Chapter 25
Strip
CORMAC
Idon't think it's supposed to feel like this.
I just put two bullets through someone, and the only thing that even registers in my mind is how it might affect Brigit.
She's still frozen against the wall panel he must have shoved her into hard enough to crack it, her terrified eyes locked onto mine.
Slowly, I set the pistol on the closest couch, not breaking eye contact, not even giving her a chance to look at the mess of a man on the floor.
Once the dangerous weapon is out of my hands, I return to my petrified girl, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pulling her into me.
She collapses into my hold, her body shaking with fear and desperate sobs.
"You're okay," I tell her, though I know that she's not. She's not even close to okay right now, clinging to me like I'm the only thing keeping her here on earth.
Instantly, my mind starts spinning through what will have to come next.
We have a body in her apartment.
A cop's body.
Three shots were fired in an apartment complex. There's no way someone hasn't already called 911.
A knock on her front door makes Brigit jump. "Oh, my god," she whimpers into my chest. "Okay, you have to go."
"Go?"
She nods desperately, pushing me towards the way I came in, pointedly not looking at the body on the ground. "You can't be here. I'll... I'll tell them everything. Tell them I k-killed him."
Her sad little lips wobble, but she presses on, "Please, Cormac. They'll never believe this isn't your fault,” her voice breaks, frantic with worry.
Even though it's the absolute worst time, my chest fills with warmth. She's more concerned about me getting caught for this than she is about herself. Despite all her arguments to the contrary, she cares so deeply about what happens to me that she'll lie and take the fall for my misdeeds.
"Breathe," I tell her, pulling her back against my chest, smoothing her hair down, gently avoiding the little knots my fingers try to catch on. "It's just Skyler."
I called him the second she texted me, hauling over here even faster than I already was when I didn’t hear back from her all day.
The door handle turns, and Brigit freezes, still petrified that it won't be him.
But he appears, shutting the door and locking it behind him, "Uhh, you know it's dangerous to leave your front door unlocked. Someone could get in."
He calmly walks toward us, taking in the scene before him with that same casual, almost playful demeanor he has for everything else.
With the toe of his black sneaker, he pushes the guy onto his back.
"Huh," he says. "Hard to tell with the hole in his face, but I think I’ve seen him downstairs at Mingle.”
"You let an undercover into your fighting ring?" I ask. "How did he get around your background check and cyberstalking?"
Skyler's unimpressed eyes rove over the guy again, "He's not a fucking cop. This isn't even real." He rips the bodycam off, and it comes immediately detached, nothing on the other end of the wire.
Brigit sniffs, "But he acted like... like he had a right to come in."
Sky shrugs, “Probably hoping your allegiance to the rule of law would overtake your sense of self preservation. Looks like he was right."
"Skyler."
He glances up at me, "What?"
I subtly shake my head, gesturing with my chin to the very traumatized woman in my arms, who doesn't need his snarky comments on top of everything else.
With a roll of his eyes, he nods. "Alright. I need both of your phones and the access codes to all the cameras in here and outside in the hall."
Brigit wipes her eyes, "There's no cameras in shared spaces."
He bites back a laugh between his teeth, thankfully not mentioning the camera only I have access to out there, “Right. Well, give me everything you do have. And a laptop."
"What about..." I don't finish the sentence. The elephant in the form of a dead body in the room is obvious enough for him to know what I'm getting at.
“You feeling a little slicey, Fomori?” Sky laughs.
Now that he mentions it, unfortunately, I do want to carve a thousand cuts into his body. The need to cause him infinitely more harm bleeds into my spine, wishing he hadn’t died so easily, so I could make him suffer.
But my responsibility is Brigit. She’s the only thing that matters. My need for vengeance will never overshadow my need to protect her.
"Get her in the shower, quickly, then get me a towel and get back here to help me. We've got maybe ten more minutes before the real police show up."
A towel? What's he going to do with a single towel?
"Come on, Bunny," I don't wait for her to agree, pulling her with me, keeping her from looking at the bleeding husk. "Let's go get you cleaned up, okay?"
She lets me move her, more calm now than she was when she thought I was about to get caught for this.
Inside the bathroom, she flinches when I turn on the bright overhead lights. Keeping one arm wrapped around her shoulders, I use the other to start the shower, checking the temperature until it's pleasantly warm.
"Brig," I turn her to face me. "Do you want me to help you get in the shower, or do you want me to leave?"
Her red-rimmed, black smudged eyes meet mine, but she doesn't say anything.
I don't want to tell her that she has blood all over her shirt. She probably knows but refuses to acknowledge it to keep herself slightly sane.
"Baby," I try again. "I need you to get cleaned up. And we're running out of time to do it."
She nods finally, reaching for the bottom of her blouse and freezing as her fingers graze the wet edge.
"Wait," I warn her. "Just turn around."
She does as told, moving robotically.
Fucking hell. There's no telling how many times I've imagined cutting her out of her clothes.
But having to do it so she doesn't smear blood all over herself is the opposite of what I've ever hoped for.
Flipping out my blade, I pull the back of the patterned shirt just enough away from her body to slide the knife up the back of it.
Not wasting any time, I do the same to her skirt and tights before tugging them down her legs, following suit silently with her shirt.
As they hit the ground, I force myself not to think about how this is the most undressed she's ever been with me.
"Can you do the rest, honey, or do you need me to?" I ask, refraining from rubbing her soft skin and spreading more blood on it.
"I can," she mumbles, pointing to her linen closet, "Towels there."
I'm terrified at the thought of leaving her alone like this, but if I don't, there's no telling how dire the consequences will be.
Grabbing two, I set one on the counter next to the shower before inching towards the door. "I'm gonna go help Sky, okay?"
She glances at me over her shoulder, nodding before stepping into the shower, still wearing her bra and underwear.
I close the door behind me, letting her have her privacy.
As I reenter the living room, I find it in disarray and a half-naked Skyler standing in the middle of it all, rolling the body onto a plastic wrap and Brigit's rug.
"What the fuck happened to your clothes?" I scratch my head.
He looks up at me with a laugh, hanging his head, "Oh, yeah, I forgot you don't know the drill. Strip."
"Excuse me?"
“Clothing holds a lot of DNA in the fibers.
So we clean up, then put on fresh clothes.
We're gonna have to put the bloodied ones in a garbage bag and dispose of them back at Mingle.
" He grunts, heaving the rug to roll it over again and again until it's like a fucking corpse burrito. "Brigit's too. Help me lift this."
"Where is it going?"
"For now? Down the hall so the cops don't see anything suspicious when they try to look around me," he lifts one side, waiting for me to do the same.
Fucking hell, he's heavy.
Grunts of effort and slow steps take us down the hallway, into Brigit's office, where Sky has us unceremoniously set the bundle down. He shuts the door, going back to the living room.
"Strip, Fomori. Put your clothes wherever Brigit's are." He hums as he takes stock of the blood on the ground, moving a couch and the coffee table to cover the view of it from the door. Tossing me his clothes, he sighs. "That'll have to do until I can scrub it later."
Two hard knocks echo from the front entrance to the apartment.
My wide eyes make Skyler chuckle, and he holds up a finger over his lips to tell me to zip it, pointing back down the hall and mouthing "Bathroom. Hide."
I'm not sure what the hell he's doing, but I do as I'm told.
As I disappear into the bathroom, I think I can hear the kitchen sink turn on, but the sound of the shower drowns it out before I can be sure.
Adding mine and Sky's clothes to the pile, I hang my head, running my hands over my hair.
I can sort of see Brigit through the steamy glass shower, but I don't dare look too close. She's there. She's safe. She's washing her hair. I don't need to get closer and take the last bit of dignity she has left.
Instead, I lean against the wall, breathing and taking the first quiet second I've had to wrap my head around what just happened.
From the second she texted me, my whole world condensed into two things. Keeping her safe and tearing whoever dared to threaten her from this fucking planet.
I've done both.
And I don't feel a lick of guilt for doing so.
I'm responsible for creating a corpse and the hole in my chest where something should be that regrets it is empty, a yawning crevice instead of a heart.
Whistling reaches my ears from the other side of the door before Skyler strolls through it.
He looks at me strangely, then at Brigit in the shower.
And I look strangely back at him. He's got a towel wrapped around his hips, and his dark hair is soaking wet, the strands dripping water onto his face and chest.
"I thought for sure you'd be in there with her," he whispers. "Anyway, I need Brigy for a minute."
"What?"