Sighing, I looked over at where I still had Jared’s cooling body. “Get up and come help me, asshole.”
His eyes went wide, his throat working hard to swallow as he stared at me in shock. “I’m sorry, what?”
I couldn’t blame him. After all, I had been the one who had told him to help me cover up a murder and I still was surprised that I hadn’t just killed him and chosen self-preservation.
Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair and stared him down. “The way I see it, you have two options. Option one, you join Jared over there. Option two, you never speak about what you saw here today and you do exactly what I say and you get to keep breathing. I know which one I would pick, but the choice is yours, Christian.”
His face paled as his eyes darted between me and the dead body.
“Fuck.”
I didn’t move or say anything as I let him work out the options for himself. He was a smart man and I had no doubt he’d make the right choice. I just needed to let him think things through.
There was a tremor in his shoulders, but he stood tall as his gaze met mine. “What do you want me to do?”
18
AIDEN
Istared down at another dead body and cursed my luck. What had once seemed like a golden opportunity to make a name for myself to solve a serial killer case, had turned into a nightmare.
Nearly two weeks had passed since the disastrous breakfast at my parents’ house with Nate. And I knew I had overreacted, but by the time I realized that maybe it wasn’t as big of a deal as I’d made it out to be, I’d been even more embarrassed over the way I’d acted. How did I expect him to want to deal with me and my shit when I pulled a stunt like that and pushed him away?
Even if he had been prepared to be my Daddy, that didn’t mean he wanted to deal with someone who acted like a child.
“Who found him?” I glared over at the beat cop who had just come back over after throwing up his breakfast. Death was messy. I understood that. But if he was going to make it in this profession, he needed to get a stronger stomach or he wouldn’t make it very far.
He nodded at the man who was looking around the park, uneasy. “Early morning jogger. Says he likes to go off trailthrough the park and he stumbled upon him. Said it wasn’t the first time he found someone naked in the park, but itwasthe first time they were dead.”
I bet.
My gaze wandered back over to the man with a new purpose. Most witnesses whostumbledupon a murder victim usually had something to do with the crime. But the man’s sweat looked like it could be from actual exercise. But that didn’t mean he didn’t set up the victim beforehand.
“What else do we know?” I leaned down and noted the wounds on the body. They were the same as the other victims. Deep, narrow slashes all over the body along with superficial cuts that wouldn’t have contributed to the death. And there, under the ribcage, were the deeper wounds I’d been looking for.
I knew a long, jagged blade had been stabbed right to the hilt over and over into the soft flesh.
A shudder wracked through my body before I shook myself, refusing to let the past drag me down. The last thing I needed was to be the talk of the precinct, or worse, the entire police force.
Of course, when I needed Victoria to be by my side to divert attention, she was giving me a wide berth, something about needing an attitude adjustment. My gaze flickered over and caught her flirting with the EMT on scene, who stood by, with nothing to do, since there was no live victim to transport anywhere.
“The vic is Jared Mackay and the witness is Christian Carter, a local realtor.”
“Hmph. All right. I don’t want anyone to touch the body except the coroner. Keep back anyone who tries to come near the scene. I’m going to go talk to the witness.”
Despite not looking thrilled at being left to babysit the dead body, the officer didn’t argue with me, which I was glad.I didn’t have it in me to get on him about doing his fucking job.
I walked over to where the jogger was standing with one of the other beat cops who had been first on scene.
“Angie,” I said, greeting her with a half-hearted smile.
“Hey, Coop. Tough one, huh?” She shook her head as she glanced toward where the body was tossed carelessly by whoever had killed him.
With a glance back, I was happy to see her partner had a little bit of color back, and not of the green variety. “Yeah, then again, they’re never easy, no matter how many you go through.”
The last thing I was going to do, would be to indicate it might be the work of a serial killer, not even to another cop. Especially in front of a stranger, a civilian.
“Mr. Carter,” Angie started, “this is Detective Cooper. He’s one of the lead detectives who will be working on the case and will need to ask you some questions.”
