21. Zombie
TWENTY-ONE
ZOMBIE
My head fell to Lennie’s shoulder as I let out a pained groan.
“Do you need to get that?” she asked when the phone rang for the third time.
“Yes,” I said begrudgingly.
I climbed off of her and sifted through my pockets until I found the evil device that was cock-blocking me. My brows knitted together when I saw Toby’s name on the screen. If he was calling, it meant someone couldn’t get in touch with me and had called him.
“Yeah,” I deadpanned through the phone, attempting to hide the annoyance in my tone.
“Boss, two bodies just washed up in the Upper East Side. From the information I received, it’s right near where we found the others, and they have the same ligature marks.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face and let out a curse. I knew who to blame for these deaths without even needing to see them. Two more innocent souls taken by my stepsister and her cruel games.
“I’ll be right there.” I ended the call and looked at Lennie, who now had her arms wrapped tightly around her knees.
I climbed back on the bed, sat next to her, and waited until her sparkling blue eyes met mine.
“I am so sorry, but I have to go.”
She nodded with understanding before pressing her lips to mine once more. “You owe me.”
I looked down at my still-erect cock and back to her. “Trust me, I will make it up to you.”
I was right; my stepsister had been behind the dead bodies.
Both were women in their early twenties with lacerations on their wrists and throats. I recognized them from the cages the first night I had met up with Sarah. And now they were dead.
I took a breath to help ease the nausea swirling in my stomach.
I could have saved them. I could have been the one to set them free from the hell they endured.
Instead, I was part of their undoing. Instead of telling my team where Sarah was and ending this once and for all, I was hiding it to ensure that my daughter and her mother were not hurt.
It seemed so selfish and unfair to put them above the other women and children; however, I was doing all that I could to try to stall shipments, while simultaneously looking like I was on Sarah’s side.
As we brought the body bags to the van, Toby finally spoke. He had been quiet the entire time, marking and bagging evidence for me. “Does it ever get any easier?”
I looked at him with surprise. His parents had been morticians, so I’d assumed that he’d been desensitized to death at an early age.
I shook my head and then told him the truth. “Sometimes it does. But honestly, you just start to get numb to it all over time.”
He helped me get one of the bodies into the van before speaking again. “I don’t know how you do it.”
I looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“How you are able to detach. I mean, I was with you when you did Aaron’s autopsy. I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
My heart clenched hearing my best friend’s name. I didn’t have the heart to tell Toby that I threw my guts up after I completed the autopsy and then proceeded to get piss-drunk until I passed out.
“This job isn’t for the weak. Some days are harder than others, but regardless, you have a job to do. People are depending on the answers that you are able to provide. We are the ones who help lock up the evil in this world.”
As I spoke, guilt piled in me. I was helping the enemy.
I was adding to the work of the detectives and my team.
Leaving more questions than answers. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep up this charade but I needed to spend a little more time proving myself to Sarah and the others before officially dismantling everything.
Toby gave me a solemn nod before helping me get the other body bag into the van.
The rest of the ride back to the lab was quiet.
I could tell that Toby was in his head. This job certainly was hard.
Especially when the victims were young. Even though I had been doing this for years now, I still found myself having a hard time after gruesome scenes.
After getting the bodies in their cooling chambers and putting the evidence from the scene in its designated area, I sat back in my office chair and worked on my ever-piling stack of paperwork.
After hours of working and the hard thoughts of the day, my brain started to drift back to Lennie.
I had been so close to being inside her.
So close to fulfilling one of my many fantasies she starred in, and of course this was the day that she would go back to her home now that the forensics were done being processed.
I of course hadn’t been shocked when my own name had popped up on the screen.
I’d made sure that Toby didn’t see the results and deleted it from the system record so he wouldn’t accidentally send it to Lennie or Kade.
I sent a message to Kade letting him know the test was inconclusive.
There was no way I was about to throw myself under the bus. Kade responded with a text.
KADE:
OK, I would say she is still clear to go home. The surveillance from her condo shows no continued activity. I will keep it up when she gets home. Thank you again, Zombie.
Guilt swarmed my head. If only Kade knew the real results. I would surely be killed or worse… tortured and then killed.
After a few minutes of stewing in my guilt, my mind went back to Lennie. Who knew when I would see her next? I knew the evening would consist of me lurking outside her window like a crazed man, but I didn’t care.
Did she have the same feelings for me as I had for her?
Probably not, but it was clear that she wanted me in a physical sense, so for now that would have to do.
I only wondered what she was doing right now.
It had been hours since I last saw her, and I was crawling out of my skin to touch her, to feel her beneath me.
“You’ve got it bad,” Arrow’s voice sang in my head.
Damn straight I did.
I got home not long after I had gotten the text from Kade because I wanted to see Lennie before she left. I assumed Kade had texted her about it, but was prepared to tell her myself if need be.
After walking through the door, I was met with Lennie in the living room pacing. I looked at her with concern, wishing I could read her mind.
“Is everything alright?” I asked as I placed my bag down on the kitchen counter.
Lennie stopped her pacing and looked at me through the vast open space. “Kade texted me that it’s safe to go home.”
I couldn’t understand why she was pacing, or why she seemed upset. This was a good thing, so I would have thought.
“Yes,” I confirmed, “It is safe to go home.”
Lennie looked like she was about to have a panic attack. “But how do we know it is safe? What did the results show?”
“Kade has been watching your place and there has been no other activity or signs that the person will do it again.”
“But what did the results show? We don’t know for sure that the person will come back. They may be hiding.” She started pacing again. “It’s not like I can have a bodyguard with me forever.”
As Lennie continued pacing and talking, I was overcome with guilt. I had thrown a rock through her window—after she’d been kidnapped. Of course, she was freaked out and worried.
“Lennie, there’s something I need to tell you,” I said as calm as my racing heart would allow me to be.
She once again stopped her pacing and looked at me with fear and confusion.
I took a breath and walked closer to her. I needed to be near her. “The results came back and I know who threw that rock.”
“Okay?” Lennie responded while her eyes said continue, please for the love of god, continue.
I licked my lips and tried to find the right words to say to her without making her bolt.
“The results came back, and I know you are safe because…” I paused and closed my eyes for a brief moment before opening them.
I gazed into her blue eyes hoping she would understand.
“Because I am the one who threw it.” My shoulders sagged at the omission.
Lennie’s breath hitched as she processed my words. “You—what?” She stared at me like she had never seen me before.
I put my hands out as if I were trying to cage a wild animal and inched closer to her. I needed to feel her, needed to hold her and tell her I was so sorry for what I had done.
As I walked closer she stepped back. I stopped moving and let out a sigh before looking at the ground. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you but I knew—”
Lennie cut me off. “You threw a brick through my window, and then invited me to your home when you were the psycho that put me in danger.” Her voice was even and left no room for argument.
“Let me explain,” I tried but my efforts were proved futile when she interrupted me again.
“No,” she said with finality. “You threw a brick through my window, when I was in the middle of…” She glanced away, not meeting my eyes.
“I know you saw me, so I don’t even have to say it.
” She took a predatory step toward me. Gone was the loving, bubbly girl I knew she typically was.
She pointed at me as she walked. “You will never speak to me again, because I assume Kade doesn’t know the truth about the results.
So, if you want me to stay quiet, you will leave me alone. ”
I gave her a nod before she ran past me and upstairs. Within minutes she was packed and walking out the door and slamming it shut.
I sat on my couch and buried my head in my hands. What had I just done? I’d ruined everything and now I had to deal with the consequences of my actions.