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She sat straight, no longer leaning over the corpse’s shredded face. She’d torn some of the tendons and muscle off; you could see the skull beneath peeking through just under the eye and around the mouth, where his teeth were. “I… I don’t know.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Still, I sounded calm, but in reality, I was the farthest thing from it. I wanted to grab her, tear that knife out of her hand and pull her in close, hold her until she came back to herself.
Brianna’s grip on the knife tightened. “I want to see his bones,” she whispered. “The bones.”
“Right, the bones.” I extended a hand toward her, over the puddle of blood. “Why don’t you hand me the knife, hmm? Give me the knife, and I’ll help you see all the bones you want.” It was a fool’s errand to try to get out of this without getting blood on me, but that didn’t mean I wanted to crawl through the stuff.
I also didn’t want to force her to do anything. No, I wanted to get her to surrender to me, even if she was out of her mind.
And if she did, well, that meant she still trusted me, even in this current state.
If she wasn’t so out of her mind, I’d find her beautiful. Covered in blood and naked, she was a gorgeous goddess of blood and death, everything someone like me could want. My sister had never been the kind of girl who could stomach something like this, but Brianna… the day I’d spotted her in the park, I had no idea just how perfect she was for us.
For all of us. For me, for Gareth… and, in a way, for Rick, too.
Her gaze fell to my hand, and I could tell she didn’t want to hand it over. She clutched the knife like it was her lifeline, like it was a part of her body she could not let go. Past the blood, everything about her told me she still wasn’t in her right mind.
Honestly, the boy under her had gotten exactly what he deserved. Luring her here somehow, getting her naked, and, I assumed, having sex with her—the latter of which I didn’t want to think about… I was glad Brianna had desecrated his corpse and made him unrecognizable.
“Give me the knife,” I repeated the words slower, still extending my hand toward her. I would not make any sudden movements; Brianna was like a terrified, confused, caged animal, and when an animal felt like it had no other options, it lashed out. The last thing I needed to explain to my wife was a stab wound or a long cut on my chest.
My wife. The words rang hollow in my head, if only due to who the woman was. Nicole had simply been a means to an end, a means to Brianna. At the time, I’d thought I could fake it for a while, but I also didn’t think I’d find myself dreaming of Brianna in ways I shouldn’t. Wanting her in ways a new stepfather definitely shouldn’t.
“But—” Brianna started to argue with me.
“Please,” I whispered the word, my hand still very much expectant.
I knew I had her when she let out a sigh and slipped off the corpse. She fell right into the big pool of blood surrounding the body, but she didn’t seem to care one bit. Her lips pulling into a thin line, she carefully set the knife in my hand.
“Good girl,” I told her, and she squirmed a bit at that. Now that the knife was safely in my hand, I could see, through the blood coating its steel, it was a switchblade. Small, able to be tucked into any pocket when it was closed, one I did not recognize, which meant it belonged to the boy.
I closed the switchblade and slipped it into my pocket; the blade would come with us. Not sure what I’d do with it yet. Hell, I wasn’t sure what I’d do about any of this, besides the obvious: clean up the body, get rid of it where no one would find it, and sterilize this house—although, it looked to be abandoned. Based on how thick the dust was that covered everything, I’d say it’d been a few years since it had seen life.
“Now take my hand,” I told her as I offered her the same hand, now switchblade-free. “We need to get you cleaned up, Brianna.”
“But…” She glanced at the body beside her. She was now on her knees near it, totally unbothered by the gory mess she’d made. “But I want—”
“I will show you all the bones you want,” I promised her, “but we need to get out of here, first, so be a good girl and take my hand.” My voice got a little stronger with that, firmer, more authoritative. It was the voice I used when giving orders.
Even though she might’ve been out of her mind, she listened to me. Brianna set her hand in mine, allowing me to curl my fingers around her hand and stand up. She stood with me, and I pulled her out of the puddle of blood.
I let my gaze travel along her naked, bloody body once before telling her, “Good girl. Now let’s get you dressed.” I pulled her around the body, toward the pile of clothes, and I had to let her hand go and sift through them to find hers. Once I found her shirt and her pants, I helped her put them on. Her shirt first, then the pants.
She was basically a living doll, letting me dress her up. Brianna offered no help, her eyes vacant and dilated. I didn’t bother with her bra and panties; this was mainly to cover up some of the blood on her body, so she didn’t get my car too filthy with the red stuff. It would all come off once we got home, anyway.
“There,” I said once she was dressed. She… looked quite a sight, wearing no bra, the skin on her face splattered with blood. If the situation was different, if the others weren’t nearby, I’d be tempted to lay her down in the blood and reacquaint myself with that body.
I searched through the boy’s clothes, finding three phones. One had to be his, and one I recognized as Brianna’s—that one I took—but the third, I had no idea who the third phone belonged to, so I left it there, for now. I’d come back for it all later. Right now Brianna was my top priority.
Taking her hand in mine, I led her away from the body. She left bloody footprints where she walked. This whole house was a crime scene of epic proportions. Depending on what the others found outside and on the property… and depending on who owned this house, well, I was leaning toward one way of cleaning it up.
Let’s just say that particular way would involve making an even bigger mess.
I went straight for my car, which I had to park behind Rick’s, since he’d stopped before the final curve of the long driveway. I brought Brianna to the backseat, holding open the door for her as I said, “You’ll have to sit in the back. Don’t want anyone seeing you like this.” If she was in her right mind, I wouldn’t have to explain something like that; it was common sense, but she was not all there.
Whoever that kid was, he had to have access to drugs of some kind. Maybe going through the house, once I handled Brianna and knew she was safely tucked away in her own bed at Montgomery Manor, would shed some light on it.
Once Brianna had crawled into the backseat of my car, I shut the door and got in. I started her up and backed the car up, all the way down the long driveway. As I maneuvered while watching the mirrors, I dialed Rick’s number. He picked up on the second ring.
