Chapter Eighteen

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Axel

"Get rid of the body," I told Harlan and Kyle once Dexter was nothing more than a bloody mess on the floor. Part of his skin had been ripped clean away, revealing bone and muscle, and some of those bones were bent in awkward ways, leaving him nothing more than a mangled, messy corpse on my basement floor. "I want all evidence of him gone by the time Novella wakes up from her nap."

"Understood," Harlan told me.

I headed back up the stairs, going into our bedroom. Novella was just waking up, and her bleary eyes met mine as I shut the door behind me with a quiet shnick. "Hey, baby girl," I murmured, toeing my shoes off and walking over to her. Pressing one knee into the mattress, I leaned over her and pressed our mouths together in a sot kiss. "How are you feeling?"

"A little nauseous," she admitted, "but I'm kind of hungry, too." At that, her stomach rumbled.

I ran my hand over red hair before tracing a pattern through all the freckles dotting her cheeks. "Want to get a shower with me first?" I asked. "Then we can try some soup and saltine crackers."

She nodded. "A shower sounds nice." She looked at my shirt and swiped her thumb over a red spot. "Is this blood?"

I made a noncommittal sound in the back of my throat. She looked up at me but didn't ask again, nor did she try to deep dive. Like the good girl she'd always been for me, she simply trusted me to take care of her, keep her safe, and decide what she did and didn't need to know.

"Meet me in the bathroom, baby," I told her before I pushed off the bed and headed for our bathroom, already unbuttoning my shirt. It would have to be trashed, but that was fine. It wasn't like I didn't have a gazillion others to match it or that I couldn't afford to just buy another.

When Novella finally joined me in the shower, I drew her into my arms and just held her for a few minutes as the water washed over our skin. She was safe with me. I'd taken out the person after her. I hoped he would be a message to anyone else who thought they could put her life in danger—put their hands on her, put her in the middle of a fucking shootout—should think twice before acting.

Because I would come for them.

By the time the shower was over, Harlan had sent me a simple text.

It's done.

After washing Novella and allowing her to wash me in return, we headed to the kitchen. I held her on my lap while she ate some soup and saltine crackers, thankfully seeming to hold it down. She had some ginger tea after, and once it was all finished, I carried her into the living room.

"Want to watch a movie?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Can we watch Transformers?"

I wrapped an arm around her as I grabbed the remote with the other. She grabbed her throw blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her before cuddling into my side. Kyle found us like that about thirty minutes later, his red hair damp and fresh clothes covering his body. He sat in the recliner near us, looking at the screen for a moment.

"Still one of your favorite movies?" he asked, looking at Novella.

She nodded, a slight blush covering her cheeks. "It's a good movie."

He hummed, not saying anything else. Relaxing back into the recliner, he pulled out his phone, seeming to begin playing a game on it. Being a psychopath had to make it easy for him to compartmentalize. Probably helped that he didn't feel normal human emotions. Even Harlan and Griffin—hell, even I—struggled to calm the bloodlust inside of us after a particularly brutal kill.

And Dexter? Yeah, Kyle had fucked him up. Only a DNA test would ever be able to identify him.

Novella groaned before flinging the blanket off her and rushing for the bathroom. I quickly followed her, getting there just as she sank to her knees and began to throw up everything she'd eaten and drank. I held her hair back, using my other hand to rub her back. Kyle leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb.

"I assume she's really pregnant?" he asked.

I nodded. "You're correct." I pulled Novella to my chest once she was finished, reaching forward to flush the toilet for her. "You okay, baby?"

She nodded. "It's already passing. Can I get some mouthwash?"

Kyle grabbed a travel bottle out of one of the drawers and handed it to her. She swished it around in her mouth before spitting it into the toilet. I flushed it for her again, then lifted her against my chest and stood from the floor. This time, once I settled her on the couch, I held her on my lap, knowing she would be going to sleep soon.

"Will she be like this the entire pregnancy?" Kyle asked as she began to doze off, her head resting on my shoulder, her body covered with her fuzzy blanket.

I shrugged my other shoulder. "I don't know," I told him honestly.

He scowled. "I don't like it."

I arched a brow at him. "I don't recall asking your feelings on the matter."

He just evenly met my gaze. "When it comes to my little sister, Axel, I will always give my feelings and opinions. You'd better get used to it."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "If you were anyone else, you'd be six feet under by now," I reminded him.

He smirked—a cold, calculating one that I decidedly disliked. "You hired me to protect her," he reminded me. "And I'll do just that." He stood from the recliner. "Remember, Axel, you need me."

I scowled at him. "Fuck off somewhere."

He snickered and leaned over the couch, dropping a kiss to Novella's forehead before leaving the living room, heading toward his room in the quarters reserved solely for the security detail. I looked down at my sleeping beauty and reached up, brushing some of her hair out of her face. "Your brother is a pain in the ass," I murmured.

She only snuggled closer to me. I sighed and tightened my arms around her.

The shit I put up with for her sake...