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The whole room is a fucking sterile operating theatre and prison, but I can’t look away from him, noting his slightly parted, bruised and cut up lips. A scar runs across his forehead and down to the slit neck.
The blood is dried there, pooling onto the floor. His body is cold and going into rigor. He’s been dead a while, I know that, but it doesn’t stop the agony from forming a ball in my chest and mixing with my fury. He was just a kid, just a fucking kid, and they slit his neck like he was an animal.
I hear them then as they come into the room, and I turn to face them. I don’t know what they see on my face, but they still, worry in their eyes as well as pain. “He’s dead. He was just a kid. He’s dead.”
Isaac moves closer, taking my face and searching my eyes before examining me. “She’s in shock, but she’s okay,” he tells the others before moving to the kid.
I don’t watch as he examines him.
“From the wound and rigor, I’d say he’s been dead about seven hours,” he murmurs.
“They killed him today. They knew we were coming, and to hide it, they killed him rather than let us save him.” My voice sounds weird and faraway.
Dimitri steps into the room, staring at his phone. “Everything has been wiped, cleaned out entirely—” He jerks his head up and stops, his face paling when he sees the kid.
“They knew,” I snap at Louis and storm past them. I need to move, to do something. In the other room, I ball my hands into fists, and then with an anger-filled scream, I yank on one of the desks and throw it. Once I start, there is no stopping.
I throw chairs at walls, smash beakers, and crumble equipment in my wrath. Computers are destroyed and paperwork is ripped up until I just rage and take it out on the room. When I stumble back, my chest heaving, I don’t feel any better, but the room looks like how I feel inside—a destroyed mess of pain.
Arms wrap around my waist and turn me. I sink into that warm embrace, pressing my head to a solid chest. I feel their heartbeat as they try to soothe me, stroking along my back. “Collect what you can,” Louis orders, and the chest in front of me sighs.
“Shh, I have you,” Nico murmurs, and I realise he’s holding me.
Once again, he came after me and brought me back, and when I lift my head, I meet his knowing eyes. He glances down at me, flicking glass off my shoulder. “We need to move quickly. Are you okay?”
I nod and step back and look at the glass before glancing away. “We bury him,” I tell them, leaving no room for argument.
“Nova, we can’t,” Louis starts, and I whirl to him. “We can’t. I want to, but we can’t. If his body is found, there will be questions we can’t answer. Plus, it will expose us all. We have to burn this place to the ground, so no one ever finds it.”
“He deserves better than being burnt to fucking ashes and forgotten,” I yell, knowing I’m being irrational and taking it out on him when it’s not his fault.
“He’s dead,” he snaps meaningfully, making me flinch.
“Boss,” Nico snarls, but Louis narrows his eyes on him, silencing him as he steps before me.
“He’s dead, Nova. He doesn’t know or care anymore. I will not risk my family or you to bury the boy, no matter how much I want to. I vowed to protect you, and I will. He burns with all this, and I fucking pray that wherever he is now, he’s free of this hell.”
“He was just a kid,” I whisper, my lip quivering.
“So were we. We will get the bastard who did this, and when we do, he’s yours. Until then, we need you to keep it together. Can we count on you?” He searches my gaze as I breathe through the pain and anger until I feel more whole.
“Yes,” I mutter and meet everyone’s gazes, but they look away, working quickly to take anything that might be useful. Embarrassment heats my cheeks as I clear my throat and look back at Louis. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Good.” He squeezes my hand as he passes. “Then let’s do this and get out of here.”
FORTY-FOUR
After clearing the house of anything useful, we find some gasoline in the shed outside and fill the house with it. Standing in the back garden, I toss the lighter inside, watching as flames engulf the house of horrors. We stand side by side and watch it burn away all evidence of the evil done here and the boy’s body within.
Closing my eyes, I say a prayer for him, something I’ve never done. I pray to a god I don’t believe in to protect him and give him the happiness he deserves in life. When we hear the sirens, we disappear back into the darkness.
We don’t know where to go, and we’re unsure of our next move.
Luckily for us, we have Louis who barks out orders. We grab our stuff from the hotel and check out. If they know we are in the city, they might come for us, so we need to move fast. When we load into the plane and take off with no direction in mind, we are all feeling angry, hurt, and lost.
Dimitri spreads out the papers and computer parts he saved, giving us a purpose. It keeps my mind off what happened and the boy, even though I know I will see his body every time I close my eyes. Instead, I sort through the papers while Dimitri and Louis pick at computer parts.
An hour later, Dimitri’s head jerks up.
