Chapter Six #2
I carefully pushed again at his side with the tip of my boot, finding him almost immovable.
Decorations weren’t that heavy.
You had to be able to move them.
And they definitely weren’t so… squishy.
Only people felt like that.
Soft.
Springy.
Real.
A strangled cry clawed up the back of my throat but died before it reached my tongue.
I had to get out of here.
I needed to get somewhere safe.
Then call the police.
Lead them to the body.
Give a statement.
Then try to wipe the image of the poor man’s unseeing eyes from my memory.
I was just about to reach up to turn on my headlamp when there was a loud snap behind me.
Then another.
Then a crunch.
Someone was still in the woods.
With a strange, choked yelp, I flew forward, leaping over the body, and charging away from the sound, the leaves crunching and twigs snapping beneath me.
The only problem?
In my panic, I reacted like every girl in a horror movie. I lost all common sense. And flew deeper and deeper into the woods, further away from the path, from the safety of the garden center itself, and from my car.
My pulse roared in my ears as my heartbeat drummed against my ribs, desperate and wild.
My head kept swiveling over my shoulder, trying to scan for whoever had made that noise.
And that was how I ran face-first into a low-hanging tree limb.
The pain screamed through my cheekbone as a hot trickle of blood dripped down my jaw.
There was just a second that I paused, too stunned to remember why I was running.
I couldn’t hear anything over the whooshing in my ears as I tripped back into a run, this time circling back toward the path.
My chest was burning, my lungs in an ever-tightening vice grip as I forced my legs to keep pushing harder, faster.
Up ahead, I saw the edge of the path as it circled toward the garden center.
But in my desperation, I forgot about the damn ropes on the side of the path.
It caught me at the shin, sending me falling forward.
The shovel flew out of my hands, landing somewhere off in the distance as my hands braced to catch my fall.
The underbrush nipped at my palms as the impact shot up my arms into my shoulders.
My breath hissed out of me as I scrambled up, barely getting upright before I started to charge forward again.
Close. So close.
I shot past the corn maze, half expecting someone’s arms to reach out, grab me, stab me to death as well.
But as I passed the build-your-own-scarecrow section, I saw two shadowed figures move out from the front of the garden center.
My heart seized.
My steps faltered.
Until one of the men turned.
Domenico.
“Dom!” I shrieked, but the sound only came out as an airy yelp.
Still, his gaze caught my movement ,and I watched as he tensed up and nodded toward me.
The other man turned.
Dante.
“Dante!” I yelped, rushing forward.
“Hazel?” Dante called, rushing toward me. “What happened?”
“There’s… a… body…”
“What?” Domenico asked as Dante grabbed my arm like he was worried I might collapse. Hell, I felt like I just might.
“You’re bleeding,” Dante said, his fingers gently grabbing my chin and forcing my head all the way up so he could inspect the damage. “What happened?”
“There’s… someone…”
“In the woods?” Domenico asked, moving closer. “There’s someone in the woods?”
“A… body.”
“There are a lot of bodies in the woods,” Domenico said, brows scrunching.
“A real one. He… he’s dead. He was… stabbed.”
Dante’s gaze went to Domenico’s. It seemed like an entire conversation passed between them.
“Was there someone else in there?”
Yes.
Or… maybe not.
I heard something crunch. But it was the woods. There could have been an animal.
“I… I thought there was. But maybe not. I panicked.”
“Okay. It’s okay,” Dante said, way too calm considering I just told him there was a murdered body in his woods.
“We need to call the police.”
“Okay. We will handle all that,” Dante said, tone reassuring. “We need to get you cleaned up.”
“But…”
“Yours is the Jeep, right?” he asked, his arm already sliding around my lower back, guiding me away from Domenico.
I saw him reach into his pocket, saw something flash. A phone, maybe? But Dante was pulling me forward before I could see for sure.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home, babe,” he said.
“But… but the police will need my statement.”
“It’s alright. We need to get you cleaned up.”
He opened the passenger door of my car and gently coaxed me in.
The door slammed on my objections.
Then he was in my driver’s seat and asking me for my keys and address.
Maybe I should have put up a harder fight.
But it felt so good to have someone take charge, to take the responsibility off my shoulders.
With the fear removed and the adrenaline quickly draining, I felt a strange detachment settling in. One moment, we were in the garden center parking lot. The next, we were sitting in my apartment building parking lot. I hadn’t even noticed Navesink Bank passing us by.
“Come on. Let me get you cleaned up.”
Then he was around the car and his arm was around me.
I went ahead and let myself be led away from my troubles and taken care of.
I could worry about bodies and police reports later.