Chapter 31 Gwen
GWEN
“Shit?” I snapped. “That’s all you have to say. Shit?”
“Okay.” He took a step closer toward me. “Okay, let’s talk—”
“Don’t move.” With gritted teeth, I kept the gun aimed at him. But I couldn’t do much with the phone in my other hand and still holding the sheet around me in place. I dropped the phone to get a better grip. “Don’t you dare move, Sebastian.”
“I’m not going to hurt you, Gwen.”
“Clearly. I’m the one with the gun.”
“What, you’re going to shoot me while Lizzie’s sleeping down the hall?”
“Do you want to find out?”
His frown only deepened. “Can I at least set the tray down?”
I glanced at the dresser, then the open door behind him. “Put it down and shut the door.”
Eyes on me, careful not to move too quickly, he set the tray on the dresser, then clicked the door shut. Once his hands were free, he raised them at his sides. “Just calm down, alright?”
“Don’t tell me to calm down.” I shook my head in disbelief. “You’ve been lying to me for months. And for what? So you can hold this over my head? So you could blackmail me—”
“What the hell would I want to blackmail you for, Gwen?” He looked just as confused as I felt.
“I told you why I didn’t reveal who I was.
And now that you know it’s me, don’t you get it?
I made sure to cover all my tracks. I made sure no one would find him.
But I don’t know that you did. I don’t know that you made every right call, because dumping him in the river without even weighing him down sure as hell was not the right call—”
“And how the hell do you know that?” My eyes shifted rapidly between his.
“Why are you so comfortable with this, Sebastian? No normal person is going to hide a body for their friend, because in case you forgot, that’s all we were at the time.
We hadn’t gone on a date yet, we weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife.
But you decided to hide a body for me. No, not just for me, but from me. ”
“Because you dumped it on my property.” Something between a snort and a scoff escaped him.
“I’m assuming you didn’t know that. I also assume it was a crime of passion.
You didn’t have time to plan it. You just needed to get rid of the body as quickly as you could, and your first thought was dumping it into the creek.
Not realizing that you dumped it straight onto my property, where a cop would see it driving by the next morning, because it had already washed up onto the brush. ”
Shit.
I hadn’t known that.
Okay, so him taking the body made sense. But that didn’t make it all okay. That didn’t make any of this okay.
I held the sheet with trembling fingers. “Answer the question.”
“What question?”
As if answering a question with a question didn’t tell me that he was evading. “Who did you kill?”
He tensed. Utter silence sat between us for a moment.
“No, you’re not gonna answer that.” A snarky half laugh escaped me.
“Because this way, you have all the cards in your hand. If you know all my dirty secrets, you can use them against me at any point, but God forbid I know yours, right? Because you have too much to lose, and I have nothing, right? That’s the point you’re trying to make, isn’t it, Sebastian? ”
His eyes softened. “No. No, of course not.”
“Then explain it to me, God damn it!” My voice raised, shaking over every word.
I took a deep breath to soften it, afraid that Lizzie would hear.
“You expected me to trust that you weren’t going to use this against me, but you are the one with all the power, all the control, and I’m sure you can imagine why that is a shitty place for me to stand, Sebastian. ”
“I was just trying to help,” he said, voice soft, eyes sympathetic.
“I didn’t realize what was going on. I didn’t recognize the car stopped on the road until you stepped out of it.
And forgive me, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking at your body.
I know your demeanor. I know the way you stand, the way you carry yourself, and then I saw a glimpse of your face. ”
“That doesn’t answer a damn thing. That doesn’t explain why at some point, you couldn’t have told me it was you.”
Those shoulders were so tight a moment ago. They loosened the slightest bit as his hands went to his hair. Grabbing two fistfuls at the back, his mouth opened and closed a few times, like he was searching for the words.
“I thought about it,” he said. “But then I figured it was best for everybody if I didn’t. If you didn’t know, neither of us could incriminate one another. And I don’t think it’ll get to that point. As long as nobody finds David’s body, we’re both safe.
“But that’s all it was. I was just trying to protect you, Gwen.
If I hadn’t, someone would’ve figured it out by now.
Simone’s already in on it, you’re in on it, I was in on it, and the more people who knew, the more dangerous it would become.
So I just thought we could all move on. I thought that’s what you were trying to do, too.
You did your best to get away with it, and you were just going to pretend that it never happened—”
“And I’m just supposed to ignore the fact that my boyfriend is a murderer?
” I spoke in a hushed yell. “You know all the shit I’ve been through, and you think I’m supposed to be comfortable with this, like I’m okay with the fact that you were trying to protect me by getting rid of the body, because apparently you know how to get rid of bodies, because you’re oh so comfortable with just killing people? ”
His eyes softened again. “Do you think that maybe that was part of why I didn’t tell you?”
“What, because I’m just so crazy and traumatized?
I can handle killing someone, but I can’t handle knowing that you did?
” Playing that sentence over again in my head, a humorless, ironic laugh left me.
“This is insane. Every bit of this is insane. How the hell are we standing here acting like this is a normal fight?”
“I can’t say it’s the worst fight I’ve ever been in.” Arms still up at his sides, he gave a half smile. “I think we’re handling it the best that we can, given the circumstances.”
“Don’t be cute. Don’t you dare try to be cute right now. Where’s the body, Sebastian?”
“I told you. It’s buried somewhere no one will find it.”
“Take me to it.”
His face screwed up in confusion. “It’s buried, Gwen. We only had a couple of inches of snow when I dug the hole. There are at least two feet out there now. That’s gonna take all night.”
“Then we should put some clothes on, shouldn’t we?”
Shoulders dropping, he scoffed. “Why? What are you going to do with it?”
“I guess load it up into my car and take it somewhere no one else will find it.” Considering how cold it had been, would he be frozen? That would certainly make transport easier. “Go on. Get some clothes on.”
For a few heartbeats, he just stared at me. “It’s safe, Gwen. There’s nowhere safer you can take it, not unless you got a job at the meatpacking plant, and you can sneak in with the body and incinerate it in the middle of the night.”
“It’s okay for you to not trust me with your identity, but I’m supposed to trust you after you’ve lied to me for months?”
“I haven’t lied.”
I stomped a foot. “You lied by omission. And you’re too damn good at it. I thought it was Axel, I-I never even thought it could be you. Not for a second, and…”
“You weren’t exactly eager to tell me you killed a man, either.”
“I’m not doing this.” I juggled the sheet under my armpit to keep it in place and held up a hand to silence him. “Get dressed. Then we’re going.”
A deep breath rose and fell through his chest. With a roll of his eyes, he headed to the walk-in closet in the corner.
I followed him there, keeping the gun aimed on him as he sifted between the clothes that hung from floor to ceiling.
When he crouched down to grab his boots, he came out with something else.
Black in color, roughly half the size of my forearm. At the top, a copper bullet sparkled in the dim light.
Still crouching on the ground, he held it up to me. “Gun’s not gonna do you much good without the clip.”