The train rocks me into a daze on the way home, and by the time I’m unlocking my apartment door, the adrenaline from watching Alyssa beat the shit out of Madison has worn off completely.
I drop my bag by the couch and sink into the cushions.
I pull out my phone and check the time. 8:43 PM.
Ten minutes pass while I sit there staring at nothing in particular. The ceiling. The photos on my wall with Alyssa’s face carefully inserted into my history. The spot where she stood with that knife when I first walked in on Friday.
Realistically, she’s not coming home tonight.
Getting arrested for assault means booking, processing, maybe a night in holding if she can’t post bail. And even if she could post bail, that takes hours. The whole system moves at the speed of molasses mixed with bureaucratic incompetence.
“Damn...”
I lean my head back against the couch and close my eyes, and immediately I see her. The way she looked when she told me I was special. Not just special in some generic, throw-away compliment kind of way. Special to her. The only one who could love her the way she needed.
And she looked so fucking hot saying it.
Blood on her hands, that manic certainty radiating off her like heat. The way she grabbed my face and kissed me like she was trying to consume me whole right there in front of everyone.
I chuckle a little. The sound echoes weird in the silence.
“And she’s a killer.”
I say it out loud to test how it sounds. My voice bounces off the walls and comes back at me.
“And a Chinese spy?”
The stupidity of it all makes me laugh harder.
I think about how insane she really is. How completely, utterly unhinged. And somehow... it’s kind of fun to be near someone so... exciting, for lack of a better word.
Like she’s this walking disaster that keeps pulling me into her orbit, and instead of running away like any sane person would, I keep letting it happen.
The key turns in my lock.
I sit up straighter, my eyebrow cocking automatically. That was fast. Way too fast for someone who just got arrested.
The door swings open and Alyssa steps through, closing it behind her with a soft click.
Blood stains her clothes in dark patches, dried and crusty around the edges, but her hands and face are clean. Scrubbed. Like she took the time to wash up in some bathroom before coming home.
“Baby!” The word comes out bright and breathless, like she’s coming home from a normal day at work instead of beating someone half to death in a bar.
“How are you already out?” I stare at her, genuinely confused. “Were you even arrested?”
“I sure was.”
She crosses the distance between us and settles onto my lap like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Her arms wrap around my neck, and she nuzzles against my shoulder with this contented sigh.
“I missed you,” she murmurs into my shirt.
The weight of her feels good. Solid. Real. But my brain’s still trying to catch up with the timeline.
“Alyssa, how did you possibly deal with all of that so fast?”
“I have my ways.” She answers dismissively.
I lean in closer. “Was it your Chinese connections?”
She goes completely still.
I watch her close her eyes. Her chest rises and falls with one deep, deliberate breath. The kind of breath someone takes when they’re collecting themselves, pulling all their scattered pieces back into formation.
When she opens her eyes again, I’m looking at someone I’ve never seen before.
The warmth drains from her eyes like water circling a drain. Her expression goes flat. Cold. Calculated. This version of Alyssa radiates control in a way that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Her hands come up to grab my face. Not gentle like before. Firm. Demanding my complete attention.
“I’m going to say this once.” Her voice comes out measured, precise. Each word carefully placed. “It was not Sun Wei that helped me.”
She pauses, and I can feel her fingers pressing harder against my cheeks.
“And you can’t ever bring up what happened tonight at the bar to Sun or Lu.” Another pause. “Or anyone.”
She leans in, her lips brushing against my ear as her voice drops to a whisper.
“If you do, it could get me killed. Okay?”
The words settle over me like a blanket of ice. Not because they scare me. But because of how seriously she means them.
“So please, baby...” Her voice shifts, losing some of that cold precision. “Please keep this one a secret just for me, okay?”
Her green eyes search mine.
“You would do that for your loving wife, wouldn’t you?”
Layers of secrets on top of layers of secrets. Nothing that adds up or even seems to make sense. Chinese spies and murder confessions and getting out of jail in under two hours. The whole thing is too much to even try to figure out.
I’m not even sure I really care about how all the puzzle pieces fit together either.
I’m more just interested in what she is.
“Yeah, I don’t mind.”
The relief that washes over her face is immediate. Some of that warmth bleeds back into her expression, softening the hard edges.
“I should probably keep the other thing you told me a secret too, right?” I add.
She tilts her head slightly, confusion flickering across her features. “What other thing?”
“How you killed your late boyfriend.”
She scoffs. “I suppose so, yes...”
“What are the odds you kill me?” I ask, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice.
The question hangs in the air for maybe half a second.
Then she grabs me.
Her arms wrap around me so tight I can barely breathe, her whole body pressing against mine with desperate intensity. The transformation back to normal is instant and complete, that cold calculation shattering like glass.
“I’M NOT GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!” Her voice cracks into a screech that makes my ears ring. “NO MATTER HOW BADLY YOU THINK YOU WANT IT, CALEB, SO JUST QUIT IT!”
She’s shaking against me, her fingers digging into my back hard enough to hurt.
“You hear me?” Her voice rises higher, more frantic. “I don’t care if you beg me, I don’t care if you try to trick me into it, I don’t care if you make me so angry I can barely see straight!”
She pulls back just enough to look at my face, her green eyes wild and wet. “You’re mine, Caleb. Mine to love. Mine to save. Mine to keep.”
She stands up abruptly, pulling me with her by my shirt. The movement is so sudden I stumble slightly, catching myself on the arm of the couch.
“Come on.” She barks at me.
“Where are we going?”
She’s already moving toward the bathroom, tugging me along. “I need to wash the day off, Caleb.” Her voice shifts, taking on that maternal tone again. “And since you’re my husband, it’s your job to make sure I do it right.”
The implication settles over me. I nod slowly.
“Okay.”
******
The shower spray hits my back as I drive into her from behind, and she’s making sounds that barely register as human anymore.
Her palms are flat against the tile, fingers splayed wide as she pushes back against me with this frantic, desperate rhythm. Like if she stops moving, if she loses this connection for even a second, something fundamental will break inside her.
“STAIN ME, CALEB!”
The word rips out of her throat, echoing off the bathroom walls.
“STAIN ME! MAKE ME YOURS! STAIN EVERY PART OF ME!”
I grip her hips harder, pulling her back as I thrust forward. The water streams down between us, washing away the last traces of blood from the bar, from Madison, from everything that happened tonight.
“YES! FUCK! STAIN ME LIKE THIS FOREVER!”
Her whole body goes rigid.
It starts in her core and spreads outward like a shockwave. I feel it through every point where we’re connected, the way her muscles lock up and then start convulsing in waves I can’t predict or control.
“PERFECT!” The word tears out of her throat, guttural and raw. “YOU’RE SO FUCKING PERFECT, CALEB!”
Her pussy clamps down on me so hard it almost hurts, pulsing in rhythm with the convulsions wracking through her frame. The sounds coming out of her aren’t quite screams anymore, more like these half-broken cries.
“MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!”
The sight of her naked body shaking like that, the feeling of her tightening around me, the way she keeps screaming, it’s too much. Way too much.
The sensation builds inside me. I don’t say anything. Don’t warn her. Don’t even try to pull out. I just grip her hips harder and let it happen, a pathetic whimper escaping my throat as I empty myself deep inside her.
Mid-orgasm, she twists her head back to look at me over her shoulder.
“Holy fuck, are you cumming in me, Caleb?”
Her voice cuts through the sound of the shower, sharp and breathless. That smile spreads across her face, so wide it looks almost painful. Pure satisfaction radiating from every feature.
“And you didn’t ask me if it was okay?”
I can’t form words. The sensation is still pulsing through me, making my brain short-circuit. I just nod, my grip on her hips loosening as the last waves finish.
“That’s right, baby.” Her voice drops into something possessive and territorial. “You stain my pussy with your cum.”
She pushes back against me harder, keeping me deep inside her despite the trembling in both our legs.
“You own this pussy, Caleb. It’s yours.” She grinds back against me, making sure I feel every word she’s saying. “You make deposits whenever you feel like it, baby.”
The water streams down on us, and I watch it mix with what’s dripping down her thighs. The sight makes something twist in my chest, equal parts satisfaction and that familiar emptiness that never quite goes away.
She turns around slowly, carefully, her back sliding against the wet tile until she’s facing me. Her green eyes are bright with something between joy and madness.
“See?” She reaches up and cups my face with both hands. “We’re perfect together.”
I stare at the psychopath who calls herself my wife with absolute conviction and I almost start to feel a little nervous for a moment. Like she’s too beautiful to talk to. But the anxiety passes just as fast as it comes.
“Yeah.”