AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once my hands are clean, I start washing the large sink for any hint of blood. Orion taught me that even if anyone searches later for DNA, the bleach will degrade the sample too much to identify it. This also wasn’t the kind of education I ever thought I’d need, but I had to dispose of all the plastic sheeting and clean our tools in both locations, too.
Blinking, I realize everything is spotless. Drying everything, I pack it all into the tool chest Orion keeps for my father’s work. My brow wrinkles slightly in concentration as my brain moves a mile a minute with questions:
How is the media not catching wind of these murders?
Why is Orion blithely helping him?
“I’m all packed up here, Baby Williams. Want to grab that last box and we’ll get going?” Orion asks and I grind my teeth.
I may kill him if he continues to call me this. I swear so help me God, my soul is already blackened, what’s one more?
Picking up the box, I raise my brow as I straighten and begin to walk towards him. “Do you enjoy that pretty white smile, Orion?” I ask sweetly.
“Huh? Are you hitting on me, Baby Williams?” he smirks.
I roll my eyes. “You’re not my type, so no,” I tell him as I shoulder check him as I pass. His oof makes me smile as I walk to his car. “Though,” I mention over my shoulder, “you may wanna lay off the ‘Baby Williams’ if you wanna keep your teeth, asshole.”
Orion snorts as he grabs a bag from the floor and stalks towards me. “I thought you were ‘Daddy’s’ push over. It’s nice to see there's still some fire there. I do this for our fathers’ because I enjoy beating the shit out of people and watching their last breaths leave their body. I don’t care much about their agenda, Mr. Xav’s, or any of it. Dad always knew there was something a little unhinged about me, so he asked Grant if he needed help with his campaign. Ya know, the special touch of having a pretty smile, polite as fuck, but knows how to skin a man while keeping him alive as long as possible,” he says as he opens the car door.
Fuck me, there’s way more to Orion than I thought.“I haven’t used that particular skill set for your father yet, but I’m sure there’s time. You hungry?”
I blink as he changes subjects faster than I can keep up with. He reminds me of a psychotic golden retriever, but manages to hide it well usually. The Orion I met in Farrelsville weeks ago is very different from the one in front of me. Watching as he gets into the SUV, I force myself to do the same. As I set the tools on the blanket in the back seat, my stomach grumbles.What does it say about me that I’m hungry after killing two people?
Shrugging as I settle to offset my thoughts, I nod as I shut the door. “Yeah, I could eat actually. I’m starving. Can we find good burgers on the way home?”
Orion nods, chuckling. Leaning back, I observe him as he turns on the radio and hits the remote to open the garage doors. I make a note to look for the deeds for these warehouses, though if they belong to Mr. Xav, I’ll never find them. The man is well acquainted with covering his tracks.
“So why did it take so long for you to join your dad’s campaign?” Orion asks as he checks to make sure the doors shut behind him before hitting the gas to leave the warehouse behind us.
His green eyes slide over to me for a moment. “I know you were touring with The Darkest Nights, but your father is not someone who accepts anything except agreement. Which, I mean, you saw,” Orion chuckles, a note of madness coloring the sound as he waves behind us. Yeah, I’m not going to be forgetting my father’s lessons anytime soon.
I don’t trust Orion, because he only cares about himself and his agenda. As far as I know, he could just be asking to run information back to my father.
Raising an eyebrow as if his questions don’t bother me, I answer. “I enjoy my work as a photographer and social media manager, and you said you’ve heard Lennon and the guys’ music.” Orion nods again, and he hits a button on the radio so that my beautiful girl’s voice comes through the speakers. Despite feeling as if my heart is being stabbed, I force myself to smirk, hopeful it’s not a grimace. “Then you know Lennon is easy on the eyes too, and the guys are cool as fuck. I was enjoying my time working with them, and politics don’t interest me in the least.”
“So what changed? You’re pretty stubborn, and I know you’re worried about your mom and all, but I’m sure your dad told you she’s safe. Miss Marian isn’t free by any means, but Mr. Xav won’t mess with her in Hidden Hills,” Orion insists.
My father was right, Orion does like to talk. I don’t think he’d have told me anything at all if I wasn’t with Orion today doing his dirty work. Happy for small mercies, I nod. “I know this now, but I didn’t before. My father has a way of threatening me because he knows how to use the people I love against me. It’s one of the reasons there are so few people I care about,” I explain.
I care about Lennon, Roark, and Turner, and while it’s too soon to call it love, my heart still squeezes at the thought of them.Hide it all, Derek.Taking a measured breath, aware of the black spots of panic running across my vision, I push the feelings that could hurt them away. There will be more than enough time to lose my shit away from Orion’s too interested gaze.
“Hmm,” Orion says as his fingers tap on the steering wheel. “Why did you come back so soon after just being here? Did you have to post your resignation or something?”
Blinking, I realize he’s asking me a serious question. “Lennon is at Hidden Hills, Orion,” I explain, my voice showing my surprise. “Dad is using her as part of his small town stance for mental health. Lennon O’Reilly is Carrie’s daughter, do you remember her from school?”
Orion hits the brakes hard and I gasp as I throw my hand out so as not to crash into the dashboard. “No shit, are you serious?” We are in the middle of the fucking highway at a dead stop. I look over at him, eyes wide, and he’s staring at me. Orion’s pupils are blown, and I realize he really didn’t know. Fuck, I hope this shit doesn’t blow back on me.
“Yep, so no lead singer, no band. Since I basically don’t have a job, there was no reason for me to stay on tour,” I explain. “I didn’t initially realize Lennon was from our hometown either, but she looks a lot like her if you’re paying attention.”
Orion grunts, turning back to the road and accelerating. I glance at the rearview mirror, and my stomach bottoms out as I see a semi on our ass. This crazy fucker is going to get us killed if he doesn’t pay attention to the road.
“Aw, you fuck,” Orion mutters as he pushes down the pedal until he’s going eighty miles an hour. “He’s so lucky you’re with me Ba-, uh Derek, or I’ll drag him out of his cab and beat him for the fun of it.”
I snort, watching as he pushes his sandy brown hair out of his face. “You’re still feeling stabby after we killed two people?” I ask. I shouldn’t be able to feel amusement, but I think I’m broken. There’s a darkness awakening inside of me, and today has been so fucked up, I can’t bring myself to care.
“Dude, you did all the work,” Orion groans. If you ignored what we were talking about, it sounds as if we’re shooting the shit after a game. “I was mostly there for cleanup and to see if you could hang. Your dad told me he didn’t warn you about today, and while I get it, he’s on my shit list for it.”
“You have one of those, huh?” I ask with a small smile. Despite his enjoyment of killing people, there’s something about him that makes it easy to hang out with him. It’s almost too easy, which makes Orion even more dangerous.
