Chapter 26 #2
The bullet hit him in the eye, and I fired another shot to his head, just in case. I wasn’t letting him live to play this twisted game of his anymore.
His body slumped to the ground, blood whooshing in my ears as I took a moment to study him.
The man who’d dangled puppets of monsters in front of me my entire life no longer looked scary.
He looked small, crumpled on the floor as blood oozed out of his head and face, and I glanced at my hands to find them still.
No shaking, no adrenaline crash or anxiety, just peace.
Gunshots around here wouldn't really attract the cops, so I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. I contemplated putting a few bullets in his chest too, but excessive gunfire would draw attention. For all I knew, the Soldiers were close by, and I didn’t want to deal with them today.
I put my gun down the back of my pants after staring at his lifeless body for a while, pulling my phone out and taking a deep breath. I needed a cleanup, and hopefully Skeeter wouldn’t lose his shit since I’d promised him I’d give him a heads-up before making a mess for him again.
I pressed the phone to my ear, keeping my eyes on Max as if he would wake up any second and lunge at me. There was no answer, so I tried twice more before calling Diesel.
No answer.
“Fuck,” I hissed, glancing around at the mess. Even if I could clean this up by myself, which I really couldn’t, I couldn’t exactly drag him down to the Mustang and shove him in the trunk.
I tried Diesel once more before scrolling through my contacts, my finger hovering over Hunter’s name. Could I trust him with this? Would he fuck me over?
I didn’t really have another choice, so I risked it as I called him.
“Hey, babe. Can I call you back? I’m in a meeting,” he greeted me, making me wince.
“I need help.”
There was a silent pause, then I heard rustling and murmurs in the background before he spoke again.
“I’m on my way. Don’t move,” he instructed before hanging up, the tone in his voice telling me he knew this was serious. No questions asked, he just dropped everything for me.
It took me a minute to realize I never told him where I was, but I figured he’d just track my phone anyway, so I waited.
I didn’t move from my spot in the middle of the room, not wanting to risk making the crime scene worse. The less I touched, the better.
It was starting to get dark, the winter night air sending a chill through me, and I was relieved when I heard car doors.
“Hot Shot?” Hunter called out quietly, his gun appearing through the crack in the door first.
“It’s just me,” I replied, his gun lowering as he stepped in, his eyes dropping to the body behind me.
“I see you’ve been busy,” he murmured, flicking his gaze back to me. “You okay?”
Marco appeared behind him, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise as I answered.
“I’m fine. I tried Skeet, but—”
“He didn’t answer. No surprise there,” he supplied for me, stepping close. “Where’s the gun?”
“In my pants.”
“Take it out and put it down. The cleanup crew will dispose of it, and I’ll get you to mine. You need to be scrubbed. Tiny flecks of blood, gun residue, all of it needs to come off. Mark can stay here until the guys arrive,” he said with ease, glancing at Marco. “You good with that?”
“She really was going to kill us,” Marco muttered, still eyeing the scene. “I can handle it. Get her out of here. Take the Mustang. You’ll want to probably hide it away until the heat dies down. People here won’t talk, but just in case.”
I placed the gun on the ground near Max, looking at him one last time. It was over, he couldn’t fuck with my life anymore.
“C’mon,” Hunter said gently when I must have zoned out, and he reached out to grab my wrist, tugging me towards the door. “Keys.”
“You’re not driving that car,” I said without hesitation, and he groaned.
“You’re probably in shock. You—”
“I’m fine,” I answered, fishing the keys out and holding onto them tightly. “No one drives it.”
He sighed but let me have my way as we wandered around the corner to the Mustang, and I drove to his on autopilot, parking in the garage to get it out of view.
It was strange, my brain feeling foggy as he ushered me into the house, and I didn’t really remember showering, but I smelled clean and slightly like chemicals.
I felt naked without my necklace, but I remembered Hunter taking it off me to make sure there was none of Max’s DNA on it since I refused to let him dispose of it.
Hunter was in his office, rapidly typing away at the keys while I smoked, and I ended up getting to my feet to join him.
“What are you doing?” I asked, standing behind him.
“I need to wipe a bunch of footage of the Mustang, and your phone pinged near there, so I need to fry a few things,” he answered, not looking at me.
“Thanks for answering the phone,” I mumbled, and this time he turned in his chair, giving me a small smile.
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
“You were in a meeting?”
“Yeah. I told them we’d reschedule,” he shrugged like it was that easy.
“Why can’t Skeet do that?”
“Because I own my crew, but the crew owns Skeet. The Psychos will never change. I’ll always drop everything for you because I care about you. My guys don’t get a say in my personal life, and I don’t get a say in theirs. Give me your phone, I need to do some shit with it.”
I didn’t ask questions, he’d proven his loyalty enough to me, so I stood back as he plugged it into the computer, keys flying as he did fuck knows what.
It was a nice kind of silence as I sat on the floor by the door, watching him work as time passed.
My ass was numb by the time Marco wandered in, stopping beside me to pat my head.
“All sorted, Princess.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry he didn’t answer, but I’m also not surprised,” he said bluntly, patting my head again before leaving the room, the sound of him getting comfortable on the couch reaching me.
“Can I try to call him again?” I asked quietly, and Hunter handed my phone back since he was done with it, getting to his feet.
“I’m going to make you some food, okay? If you can’t get a hold of Skeet, you can crash here. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow,” he promised, leaving the room as I tried to call Skeeter.
His phone was off now, frustrating me more. With everything happening around us, how could he not check in?
There was no point continuing, so I gave up and headed out to the living room to find Marco sprawled out on the couch with a cigarette hanging from his lips as he watched TV. He gave me a dirty look when I shoved his legs off so I could sit, and I sat there until Hunter called us for dinner.
“No Skeet?” Hunter asked, and I shook my head. “Figures. You can have my room. I’ll get Skeet to sort out another gun for you too, you’ll need it with the Soldiers still around.”
“Max said Claire’s my sister,” I grumbled, making him snort.
“The blonde bitch? She looks nothing like you.”
“I know, but he insisted she was Marla’s kid. He told her the baby died, Hunter. Mom’s out there thinking she can’t safely see me, and that her biological daughter is dead. I have to fucking find her. I—”
“One thing at a time,” he said gently, reaching out and tucking my hair behind my ear. “But I’ll look into the Claire thing for you and we can start from there. I can start looking into Marla more too since it’s obvious Skeet isn’t doing shit.”
“He’s been looking, but nothing’s coming up. She’s a ghost,” I said tightly, knowing it wasn’t Skeeter’s fault.
“My tech’s better,” he shrugged, finishing his dinner and becoming silent again.
My memory had blank spots of the afternoon, like when I arrived at the house to find Max, and even now I wasn’t sure what I’d done for the past hour while Hunter cleaned up from dinner.
Marco mentioned sleeping on the couch to be a lookout, making me feel a little better about going to sleep. No one could sneak up on me then.
I was wearing one of Hunter’s baggy shirts, a pair of his boxers underneath to make sure I was covered, and I was practically asleep on my feet when Hunter led me into his bedroom to tuck me in.
“I needed him, and as usual, he’s nowhere to be found,” I whispered, hearing Hunter sigh as he pulled the blankets up around my neck to make sure I was warm.
“You have me. I know it’s not the same, but I’ve got your back, Rory. I know I like to tease you, but I honestly don’t expect anything from you. You can always rely on me to be there for you. We’re friends.”
I blew out a breath, forcing back the frustrated tears that burned my eyes.
“He never answers the phone.”
“Then stop calling him. Dammit, babe. Don’t cry.”
The tears broke free and I pulled back a little when he went to wipe them. Not even Diesel had answered, and he always did. Until he’d kissed me, anyway.
“Move over,” he murmured, turning the light off and saying something quietly to Marco out the door before closing it. I could hear him strip down, the blanket moving back until he slid beneath the covers and shuffled closer. “Come here.”
“You can’t—”
“Not making a move. Besties only, I got the memo,” he assured me, waiting for me to move a little closer until I was curled up against him. His bare chest was hot, and he didn’t seem to give a shit about me getting tears on him as I nuzzled closer.
I cried because of Skeeter, for the torment that was over, and for the fact that the last monster in my life was gone. I jumped between sadness to relief, and I probably looked like a basket case, but Hunter didn’t care.
He just laid there holding me as I let it all out until I fell asleep.
I was having a good sleep too until the bedroom door banged open, jerking me awake.
“Cops!” Marco snapped, Hunter springing upright and trying to pull me closer, instantly on alert as I struggled to catch up to the conversation.
“Why are they here?” Hunter whisper-yelled, and Marco threw his hands up.
“I don’t know! I made sure everything was done properly!”