Page 62 of Hollow Forest

“The body—”

The rest of the question was lost as a pale, iridescent figure stepped up to the lifeless body on the pillar. The Miami Hurricane jersey glowed in the moonlight. She turned, her dark chocolate hair fluttering in the breeze. A smile tipped her lips before she faded away.

I took a step toward my sister. If she was a ghost or a figment of my imagination, I couldn’t say. But the pang in my chest was real. I knew with absolute certainty it was the last time she would appear to me like this.

From this day forward, Dezzy would only be a memory.

“It will be disposed of,” Joey said, his voice sounding far away even though he was right beside me. “I’ll dump it somewhere in the woods.”

The forest would keep our secret. This town would protect us, a sanctuary from what we’d done. I didn’t have to run. I could…live.

Chapter 20 – The Monster

Samantha was quiet the rest of the walk back. If I could have spared her, I would have taken her straight to my truck and driven us back to the cottage. But as we emerged from the stalks, the possibility fizzled out.

The king of hell was holding court with his villainous little sister.

Vaffa. We needed to go over and say hello to the don.

Sam was going to meet my family now that she was officially mine, but I would have preferred it was under different circumstances.

I braced myself as we emerged into the clearing. The crowd was thick tonight. Tourists had come from miles around for a night of spooky fun, enjoying the food trucks, selecting pumpkins from the shelves or wandering into the patch by candlelight to pick one straight from the shriveled vines, while the line to the haunted corn maze was overflowing with eager participants.

I would need to put Samantha to bed and hurry back. While the risk was slim that anyone would wander out of the maze, I couldn’t risk a wayward soul stumbling upon the unmarked path that led straight to Antonio’s body.

Lucian was going to be pissed.

Not that I gave a fuck. But as I approached the don, who stood beside Drusilla, I gritted my teeth. They were holding court over a select group of locals, dealing with the administrative tasks of running the corn maze.

I stepped right up to them, taking my place at their side—with Samantha tucked beside me, of course.

Drusilla, wearing a country glam chic costume, shifted her calculating gaze over my little monster. “Nice of you to join us, Giuseppe.”

Samantha stifled a gasp and froze in place.

Oh, right.

Merda, that detail hadn’t come out yet. In the tense explanation I’d given her, I’d been honest with every horrific detail of my true self. Except…I hadn’t explained I was one of the founding family, the original Ravellos.

“Giuseppe?” my monster breathed.

“Seph, to my family,” I offered. “But most of the town calls me Joey.”

“My landlord,” Sam squeaked.

I gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“The girl from the cottage,” Drusilla mused. “Ophelia, right?”

In the torchlight, Samantha paled.

“Her name is Samantha Jones,” I corrected my younger sister, not sparing her the vicious bite of my words.

Drusilla threw back her head, a deceptive laugh tinkling from her throat. “Like the blonde on sex and the city?”

My girl bristled. “So? She’s hot.”

Lucian, finally tearing himself away from a heated conversation with Marco Ravello, arched a brow. “We haven’t had the pleasure.”