4. Walt
4
WALT
I pulled up to the crematory and lit a cigarette. So much for quitting the damn things. Maybe someday when the stress of my job wasn’t so intense. Before I got halfway through it, headlights swept the parking lot and a familiar green van pulled in beside me.
After putting out the smoke against my boot, I got out and motioned for the driver to back up to the open doors. Damn idiots. I didn't know what I was more mad about—that they tried to dump a body in the lake or that they were caught by a guest.
I went inside ahead of the van and waited as the back doors opened, and Rick climbed out. Two bodies were in the back of the van. One was zipped into a body bag, and the other was sitting with a bag over his head and zip ties around his wrists and ankles.
"Jesus, Rick. I thought you said you knocked the guy out?"
Our captive seemed to be listening intently with one knee bouncing up and down.
Gary came around from the driver's side of the van and gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry, boss. He was lurking around in the bushes.”
"Seriously, what the hell were you thinking? In the lake?"
Gary and Rick exchanged glances and seemed to be waiting for the other to fess up. They both knew the protocol was to bring bodies here to burn them up. It was clean, discreet, and the way we'd been doing things for years. Now this hotel guest knew too much, which meant we were gonna be burning two bodies tonight instead of one.
I motioned toward the captive. "Bring him out."
Gary and Rick began pulling on the body bag.
"No, you idiots! The live one. Obviously, he's the priority."
All I knew about "the live one" was that he was hanging around the dark side of the lake, and in the van ride over, he said he knew Luca. Gary and Rick didn't recognize him, which meant he didn't work for us, but if he knew to mention Luca's name when a body was being dumped, he was trouble.
Luca wasn't just our boss and head of the family, he was also the mayor of Gilded Lake and its most prominent businessman. Protecting his identity and reputation was always a priority.
The guy needed help to stand because his ankles were bound, but as soon as he was stable, I pulled the bag off his head and gasped. It was Trey Barker. The author who was conveniently in all the wrong places at all the wrong times.
His presence only confirmed my suspicions about him.
Trey looked at me and…grinned. That was not the reaction I was expecting, and I felt a little flutter in my chest when he smiled. "I'm so sorry. I realize this looks bad, but if you can just call Luca, he’ll explain?—"
"Luca? I'm not calling Luca. Why would he be able to explain this?"
Rick and Gary chuckled but quickly shut up when I glared at them.
Needing something to do with my hands, I pulled a cigarette from my coat and lit it, then paced between the men as they watched in silence. Trey Barker. Trey Barker. Trey Barker . What was the deal with this guy?
His inquisitive gray eyes watched me as I considered my next move. I didn't want anything bad to happen to him, but I couldn't just let him go, not after what he'd seen. I sucked on my smoke and paced some more.
Finally, I pulled a knife from my pocket and cut the ties from Trey’s wrists and ankles, then looked him dead in the eye. "Don't. Run."
Trey nodded, and a little smile crept into the corners of his mouth. “Okay.”
I turned to Rick and Gary then nodded to the incinerator. "Get the bag in the oven."
While they handled the stiff, I took Trey into the small office. We sat on two chairs that faced each other, and Trey's smile had grown into a grin again. He seemed oddly excited considering how close to death he’d just been. Did he not understand what was happening?
Trey craned his head back to watch Rick and Gary as they fired up the oven. "So they're gonna burn that guy, huh? Expensive, but effective."
My brow furrowed. "Say more."
Trey looked surprised then shrugged. "Well, you know more than me. More than I. Me? Anyway, I just mean burning is a good way to destroy evidence. What do you do with the ashes? Mix them in with legit customers? That's not a bad idea…" He patted his pants pockets and withdrew a small notepad and pen. As I stood there staring at him, he began scribbling on the paper.
"What the hell are you doing? Don't take notes. Do you realize the situation we're in?"
“What?” Trey looked up then slipped his notepad into his pocket. "We’re, uh… We have to burn a body, right?"
"We? We? Trey, there is no we. I have to burn a body, and I have to make sure you don't squeal to anyone." It was the first time I'd called him by name, and I couldn't ignore the sparks that flew in the air when I said it out loud.
Trey's eyes grew wide, and he cocked his head like he didn’t understand my concern. "Oh, you don't have to worry about me. I know all about what you guys do. I mean, I was surprised to see a body being dumped in the lake. That just seemed so…gauche. But this makes much more sense." He gestured to the oven without any judgment at all.
" How do you know all about what we do? What are you, a fed?"
Trey's mouth fell open, and after a moment of stunned silence, he began to laugh. "Me? A fed? God, I wish. That’d be so cool."
Was he high? He didn’t seem like a user, but he also didn’t seem to be fully lucid. "If you're not a fed, what are you doing here in Gilded Lake? And how do you know so much about burning bodies?"
"Oh. Right. Sorry, I'm not used to people not knowing what I do. It's refreshing, really." He cleared his throat and leaned back in the chair with one leg casually crossed over the other. "So, I'm a writer. I write mysteries with lots of murder, and I'm here researching my next novel."
“A novel?” Did he expect me to believe that? Did I believe that?
He began to blush and then looked down at the floor. “Uh, yeah.”
"You said you know Luca. How?" His blush was adorable, but I did my best to ignore the fact that my heart sped up as I studied him.
"I do know Luca and Knox. We met in Italy."
My blood pressure was starting to drop as I calmed down. At least that was something I could verify pretty easily. But I still had a problem. Trey was famous, and we couldn't kill a famous person. There would be news crews all over this town, and we didn't need that kind of attention.
With a deep breath, I stepped in front of him with clasped hands. "Look, I'm in a bit of a bind. I can't really let you go because you're a witness to something you shouldn't have seen. But I also don't want to kill you."
The color drained from Trey's face as reality finally set in. “Kill me?”
He really was clueless. "Okay, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna stay in Gilded Lake for the time being. My family will be keeping a close eye on you. If we get any wind, and I mean any, that you're talking about what you saw tonight, well…" I cocked my head toward the oven. “It won’t end well.”
Trey swallowed hard and looked at me with a completely different expression. One I hadn’t seen before and definitely didn’t like. "Yeah, I get it, Walt. I mean, Mr. Francesco. I'll stay here as long as you need me to."
I stared at him as the room filled with silence.
When things got awkward, Trey craned his neck to see how the oven was coming along. He swayed from side to side as he tried to get a better look.
His curiosity was pretty cute, and I trusted that he’d keep his mouth shut. "Do you want to go see?"
“Can I?” He popped up from the chair and was almost giddy. “I can feel the heat from here.”
Fuck, this boy had no sense of self-preservation. Maybe no sense at all.
I gestured toward the door of the office and just shook my head. "After you."
We walked to the oven as Rick and Gary were loading in the body.
I cleared my throat, not sure how to explain what I was allowing. "Guys, uh, this is Trey. He'd like to watch."
Rick and Gary stilled for a moment and then looked between me and Trey before they stepped out of the way.
The omega stepped up to the small window and watched the bright orange flames eat up the body. Trey's eyes widened as he peered inside with fascination clearly etched on his cute face.
The flickering light danced across his skin as I thought about how I needed to keep a close eye on him for the next several months. Then I smiled.