Page 49

We work in tandem until evidence in the room is a non-issue. Then I walk Teague through the process of de-suiting and containing that contamination for disposal.

Neat and tidy.

“Thanks for your help,” I say as I secure the back door of my van. “I’d offer to help you, but that’s not really my kind of work.”

“It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure. How’s Eddie doing with this?”

The switch catches me off guard. “With what? Why?” I shake my head as if that will help make sense of his question. “My job? It is what it is. I don’t pry into his legal stuff, and he stays out of my bins. I hang out with his daughter and see to his needs, and he keeps me safe from unwanted pests.”

“So you’re trading babysitting and blow jobs for snake extraction.”

I shudder, but he’s not wrong. Not entirely, because what Eddie and I have is more than that. Isn’t it?

And that’s the question I obsess over and over think until my brain is as mushy as Devin Dustman while I dispose of his pieces and parts.

And I can’t seem to keep my eyes from darting to the mirrors, anticipating the red and blue lights. But, of course, they’re not there. I’m not speeding because even though that was usually the excuse Dusty gave, I don’t. Not with a van full of crime scene cleanup and human remains.

Home at last, I choose not to back into the barn, but to pull straight in. I want an escape. An easy way out if I see the flick of a scaly tail.

With all the thoughts and over thinking and thinking again, I have myself so keyed up, I can’t even step out of the van. What if there’s a legion of demons slithering across the ground? What if I step wrong and one strikes? What if I freeze, petrified, and they surround me, twisting and twining around my legs, climbing me like the wrappings of a mummy.

My hands shake as I swipe my phone to life. It takes two tries and a misdirected dial to finally call Eddie. While I wait for him to answer, I sit perfectly still, only my eyes darting around the interior of my barn.

“Jess.” His voice rumbles through me, setting my world on fire while calm washes over me.

“Where are you?”

“Why? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” His questions stack one on top of the other as urgency paints each word.

“I’m home. Um…” It’s so hard for me to admit that I’m scared. That I need help. That I’m not the independent badass I like to think I am.

“I’m on your street. Two minutes, I’ll be there in two minutes. Talk to me.”

I push the air from my lungs and try to find some chill. “I’m… I’m scared to get out of the van.”

“Thirty seconds, baby. Why are you scared?”

I peer through my window at the ground covered in smooth concrete with no wriggling bodies. I whisper, “What if one of those things is hiding?”

Headlights flash behind me, bouncing almost recklessly into my main drive.

“Stay where you are, I’ve got you. I’m here.”

The overhead lights come on, and the beam from a flashlight sweeps the walls, the ground, the corners, its source moving closer to me the whole time. Eddie pulls on the handle twice before I realize I locked the doors in an effort to keep the nonexistent creatures from getting me. As if they had thumbs and could work the latch. Those bastards don’t need such frivolous appendages; they can just slither and slide through the smallest of holes and…

I hit the locks and throw open the door, scrambling out of the driver’s seat and into Eddie’s arms.

“Whoa, baby. Careful,” he soothes, holding me close. “I’ve got you, Jess. There’s nothing out here.”

I sob. The reality hitting me square in the chest has me crying even harder. I don’t like feeling out of control. I hate being scared, let alone showing fear. Vulnerable is not a mood I do well.

Eddie cradles me in his arms, murmuring soothing words into my hair until I calm enough that I can breathe.

I hiccup and finally find my voice. “What if one got into my van? It could have been right there, waiting for me. Ready to strike. I’m terrified.”

“I see that.”

“And I always clean and restock my van as soon as I get home from a job, but I don’t know that I can do that. And then what if I get another call? I won’t be prepared, and I’ll have to do it before I leave and what if that’s at night, in the dark and there’s one hiding and angry and waiting and… and…”