure out the truth for ourselves. He thinks we’ll be on his side, considering he’s been saving us.”
Leonard turns to face me. “Are you conflicted?”