Page 107
“Stop,” my mom demanded. “Stop panicking,” she added, climbing off the floor and going to the table, where she used her one good hand to pull a cigarette out of the pack. She stuck it between her lips, then lit it and took a long drag.
“He’s dead. Right? He’s dead?”
“Yeah, he’s dead,” my mom said, tone way calmer than it should have been, given the situation.
“You… you stabbed him.”
“It was him or me,” she said, taking another drag, the smoke dancing around her as she exhaled.
“What do we do? We have to call the police, tell them what happened…”
“We won’t be doing that.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I got a sealed box of black trash bags. Got some gloves. Lots of bleach.”
“Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“Look, we don’t want to get caught with a body. Even if we had a good reason to hate him, judges and juries can be assholes. So get over here, tie your hair back, and get some gloves from under the sink. What?”
“I… I think I might have a better idea.”
“What kind of idea?”
“So, I, um, met someone new,” I told her, watching her brows lift. “And he… he is the kind of man who can take care of this for us.”
“Do you trust him?”
“Yes. More than anyone.”
“Then call him. I don’t wanna be hauling a dead body with one arm. So who is this mystery man?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cain
“What the fuck do you mean none of you saw her leave?” I yelled once I got to the clubhouse and asked everyone who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her where she might have gone.
“She must have snuck out,” Vas said when no one else would answer.
“Snuck out or was taken?” I shot back, each word clipped.
“Cameras,” Briggs said, thinking much more clearly than I was with my woman missing, likely in danger, and no one even knew if she left willingly.
Croft whipped out his phone as I scanned the common room, looking for any signs of a struggle.
“There she is,” Briggs announced, turning the phone to show me the camera feed.
Sure enough, there she was, pulling out of the lot in her new car.
Briggs rewound it to the moment when the door to the clubhouse opened and she emerged.
Calm.
Not in any hurry or duress.
I exhaled, feeling some of the panic lift from my shoulders.
