Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LEAF
Thom goes with me to get a hotel since I’m in the middle of freaking the fuck out and don’t trust myself to drive. He’s kind and steady, which keeps me from totally going over the edge.
I’ve been there before, and it’s not a fun place to be.
At the counter, Thom bumps my arm out of the way and smiles at the receptionist. “What’s that suite that you guys have?”
“The king suite?”
He nods. “Yeah. Let’s do…I don’t know, four nights?”
My eyes widen. “Thom, I cannot afford that.”
He offers me a smile. “I can. And you can downgrade if this whole thing ends up taking longer. You and Thorne deserve a luxurious rest.”
It’s too kind, and I almost feel sick to my stomach accepting his offer.
But I also don’t have it in me to fight him, so I just accept the key when the receptionist hands it over.
Right as I’m debating about whether or not I should go up to the room, my phone starts to buzz.
It’s a FaceTime request from Thorne, and my heart leaps.
“Hey. Hi,” I blurt the second he appears.
He chuckles softly, looking happy to see me. “Oh, sweetheart. You okay?”
‘I’ve been better,’ I sign, my expression dry as the Sahara.
His smile widens. “Where are you right now?”
“Uh…the…what is this place? The Emerald Mountain Resort?” Fuck, why didn’t I just go for the Marriott down the street. How much did Thom actually pay?
I can hear a tapping sound on his phone as his FaceTime blurs out, and then his face reappears. “I can be there in ten. Meet you in the lobby?”
“Yeah,” I breathe. “We can go upstairs and see how bouncy the beds are when you get here.” Beside me, Thom makes a choking sound.
Thorne’s smile turns a little sad. “We can absolutely do that, but it’s going to have to wait. I need you to come back to your place to sign a few consent forms and then pack your stuff. I don’t know when you can come back.”
Oh god, this feels way too real. My stomach churns. “Yeah, alright.”
“I’ll see you soon,” he promises. I catch a glimpse of his car as he ends the call, and then I turn to Thom. “Well. I guess I’m homeless for a while.” Or forever. I don’t even know.
He eyes me for a moment, then grabs me and yanks me into a hug. “It’ll be alright. You know there are plenty of people in town who will take care of you. And you’ll be with Thorne.”
He has a point. I have a community here. A family.
And I have the man I am absolutely tits over ass in love with, who not only says he loves me back but has gone out of his way to show it. It’s not everything, but it’s so much more than nothing.
We head outside after, and Thom takes off toward his car once he sees Thorne pulling up, casting him a wave before disappearing around the side of the building.
I get in, but before I can so much as buckle up, Thorne grabs me with a firm grip and tugs me into a kiss so intense it makes my toes curl inside my shoes.
“Shit,” I gasp. “You sure we can’t go upstairs?”
He laughs against my lips, then pulls back. “I promise we will spend plenty of time upstairs testing out every spring in the mattress. And this won’t take long.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Sign forms agreeing to let the FBI look wherever they need to look to find as much evidence as they can.”
“Like more bodies?” I ask. My voice is thready and weak.
He cups my cheek and brushes his thumb over my lips. “Yeah. Like more bodies.”
I swallow heavily. Seeing the tooth was traumatic enough. “Do I have to see them?”
He shakes his head and steals one more kiss. “No,” he murmurs. “You don’t have to see them.”
He sits back and puts the car in drive, then holds my hand the entire way back to the farm.
There are marked and unmarked cars all over the property, and as we drive up and slow down, almost to a stop, I catch Salem’s eye, who’s watching from the side of the road.
‘What’s happening?’ he signs at me through the window.
‘MURDER,’ I spell.
His eyes widen more. ‘Repeat?!’
‘Text later,’ I promise.
The uniformed officer waves Thorne in once he catches a look at his badge, and we roll toward the house.
Of course, I’m expecting it to be like TV. Some gorgeous model slash detective in Chanel sunglasses and an Armani suit strolling around the grounds, making quips about everything.
Instead, we immediately meet with a short, broad man with a receding hairline, thick-framed glasses, and a gold wedding band that looks like it was recently polished.
“I have all the forms on a tablet in the kitchen,” he tells us…well, mostly Thorne since he’s not even looking at me. “I’ve already been in touch with the lead agent, and we’re fully ready to cooperate.”
“So am I,” I tell him.
He finally spares me a glance, looking me up and down. God, does he think I knew what my aunt did? Does he think that I, like, helped her or something? I was a damn toddler at the time, and I want to scream that at him, but I may be overreacting.
This is all very overwhelming.
“I’ve got you,” Thorne leans in and murmurs as he guides me up the steps and in through the front door. I half expect my house to be torn to shreds, but it doesn’t look like anyone’s been inside.
Yet.
Though there are flecks of paint all over the floor by the cellar door.
“That was me,” Thorne says, following my gaze. “I think it’s been sealed shut with cement.”
“Cement? Fuck.” Yeah, that’s definitely serial killer behavior.
He gestures for me to sit in front of a tablet with one of those really heavy, military-grade cases on it. “I also have something to confess.”
I blink at him. “What? That it was my aunt in the conservatory with the lead pipe?”
He laughs and leans down to kiss right under my ear. In spite of all this, it makes me shiver. He sits down after, and oh, his face looks serious.
I’m not sure I’m ready to hear anything more.
“I found your cousin’s number, and I video called him.”
“You called Rain?”
He nods. “He was willing to talk. He was upset but kind about it. He also remembers an incident with your aunt that might be the night she sealed up the cellar, which means we could have a date on her last possible victim.”
Holy shit. Rain has never mentioned a word to me like that before. “Is…did he…see something?”
“Nothing concrete, but enough to traumatize him. He said he was never alone with his mom after that.”
Shit. I feel terrible. How did I never notice it was that bad? Though, to be fair, I was rarely around. But goddamn. Has he suffered in silence all these years?
I make a mental note to call him when I can.
“I didn’t want you to be upset that I involved more of your family.”
I stare, then scoff when his words hit me. “Babe, no. I don’t give a shit about them. I don’t want to live in some secret murder house, okay? Fuck, I don’t even know why she left this to me. It’s…it feels mean.”
He reaches out and takes my hand. “I don’t know if we’ll ever figure out her motivations now that she’s gone, but what we can do is let the team do their job to find what they can. Maybe we can give the families of those victims peace.”
“Yeah,” I breathe out. “What do I do?”
“Sign the consent forms. Let them tear this place to the studs if they need to. We will rebuild when it’s over and everything is gone.”
“Okay. I can do that.” I swallow thickly. “Then what?”
He meets my gaze. “I’ll send the forms to my boss, then we’ll go upstairs and pack everything you can fit into my car that you don’t want anyone going through or destroying.”
“Okay,” I whisper, and I can tell he misses it, so I lift my hand and sign it to him. “And then?”
“And then I take you back to the hotel and spend all night making you forget this is happening,” he says in a low voice.
Heat rushes through me, and god, just being with him is good enough, but knowing he will take my mind off it is even better. I reach for the table, and panic hits me, and I freeze. “Shit.”
His eyes widen. “What?”
“Don’t let me forget to pack up my drawer with my dildos. If some detective goes through those, I will fucking die.”
His eyes glint. “You have a drawer full of dildos?”
I shrug, and my ears go hot. “I was lonely for a long time.”
“Well, that’ll never happen again,” he vows, then leans forward and draws a touch along my jaw. “But you don’t have to be lonely to have fun with those, do you?”
My hands are trembling as I yank the tablet close and scribble my signature on the highlighted lines. And for the first time since all of this started to become real, I am not shaking from fear.
I trip up the stairs to get to my room, grabbing a large suitcase from the closet.
“Can you grab the other little one? It’s on the top shelf. For the dildos,” I explain to Thorne, whose eyebrows are nearly in his hair.
“Sure thing.”
He easily grabs it, setting it down near my feet. “I can get them if you tell me where they are,” he offers, and I huff a laugh.
“Nosy bitch. But sure. They’re in that drawer.”
I watch as he pulls it open and lets out a laugh. “Oh honey, you weren’t joking. You can barely open this it’s so full.”
“Like I said, lonely. Plus, you never know what you want when you want it. Or need it.”
He holds up a large pink cock with a knot at the end. “I feel inadequate.”
“Don’t. The knot isn’t that great. I like regular dicks.”
“Should I bring it?”
“God yes. I don’t want that man downstairs judging me over it.”
I gasp and then rush into the bathroom, making sure to grab the Fleshlight I have hidden in a drawer near the shower. For desperate times, which, if this thing with Thorne is real, I might never have again.
I finish packing all my clothes and toiletries while Thorne goes through each dildo with fascination. I do have quite the collection. He particularly likes the anal bead one.
“Where did you get all of these?” he asks as he zips the suitcase up.
“Oh, well, I interpreted quite a few sex conventions. They always had the best stuff.”
“That where you got the lube?”
“Yep. They’re so creative.”