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.”
The officer frowned.
“So let’s just say, I more than know who his victims usually are,” I snapped. “I haven’t seen him.”
The officer looked from me to Bram.
“Have you?”
I felt more than saw Bram shake his head.
“No,” he answered. “Been here all night. Haven’t seen him.”
That was a joke if I’d ever heard one.
Even I hadn’t been here all night.
But whatever worked.
We would obviously be each other’s alibis.
“What’s going on here?” he asked. “I thought you were with someone.”
The suspiciousness in his tone set me on edge.
“If you can’t figure out what I’m doing here, then obviously you have shit detective skills,” Bram grumbled.
“Pretty shitty of you, isn’t it?” he asked. “Your girl was broken up over your disappearance.”
Bram sighed. “I think you have no clue what’s going on with my relationship, nor do you really have any rights to what’s going on with it. If you’re interested in arresting me, I’ll be more than happy to answer whatever questions you have. But if you’re not, then I think it’s time to leave.”
The detective’s mouth thinned in a line, and I could tell he didn’t like being dismissed.
Needless to say, when he walked away, I wanted nothing more than to retreat back under my bedspread.
Instead, I said, “Do you need a ride?”
“My bike’s a couple blocks over from where he was being held,” Bram said. “It’s at the donut shop. So it won’t look weird if you drive me there right now. They’re about to open anyway.”
I looked at the officer as he got into his car. “This is going to go bad.”
Bram sighed. “I have a feeling that you’re right.”
• • •
And I was.
Three weeks later, the shit storm hit.
Amon’s body had been discovered, and we were the prime suspects in his murder.
How did I find this out?
Bram snuck into my window, woke me from a dead sleep, and then said, “Shit’s hit the fan.”
I was still gasping when I finally realized that I wasn’t about to die.
“What the fuck?” I gasped. “You can’t just come into a girl’s room like that.”
He grumbled something under his breath and then, more loudly, said, “I think you’re underestimating the urgency that I’m currently feeling. They found him.”
Oh.
Oh, shit.
“Oh, shit,” I choked. “How? What are the freakin’ odds?”
“Very slim,” he admitted. “A guy fell out of his fishing boat because he thought he had a monster catfish on his jug line that’d swept downriver. When, in fact, it’d caught on Amon’s jawbone. Pulled him out of the water yesterday afternoon. I just heard the news and came straight here.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “What do we do now?”