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“God, I knew you were perfect, Bailey.”
Phoenix doesn’t forget the funnel cakes. He doesn’t forget anything, but after we’ve thrown our murder gear into the SUV as sneakily as possible and changed into the clothes we’d stashed in the back, Rory and I meet him in the fairgrounds. He’s waiting for us at a table, a large funnel cake generously topped with powdered sugar, along with a cup of chocolate sauce.
“I love you,” Rory proclaims, sinking down across from him as I do the same, sliding up next to my personal furnace as the chill takes hold in my less than warm clothes that don’t hold a candle to Phoenix’s jacket. Rory doesn’t mind, obviously. Not when he hooks an arm around my shoulders and drags me against his chest with a kiss to my temple. “Seriously, though. Marry me?”
It’s crazy how calm they are. How all of us are, even though we justkilled a man.
Well, Rory had done all the work, obviously. I just stood there, in case something had gone wrong. But still, it should bother me that we came straight here without even…doing what? Honoring the dead? Calling for help?
Jayden was pretty far past help when we’d left him to bleed all over the parking lot.
Shouldn’t I be reacting more than this? Or is this just the normal way to go about things? As if all we’d done is run an errand, instead of committed murder.
“I’d be a terrible house husband,” Phoenix quips, pulling me out of my thoughts. He tears off a piece of funnel cake as his foot hooks around my ankle and pulls my leg toward him under the table. “Did everything go okay?”
“Everything wentamazing,” Rory replies enthusiastically. “And we’ve discovered Bailey’s new hobby.”
“It’s not that new,” I protest, snagging one of the water bottles and taking a drink. “Or that interesting.”
“What is it?” Phoenix asks, just as blasé about the murder as Rory is. As I am, I guess.
“Darling Bailey really likes playing with dead things.”
Chapter29
It’s hard not to just stare at the phone in my hand listlessly. I’d rather not answer Nic’s texts at all; and certainly not at eight am. But I know she’s going to get more and more worried the longer this goes on, and since we’re not actively fighting anymore, I probably need to get over the grudge I’m still holding onto for her visiting Evan and talking to Ava about me.
After all, Ava’s dead, and Evan will be before Halloween is over.
And as today’s the thirty-first, I doubt he has very long.
Good morning,I text, sending that before adding.I hope you have a good Halloween. I’m not feeling the greatest.It’s absolutely a lie. There’s nothing wrong with me, but I need a reason for her not to come over. And if there’s a chance I can infect her so that she might miss out on the last days of the festival or worse, Halloween night, then she’ll steer clear of me.
Even if the idea that I could get her that sick that fast is stupid, at best.
Oh no!She texts back, and the speech bubble appears again, showing me she isn’t done.Do you want me to come over?
So much for my plan of keeping her away. I lean against the low wall outside of the library parking lot, my hip sore from sleeping on it wrong. Both boys are still asleep, as far as I know, but my brain had been so loud I knew the moment I woke up that I needed to walk.
And the cold air that makes it possible for me to see every breath that puffs out from between my lips has done wonders in quieting down my thoughts. I think of how to respond, but the distant whine of sirens pulls my attention upward, just in time for me to watch the cop car zoom on by.
I wonder if it’s for Ernie. Though I haven’t seen him in a while, I’ve heard from Rory and Phoenix he’s still around. Maybe he’s finally worn out his welcome.
Nah. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to go back to sleep for a while. It’s another lie. It’s all fucking lies, but I push off of my low-wall seat and keep walking, my strides eating up the distance to the small hotel .
If you’re sure. Just let me know if you need anything? I tell her I will, and slide my phone back into my pocket as I round the street corner that puts me back in sight of the hotel, and I see the door that’ll take me straight back to the boys’ bed.
My feet stop, steps coming to a dead halt on the edge of the sidewalk as I look at the scene in front of me. There are three cop cars scattered in the parking lot of the hotel, and as I watch, the boys’ door bangs open, revealing Phoenix.
In handcuffs.
“Fuck,” I whisper, but before I can dart forward, I stop. There’s nothing I can do for him, even though my heart pounds in my chest and I search for ways to do something that will get him away from the cop car and his current arrest.
But I’m not a cop.
And Angleson is with them, to make things worse. She’s ignoring Rory, who walks out of the room behind her, his hair messy from sleep and face full of distress. Through some manner of luck, he looks up, meeting my eyes even from over fifty feet away.
And even from here, I can see the small shake of his head that tells me my instincts were right and that staying away is going to be better for me than going over there. I can’t do anything for either of them right now. I’ll just add to the suspicions.
