Serial Hottie (38 page)

I was scared to look, but too curious not to. My jaw hit the floor when I opened the case and found a necklace inside. A necklace with a freaking diamond hanging off it. “Holy crap, is that
real
?”

“Ellie, the other night was a
bad
night. When I came home and found you waiting for me…” Seth’s voice was suddenly clouded with emotion. “No one’s ever been there for me like that. Ever. I wanted to get you something special, so you’d know how much you mean to me. Something only a boyfriend would give you.”

I suck.
I had to swallow back bile. Oh, the guilt.
I’m a jerk! I’m scum!
Here he thinks I was being this super supportive girlfriend, when really I was looking for evidence to get him thrown in prison for the rest of his life.
But he’s murdering people, Ellie
.

“I saw you and your sister talking to that cop and figured it wasn’t a good idea to interrupt you. I assumed he was asking you about Travis. But I also thought you’d come home and tell me about it. Only, you didn’t. You came home acting like you thought I killed someone.”

He knows! Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!
I started looking for an escape route. Seth grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “What did he say to you?”

“Nothing!” I gasped. “I-I-he…” I panicked and blurted, “It wasn’t about Travis. It was about the Saturday Night Slasher.”

Seth froze and I realized my mistake. If Seth didn’t know we were on to him before, he sure did now. I searched frantically for a lie. “That guy is a detective in the Slasher case. He just wanted to talk to me because I fit the profile. He said he’s been visiting all the girls he could find that could be at risk and telling us how to stay safe.”

I thought my story sounded reasonable enough, but I don’t think Seth bought it, because he got pissed. Scary pissed. It’s like he just shut off all his emotions and turned to stone in order to gain complete control of himself. It was the type of eerie focus I could only imagine he had when he was slicing up screaming girls.

“How did he find you?” he asked, his voice like steel. “Cops don’t just have a database of all the teenage redheads in the world.”

Oh, no
. He didn’t just know the cops were on to him. He knew we turned him in. “Um...” I hated how much my voice was shaking. I didn’t like him knowing I was scared. “He didn’t say. But I did get hauled down to the big house last weekend. They didn’t take my fingerprints or anything like they did you, but I’m sure there’s a report somewhere with my name in it. Plus several cops there that day mentioned I was serial killer bait. Any of them could have said something.”

That seemed to do the trick. Seth stood there, lost in thought for a minute, but he eventually snapped out of it and switched back over to calm, loving boyfriend. He pulled me against him and murmured into my hair in a silky voice. “That’s what’s had you so upset this week? Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was embarrassed. I feel like a paranoid mental case.”

Seth kissed my head and rubbed my back, trying to sooth away my nerves while he held me. His touch was so tender, his smile so sincere. And the way he got lost in my eyes? It was too much to resist. When he told me not to worry and promised me I was safe, it was hard not to believe him.

He felt it the instant I relaxed. He looked at me with these big hopeful eyes and asked, “So you weren’t just afraid of me? You really do believe me about Travis?”

I couldn’t lie to him. I couldn’t stand there and look into that face that wanted me to have faith in it so badly, and tell a lie. “It’s the Slasher I’m scared of, Seth. Talking to that cop made it real. I mean, if that detective could find me, then the Slasher could, too. I’m sorry I’ve been a little crazy.”

Seth held me in an embrace that could have created world peace. It ripped my heart in two. How could this boy be the Saturday Night Slasher? I wished there were a way I could separate the two of them and just keep this Seth.

I hated how he made me want to trust him. I hated how he made me feel. I wished I could just hate all of him the way I needed to, but I couldn’t. Especially not when he broke the tender silence in the room by whispering, “I think my aunt was right, Ellie. I think I’m in love with you.”

His declaration was so raw it was terrifying, and yet the way my heart reacted to his confession was even scarier. “Seth,” I breathed. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

Seth shook his head. “You don’t have to say anything. I just needed you to know.”

As I stood there battling feelings I couldn’t recognize and emotions I didn’t know I was capable of, Seth clasped the necklace around my neck. After making sure it was straight, he regarded my overwhelmed expression and then hesitantly brought his lips to mine, giving me time to protest if I needed to.

I didn’t protest.

As he gave me the world’s most loving, tender, perfect kiss, I realized that my heart belonged to him forever, and nothing in my life has ever caused me more pain. I ripped myself away from him and staggered back, trying to catch my breath. “I’m sorry, Seth,” I said, gasping. I took off the necklace and left it on the nightstand as I backed out of his room. “I—I have to go.”

I raced downstairs and across the street, pushing away the sound of Seth’s voice calling me back, and ignoring the J’s stupid taunts. There was only one person in the world that I wanted to see right now and that was Angela. By the time I got to where she was still waiting anxiously for me on our front porch and threw myself into her arms, I was full on crying. No, not crying. I was sobbing.

Somewhere, a new rift was just created in the space-time continuum.

“Ellie?” Angela asked.

I could feel the J’s standing behind me and couldn’t even begin to imagine their shock.

“What happened?” Jack asked, while Josh demanded, “Did he hurt you?”

“We’ll kill him!” Jesse said, and I didn’t doubt they’d give it their best shot. They’d get the beating of a lifetime.

“No,” I said quickly. “He didn’t hurt me. He didn’t do anything wrong.” I was hit with a new wave of tears. “He did everything right.”

Behind me I heard someone mutter, “Chicks.”

“Go home, you idiots!” Angela barked over my shoulder. “She’ll call you later.”

After my once-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-repeated emotional breakdown on Wednesday, I told Angela everything. She turned out to be a surprisingly good listener and didn’t even judge me for being in love with a serial killer. Much. She listened, cheered me up as best she could, and helped me hide my depression from my parents until they left for their vacation later that night.

I’m all for this new sisterhood Angela and I seemed to have, but by the time Saturday came and we were officially on lockdown for the night, I hadn’t seen or talked to anyone but her in days, and it was starting to show. “No,” I said when she flipped to MTV. “I am not watching this all night. No way.”

“Well, you can forget about ESPN.”

“Don’t you have some boys you can go call or something?” I snapped.

“Don’t you have some video games you can go play or something?” she spat back.

I snatched the remote from Angela and started flipping through the channels. “Saturday TV sucks.”

“Forget this. I’m going to Rachel’s. Mom and Dad aren’t even home. They’ll never know if we leave.”

“You’re just gonna leave me here alone?”

“Well, why not? You’re probably the safest redhead in southern Michigan. Not only did Detective Pierce say that Seth can’t hurt anyone he knows, Seth
loves
you. He’s not going to kill you. Besides, it’s eight o’clock already. He’s probably out stalking his next victim right now.”

Almost as if the fates were mocking us, the doorbell rang then, and guess who was standing on our porch? “So, if he’s here right now,” I whispered to Angela as we peeked out the window, “does that make me his next victim?”

Angela looked both confused and worried. “I don’t get it, what’s he doing here?” she whispered back.

“You guys,” Seth called out in a flat voice. “I can see your shadows through the curtain.”

Angela and I jumped away from the window, plastering our backs against the front door. “What do we do?” I asked. “Do we let him in?”

“I guess. I mean a real girlfriend would,” Angela mused.

“Do you think Detective Pierce is out there watching him? He wouldn’t let anything happen to us. Maybe we
should
let him in.”

“Ellie!” Seth called out, pounding on the door again. “I’m not leaving until we talk.”

“He sounds angry,” I said.

“Ellie,
please
?”

“Actually, he sounds desperate,” Angela said. Her face filled with sympathy and I cringed. She’d not yet been exposed to vulnerable Seth, and it seemed she was just as susceptible to him as I was, because before I could say anything she opened the door.

“Hi Seth,” she started to say, but he stormed right past her, locked the door behind him, and then turned to me.

I backed up until I ran into the wall.

“Were you just never going to speak to me again?” he asked.

That was pretty much the plan
. “I’m sorry,” I said with no further explanation. What was I supposed to say? I hate that I’m in love with you, and being around you hurts too much? Even now, as he stood there silently begging me to accept him, my heart and my head were raging a war inside me.

He started to come toward me and in a surprise move Angela stepped to my side, clasping my hand. “She just needed some time, Seth.”

I was impressed by the confidence she displayed. Her protective front made Seth stop, and I was finally able to muster up some courage.
Keep him happy
, I reminded myself.
He can’t know we suspect him
. “Do you want to stay for a little while?”

“Yes.”

I glanced at my sister. She looked wary, but she was leaving the decision up to me. “Come on in, then,” I said with a sigh. “We were just watching TV.”

Seth brushed his fingers against mine as I walked past him. Why did his touch have to be so electric? It sent a current through me, making it impossible for me to break the connection. I looked helplessly at Seth and then gave him what he wanted—my hand.

“Can’t we go up to your room or something?” he asked me in a low voice. His eyes darted to Angela. “You and I have some unfinished business, and I was kind of hoping for a little privacy.”

Unfinished business
? I swallowed hard.
Maybe I’m his redhead of choice tonight after all
. “Um.”

“So, Seth, what are your plans this evening? Anything fun?” Angela said, coming to my rescue. She herded us into the TV room before Seth could talk me into going upstairs.

“It’s Saturday. Ellie is my only plan for the night. The amount of fun we have is up to her,” Seth answered, glaring at my sister with contempt. “And you, apparently.”

Angela and I exchanged a startled look. I tried to sit in my dad’s easy chair, but I’d given Seth my hand and he was not about to relinquish it. He tugged me down to the couch with him. “Are you okay?” he asked when I stiffened at his side.

I nodded quickly, but Seth looked like he didn’t believe me. In an attempt to convince him I pulled my feet up underneath me and leaned against him. Bingo. Seth immediately forgot about everything except the fact that I was snuggling with him. He forgot about our “unfinished business” and resolved himself to a long night of watching TV.

Two reruns of
The Simpsons
and an episode of
House
later, I started to doubt Detective Pierce’s promise that this would all be over soon. Seth obviously wasn’t planning on going anywhere or killing anyone tonight. I was going to be stuck being his girlfriend forever. Of course, as I sat there next to him and he lightly massaged the back of my neck, relaxing me into a state of semi-consciousness, I figured there were worse things.