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Then Kara dropped to her knees, a keening wail slipping from her lips.
Beside me, Bliss clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling a sob.
I made the mistake of looking down.
A body lie at the mouth of the open grave, an exit wound in his back from where my bullet had passed straight through him.
Hugh stared at me with unseeing eyes. The whites showed all around the irises, like he’d been surprised I’d actually had the guts to pull the trigger. Blood dribbled out of his mouth, down his chin, and onto the browning winter grass beneath him.
I’d done that.
I’d killed a man.
The impact hit me like a freight train now Caleb wasn’t there to focus on. My knees gave out, too, and I stumbled forward a step, teetering on the edge of the grave meant for my mother’s casket.
Panic crept in. There was an entire church full of mourners barely half a mile away. They would have heard the gunshot. Kara’s screams. They might have called the cops.
Or worse, they hadn’t, and they’d all be down here at any minute, ready to watch a casket be lowered into the cold, hard, unforgiving ground.
The world around me spun in dizzying circles, colors blurring, sounds distorting.
Fang caught me, steadying me with strong hands and a sharp shake. “Pix. Hey. We aren’t done here. You can’t check out.”
I stared at him, the world coming back into focus when I concentrated on his icy-blue eyes.
I didn’t want to check out. Not again.
There were people here who needed me.
But more than that, I was done being weak.
I pulled my shoulders back and glanced over at Scythe. “I need a favor.”
He had Bliss wrapped in his arms, but his face lit up, like he already knew what I was about to ask him.
“Can you deal with that?” I nodded toward Hugh’s body. “And quickly? I don’t know how long we have until people come down from the church or the police show up. Either wouldn’t be great.”
He handed Bliss off to Nash then rolled his eyes at me, toeing the body with his heavy black boot. “Please. Easiest cleanup ever.” He gave Hugh’s body a solid kick. “Timberrrr!”
The dead man toppled over the edge, falling into the casket-shaped hole. Scythe whistled as he moved toward the dirt pile. “If only all the bodies I buried came with pre-dug graves. Damn, wouldn’t that be sweet? Seriously, Rebel. You might be my new favorite killer. So considerate.” He ruffled my hair affectionately, like I was a kid who’d just won a Little League game.
“Jesus fuck,” Vaughn murmured, pressed tight to my side. “Why does he look like he’s enjoying this?”
War followed Scythe’s lead and kicked dirt into the grave to cover Hugh’s body. “Because he is. You get used to his murderous delight if you hang out with him long enough.”
I ignored Scythe’s snort of amusement and edged my way around him to Kara, approaching her like I would a startled horse or a scared child. Her hair was a bloodied mess, and tears ran down her face as she lifted her eyes to meet mine.
There were differences between us. Her face was rounder. Her hair longer. But there was no doubt in my mind we were sisters. Her eyes were the same deep brown. Her lips had the same bow shape, and she even had a similar dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
Even if I hadn’t seen her photo in my father’s house, I would have known.
Maybe I had from the very first moment I’d ‘met’ her, when we were both trapped in Caleb’s basement. Something inside me had connected to her in that instant, and it hadn’t stopped since.
“He has my daughter.” Blood seeped down her neck from her ripped-up scalp, but she didn’t seem to notice. “She’s probably already dead, isn’t she?”
My heart tore open at the complete and utter despair in her voice. Bile rose in my throat, just thinking of what Caleb would do with a helpless baby when he hadn’t even tried to hide how deep his evil ran. I didn’t want to tell her she was probably right.
Caleb had no reason to keep her baby alive. All he needed was for Kara tothinkshe was. That was enough to keep Kara compliant.
