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“Food sounds good,” Kai agrees.
My stomach rumbles as I lean forward to retrieve my coffee cup from the table, announcing its agreement with the plan, and Hawk lifts out his phone, taking our food orders.
“It’ll be here in thirty minutes,” he informs us when he’s done.
“Guess that gives us time to search this,” Wilder states, holding up a backpack.
“Is that Mel’s?” I ask as Kai tenses behind me.
“Yup.” Pulling it open, he pulls out another cord of rope and some zip ties. Even the sight of them makes me shiver. Flashes of Wilder tied up in that bunker and Hawk in the kitchen. Images I never want to see again, ones that will haunt my nightmares for years to come.
Seemingly having emptied the main compartment, Wilder begins pulling open zips to some smaller ones. “Oooh,” he says with an edge of excitement, grinning at us before revealing his find.
“Her phone?” Kai gapes, interest piqued as he involuntarily leans forward.
“And a key.” Wilder holds out a finger, a silver key dangling from it. “What do you think it opens?”
I glance at Hawk and Kai, both of whom shrug. “She had to be living somewhere, right?” Hawk supplies.
“Ugh,” Wilder groans after tapping on the phone for a few seconds. “It’s locked.”
“Here, toss it over,” Kai says, holding out his hand. Wilder throws him the phone, and I watch as Kai stares at the screen before frowning. “We should get West to look at it.”
Hawk expresses his agreement, and we set it and the key aside to look into later.
“So…” I begin after an awkward silence. “The problem of Mel…”
“We can’t do anything until tonight,” Kai speaks up. “After we’ve eaten, we should all grab some sleep.”
“And tonight?” I enquire.
He mulls it over for a moment before saying, “We could take her out to Hollow’s Park.”
I wrinkle my nose, not wanting to contaminate that place with the stench of Mel. Despite how it ended, my hike there with Kai is still one of my favorite memories.
“Not the trail we were on,” he explains, catching my expression. “There’s another one, further out. It’s off the beaten track, and there would be no one around this time of year.”
“And then what?” I ask. “Bury her?”
“No,” Wilder quickly chimes in. His eyes drill into me as he says, “We burn her.”
His declaration is met with silence, Hawk and Kai sharing a look before Kai shrugs his shoulders. “More immediate than burying. It would take too long for a body to decompose, and the last thing we need is someone finding her remains in the spring and starting up a whole investigation.”
“Oh, me, me, me!” Wilder jumps up and down in his chair, his hand raised in the air like a child who knows the answer to the teacher’s question. “I wanna do it.”
“You want to burn her body?” I ask incredulously, barely able to stomach this conversation, never mind being involved in the actual process.
“Ehh, yeah,” he states in aduhtone. “I missed out on all the fun earlier, the least I deserve is to chop her up and toss her in the flames.”
And there goes my gag reflex.
“Yeah, sure,” Kai says, sounding equally grossed out. “Have at it.”
Wilder grins like the fucking lunatic he is.
When the food arrives, I go with Hawk to the door, helping him carry it into the kitchen. Setting it down on the island, I let Hawk sort out plates and cutlery while I rummage through one of the kitchen cabinets until I find what I’m after.
“What are you doing?” he questions, watching with piqued interest while I grind up several tablets.
