Walker frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“You—You didn’t get rid of his body?” Kota asked in a stage whisper, as if the place was bugged. “I-I thought you did that while I was sleeping earlier.”
Walker chuckled. “You thought I disposed of a whole corpse in that short time span? No. I just cleaned up Early’s truck so it would take a little longer for them to realize he was missing and ensure that, if theydiddiscover him missing, nothing in that truck would trace back to you or me.”
Honestly, he’d been pretty proud of the clean-up job.
Kota’s face paled as he looked around the truck warily. “So…where is he?”
“There’s a false wall built into the cab,” he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. “There’s a freezer in there. I’ll stop at a spot I know along the way and cut him into more manageable pieces then scatter his body along the highway.”
“Oh, my God.”
“I’m not gonna make you help,” Walker assured him. The thought of Kota anywhere near a bone saw felt oddly offensive.
Kota gave him an incredulous look. “What if the cops pull you over?”
Walker scoffed. “They won’t.”
He said it with the absolute confidence of a man who had transported human remains across multiple state lines before.
“But what if they do?” Kota insisted, hand gripping Walker’s shoulder tightly.
The panic in his voice sent another strange flicker of satisfaction through Walker. Kota was scared, but he was scaredforWalker, notofhim.
Walker sighed. “If they do, they won’t find anything. There are some trailers that have false walls that gangs and cartels use to smuggle drugs or humans. The compartment I customized is built right into the cab. And it’s refrigerated. They’ll never find it, because they wouldn’t even know to look for it.”
“What did you tell the people who built this rig for you? Didn’t they want to know why you needed a hidden separate compartment that was refrigerated?”
Walker found his concern amusing. “I told them I’m a hunter and that I needed a place to store the meat when I’m doing long hauls.”
This time, it was Kota who scoffed. “They believed that?”
“I’m pretty convincing when I want to be,” Walker said. It wasn’t arrogance if it was objectively true.
“What happens to me if you get thrown in jail?” Kota whispered.
The question hung strangely heavy between them, like he’d already made Walker his protector. Or maybe Kota was just afraid he’d also end up in prison.
Walker slid his hands up into Kota’s hair, tugging softly. “Then you can tell them I kidnapped you and that you’re just another victim.”
Kota flopped back onto the mattress, crushing Walker’s arm beneath his weight. “I wouldn’t do that. You…saved my life. I wouldn’t do you dirty like that.”
The loyalty in his voice hit Walker like a brick. He had to stop this. He had to stop thinking of Kota as something permanent in his life. He was an anomaly, a temporary bug in his programming. He wasn’t a permanent fixture.
He needed to distract Kota somehow. “You already did me pretty dirty a few minutes ago. Or I did you…”
Kota’s eyes went wide. “Did you…just make a joke?”
Walker let his fingers trail down Kota’s belly. “More of an innuendo, really.”
His skin jumped beneath Walker’s touch, hypersensitive and warm.
Walker watched the muscles twitch beneath his fingertips. Kota really was pretty. Walker wanted to fuck him again. He wanted to pin him down and use him, breed him without a condom, claim him from the inside out.
The possessive thoughts came fast and instinctive, startling only in their intensity.
Walker’s head jerked upwards as Kota gasped. “What?”
