But I couldn’t look at him.
Not yet.
Not until I figured out what the fuck I was doing. How I was going to hide it.
BANG!
A fiery crack echoed off the trees.
My vision blurred. My ears rang with that familiar high-pitched squeal that came from a close-range gunshot.
I turned toward where the shot came from, and the blood drained from my face. Everything moved in slow motion. Maggie stood there, white as a ghost, shaking like a leaf. Tears streamed down her bruised face as her chest rose and fell with an angst that even I was scared to witness.
My eyes flicked to Hunter.
Fuck.
He was done. Right between the eyes.
Good girl. But—fucking goddamn it. Bad timing.
I rushed to her, took the gun from her shaking hands, and stuffed it in the waistband of my jeans.
I pulled her in close, kissed the top of her head like it would make all the bad in the world go away.
She sobbed, collapsing into me.
“Shhhhh—shhh, it’s over now. He can’t hurt you anymore… or anyone else.”
“I’m sorry, Graham.” She sobbed, clutching my jacket like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
“Hey—hey—it’s okay. I’m here. I’ve got you.”
I held her for a moment—steadying her until her breaths evened out. But the moment they did, I pushed her back and made her focus.
Lifting her chin, I leaned in and gave her a hard kiss. When I pulled back, my eyes locked on hers. “I get it, princess. I get why you did it.” I kissed her again. “And I’m not mad. But, Max… now we have a big fucking problem.”
My heart climbed to my throat at rapid speed, racing against the bile to see which would be the first to choke me out as I wracked through the case files in my head. We needed a way out of this. We needed to stay ahead of the evidence. We needed someone to think it was an accident. But bullet holes didn’t usually mean accidents—at least not like this.
I stared at Hunter.
Fuck!
There was only one option. I had to take him home. Bury him someplace no one would ever suspect. The garden? No. Too likely to run into him with the rototiller. I couldn’t leave him in the woods for the wild animals to take care of. My property butted up against the bird sanctuary. And with that came hiking trails and the eager trespassers ready to veer from them. The last thing we needed was some granola-crunching explorer stumbling on a dead body.
Then—
I got it.
The perfect place.
“Okay, Max, look at me.” I cradled her face in my hands. “I need you to find your casing as fast as you can. Can you do that for me?”
She gave a silent nod. Tears still streaming down her face.
“I’ve got to get him back to the truck.”
“W-what? Why?”
