We pulled up outside the building just as a moving truck did the same, and I switched gears, throwing the flowers to the floor beneath my seat as a new idea formed in my head. This was even better than anything I could’ve hoped for. We didn’t have to pretend that Jeff was a flower delivery guy in order to get in; he wouldn’t have to greet the doorman, thereby exposing himself. Not that I cared if anyone saw him. If this idiot gets caught, it’s nothing to do with me.
I looked down at my watch again with that growing pit in my stomach. It’s been hours now; why haven’t I heard anything? I was afraid to call his number, not after I’d gone through the trouble of erasing myself from his life and anything to do with him in the last few hours.
Growing up as a senator’s kid with teams of men and women in the security sector, you learn a lot of things. One of the things I’ve learned is how to get in and out of electronic devices without having to be in the room with them. That one had only cost me a fuck at sixteen, but the guy was cute, so whatever. I’d worked him for a while before moving on to the next one, each one having something else to offer that I didn’t know then would come in so handy in my later years.
I looked around the apartment nervously once again, moving the cushions from their place, looking under the bed, anything to make sure that nothing of Jeff’s had been left here. It was looking more and more like something had gone wrong since I hadn’t heard from him, and hours had gone by. I bit into my nail as I thought of what could’ve gone wrong and the implications if he didn’t finish the job. I was more worried about that than about him being caught. Just as long as he did what I sent him there to do, I could care less.
Cody would’ve left practice long ago; I should’ve heard sirens, or barring that, there should’ve been movement on campus, something. I walked to the door for the third or fourth time, meaning to go back there and see for myself, but this time like the last, I changed my mind. It would be stupid to get anywhere near there now.
My fury started to grow as I imagined that he’d failed. But how? With the drug in his system, there’s no way she could overpower him, I’m much taller and weigh more, and I find it hard to control him sometimes when he’s like that, and tonight I’d made sure to give him an extra dose so there’s no way he couldn’t take her down. I’d made sure to wait until the moving truck drove off before sending him in there under the pretense that he’d forgotten something and waited around long enough to watch him get past the doorman.
I’d driven away feeling a great sense of achievement. I’d already started making plans on how to get my life back once my prison term was over, but after what was going to happen to her, it would be years, if ever, before she was able to pick up the pieces. After this, not Cody or any other man would want her if she survived, that is, and that thought alone would keep me warm in the cell that was waiting for me, thanks to her.
I spent the first hour or so after leaving him there imagining her terror. I’ve seen the monster he becomes with the bath salts working away on his brain, the dead look in his eyes as all reason disappears, and he becomes something other than his stupid self.
I didn’t feel guilty for what I’d done to him; it’s the price he pays for liking my enemy. Without the drug, he’d only rant and rave a bit, but he didn’t have it in him to do much more than that. He’d have been willing to let her go without putting up a fight. Loser! But with the drug in his system and me whispering in his ear, it was a whole other story. He’d become exactly what I wanted him to be, especially when I pretended to be her. Now I know how he’d react when she rejects him for the one-thousandth time. I know because I’ve trained him well.
As for her, I hope he destroys her both physically and mentally. I hope Cody comes back to find her dead or, even better, alive but broken. Those were the thoughts that have been keeping me sane all night and making the mess she’d made of my life easier to bear. But now I’m left in la-la land, not knowing if my plan had worked or if Jeff had failed at his task.