Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 64910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“I’m glad you scrounged up the courage,” I admitted.
A faint glow had me looking up to find a big barbeque shop that was cooking their meats. The smoker was steadily smoking away, and the fire as well as the unattended fire pit outside was the perfect setup.
“Let’s go,” I ordered.
Then I walked to the large smoker, threw our clothes inside, then added more wood on top of it.
Only when everything was completely covered did I gesture to the barrel. “I’m guessing that they’re pretty lax in their discard. Or what they put in here.”
Because I could see burned but not melted beer bottles in the barrels next to the fire that was made to hold the ash.
“They empty these every Thursday,” she said quietly. “I hear them loading up the barrels. Do you think your boots will be burned all the way down?”
Her piddly little canvas shoes would be gone in minutes.
My leather work boots, however…
“Yes,” I answered. “I think they’ll all melt in some way.”
“Do you think that it’ll ruin the meat?” she asked warily.
As in, did that meat get fed to someone that would be burning our murder clothing in… I didn’t know.
Nor did I really care.
“Don’t know,” I admitted. “But let’s get to your place so we’re not standing out here naked.”
She gave me some of her brother’s clothing.
Which I thought was funny as fuck.
I didn’t find it funny when I went to leave five minutes later, and she looked absolutely terrified.
“I promise I won’t say anything,” she murmured quietly as she walked me to the door. “I’ll be strong.”
I had no doubt. “Without a body, they won’t know he’s gone. Most likely, they’ll come here and ask if you’ve seen him. Just tell them you haven’t.”
She swallowed hard. “I…”
Before I could get out of there, though, there was a knock on the door.
I cursed my closeness to the door, because through the little side window, I could see a man. And that man could certainly see me.
Which meant that he would know that we were together.
Fuck.
CHAPTER 6
I’m pretty sure I had a good time last night. Let me finish reading the police report and I’ll let you know.
-Dory to Bram
DORY
“Dammit,” I heard him say. “Answer it.”
I didn’t want to answer it.
In fact, I wanted to run and hide in my room with the covers pulled up over my face.
Instead, I pulled my big girl panties up—because I’d just killed my brother, it was time to be an adult—and opened the door.
“Um.” I stared at the big officer on my porch. “Can I help you?”
He was wearing plain clothes, but he had a big shiny badge clipped to his belt that showed he was very much an officer of the law and not some normal citizen.
He looked at me for so long that I thought I was about to start squirming.
Obviously sensing this, Bram walked up behind me and placed his hand on my hip, pulling me into his chest.
His very warm, very defined, very much taken by Mimi chest.
“What’s going on?” Bram asked, sounding all tired and rough. As if he’d just had sex, not killed a man. “Isn’t it a bit late?”
The officer looked between the two of us, and I could practically feel the judgment.
Because I knew, without a doubt, that this man knew Bram was taken.
Mimi had made such a big spectacle upon his return, as well as it being on the news, that everyone and their brother knew who Bram was.
They also knew who I was.
Because I’d seen this particular man a time or two.
As in, I’d tried to tell him that my brother was a psycho, but he never believed me.
“Ms. Wheeler,” he said to me. “We’re looking for your brother.”
I blinked. “What do you mean, you’re looking for my brother?”
It came out high-pitched and scared, but they didn’t know that I wasn’t scared for the reason they thought.
“The officers that were watching over him said he’s missing,” he answered. “We thought we would check here to see if he’s been by.”
I swallowed hard. “If he were here, I’d be dead right now.”
And I fully believed that.
Because I would’ve fought, and hard. He probably would’ve accidentally killed me this time, like he’d almost done a hundred times before.
His eyes narrowed. “You were never his target, from what I understand.”
That’s when I started laughing.
I laughed so hard that Bram’s hand at my hip squeezed a little bit too hard.
“You’re joking, right?” I said. “Because you’re fucking clueless.”
The detective didn’t like hearing that.
I lifted up my shirt and showed him a stab wound.
“This wound right here was from when my brother thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if he deflated my lung,” I said. “They had to reinflate it in the emergency room.”
The officer’s eyes took that spot in, and I moved to a new one. “This one is from when he wanted to see what my skin would smell like if he pressed a car cigarette lighter to it.”