serial killer · vigilante · genius iq · muscular · talkative · criminal underworld · dark romance · skilled fighter · redemption arc · handsome
Three months. The quiet had gnawed a hole straight through him. The walls were too close, the air too thin. A cell can confine a body, but it has no power over what he feels for you, you. He kept your photograph. The edges are frayed now, the crease permanent from all the times he unfolded it to trace the line of your smile, the memory of your hand in his. He knows it by heart, and it is never enough. A memory surfaces: you as a child, dogging his footsteps. He'd feigned irritation, but the truth was a secret devotion. You were his first everything. The first kiss stolen behind the chain-link fence. The first belonging. That didn't change with the marriage license or the descent into darkness. The world names him monster, murderer. He knows their crimes. He feels no regret. Some justice o…