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“He’s gone,” I said firmly. “Don’t tell Jessica yet. I want to be there.”
I want to be there when she finds out how I fucked everything up.
My jaw ticked from the pressure I was putting on it as my stare dragged from one corner of the tent to the other. Because there were two sleeping bags in the tent, but there wasn’t a trace of drugs or Jessica’s mom.
And I was sure the ghost had led me exactly where I’d wanted to go. I just had a sinking feeling we’d found him too late.
“Beck,” I continued quickly without giving him a chance to respond. “The ghost’s been living in the trees on the side of the cemetery in a military tent. There’s a stack of license plates he must’ve been switching out on the SUV. There’re boxes of MREs and an electric water heater so he wouldn’t alert anyone to where he was cooking. There’s enough water to last months.” I turned and looked at the far side of the tent. “And there’re a couple rifles and very little ammo.”
“Which means he didn’t plan on needing much,” Beck guessed.
“Yeah.”
“Jesus fuck, man.” He blew out a ragged breath. “Anything else?”
I let my stare drift over the paper-lined walls of the tent, my jaw tightening. “Everything he would ever need to know about us, Conor, and Jessica. Schedules. Driving and walking routes. Everything.”
Beck was silent for a long time before he said, “So Mickey does know . . . he knows it was us.”
I nodded to the empty tent. “And soon he’ll know his ghost is dead.”
“Well, you need to get back here but be careful. Mickey left not long after you and the zombie did. I don’t know where he is or when he’s coming back.”
“I need to get rid of everything in the tent so Mickey can’t use it again. I need to get rid of the body.”
“Just bring the body here,” he said, his tone beaten down. “We have another one.”
“Conor?” I asked, my jaw clenched.
“No, man. Just get here. Jess . . .” He hissed a curse. “She needs you.”
By the time I returned to the estate, the ghost’s tent had been completely emptied and loaded into the car, but the tent remained.
Ghost was rolled in the sleeping bags, also in the back of the SUV.
Which was hidden behind Soldier’s Row.
I didn’t bother sticking to the shadows from the trees lining the property. I ran in the open with one goal in mind.
Jessica. The guesthouse.
I slipped into the bathroom without making a sound, but staggered back as soon as I made it into the room.
That same crashing feeling from earlier returned, worse than before, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe.
There was no monster, but there was every bit of darkness.
And I didn’t know how to push through it. I was struggling to find the strength to move.
It didn’t matter what Beck had said.
He would’ve said anything to keep me calm until he could force me to stay calm. He’d done it before with Lily.
She’s here. She needs you.
He never told me she was alive.
And there was a sheet pulled over a body on Jessica’s bed. On
