“Don’t worry about it. Just do as I asked.”
I threw my jacket and flannel shirt down and ripped my T-shirt off. I had to contain as much of his blood as possible.
Kneeling beside Hunter, I reached around to the back of his head, myfingers pressing the shattered bones just beneath the surface of his unbroken skin. They moved freely, and I felt something hard moving with them. The bullet. A deep sigh escaped me before I could even recognize it.
“Okay, good. No need to go on a wild goose chase for that,” I said to the air.
Wrapping my shirt around his head, I tied the sleeves into a knot to hold it on and hefted him over my shoulder.
“Hey,” I said, carefully keeping my tone in check so as to not sound pissed. I hauled Hunter past Maggie as she frantically searched the leaves and debris for her casing. “Try not to disturb too much. Once you find it, put it in your pocket. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Goddamn it, I knew she saw me punch him. I knew she saw when I didn’t stop. I knew she saw when I threw his barely alive body in the back of my truck and hid him under the tarp. What I didn’t know was that she’d followed me, or that she knew exactly where I’d take him.
How could she have known that?
Why didn’t I realize that this was deeper than a fucked-up curse?
I dumped Hunter’s body back into the truck and wrapped him loosely in the tarp, propping a spare tire on top to hold it down.
On my return, Maggie stood in front of the stump. Staring, a fist of dirt in one trembling hand.
“It should have been me,” she whispered, still fighting the tears. “I should be the one in the back of your truck. I should be dead.”
“Hey! Don’t you ever fucking say that!” I let out a breath and grabbed her shoulder, turning her toward me. “Get in the truck.”
“Maybe we can say it was self-defense,” she offered.
I climbed in.
“We’re looking at the same body, right?” I said dryly.
“Yeah. And you’re injured.” Her gaze dropped to my lip.
“Me? I’ve got a fuckin’ cut lip. That’s it.” I slid the key in and turned the ignition. The truck came to life with a low growl. “If we call it in, I’ll get excessive force and then some. Don’t forget tampering with evidence and moving a body. There’s just no good that will come from getting the police involved.”
“The police are already involved.” She gestured to me.
“No.” I shook my head. “Not a cop right now, Max.”
I took her back to my place. The truck ride was painfully quiet. Every bump we went over, I watched Hunter’s body rock in the rearview. Bile rose in my throat at the thought of how I was about to hide a body. How I’d become what I fought so hard to protect the world from.
The truck rolled to a stop, and I got out and opened Maggie’s door.
“I need you to wait inside, princess.”
“Can I see him first?”
“You don’t want to do that.”
“I need to.”
“Fine.”
I led her to the bed of the truck and pulled the tire and the tarp off of Hunter.
Maggie gasped. Her eyes instantly welled.
“Graham, I want you to know something,” she said, taking my hand in hers.
