Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
ARLOW
Everything happened so fast that it takes me a second to catch up. Thirty minutes ago, I was teasing her about birdseed. This was all supposed to be behind us. It’s been over four months. My brain finally kicks my ass into gear. I have to take care of this. I need to take care of her.
Calli stands over her mother’s body, staring at it like she may get up again. Judging by the amount of blood pooling around her head, that’s not going to happen. Calli isn’t crying, just frozen. In shock.
Her head jerks in my direction when I wrap my hand around the gun. “Let go. I’ve got it,” I say softly.
Some awareness trickles back into her eyes, and she releases it. “I had to. I didn’t have a choice. You would’ve gone to prison. I couldn’t let her ruin your life too.”
Nothing I’ve ever heard has affected me as intensely as what she just said. She did this for me. She killed her mother to protect me. “It’s going to be okay. Listen to me.” I cup her face and look into her eyes. “Everything is going to be okay. I want you to go inside and let me handle it this time.”
The shake of her head is instant and adamant. “No, I need to do this. I need to bury her. For good.” She takes a deep breath, pulling herself together. “I’m okay.”
I’m in awe of her strength and determination. “Alright. Can you go grab the shovels from the shed? I’ll get her to the graveyard.” We’re too exposed standing here under the bright light, visible from the driveway. I’m not going to waste time getting my ATV out or anything. She can’t weigh a hundred pounds.
Calli nods, looking down at the body again.
“Go ahead. Don’t look back. You don’t have to look at her again.”
Relief softens her face as she whispers, “Never again.”
As soon as she turns away to walk to the shed, I pull Mallory’s head out of the puddle of blood, strip my hoodie off, and tie it around the wound so there won’t be a trail of blood. I throw the body over my shoulder and rush toward the graveyard. I’m not overly concerned with getting caught. No one shows up here unannounced at night. Lee only came last time because he knew we were dealing with a threat, and I didn’t answer my phone. My concern is getting her out of Calli’s sight. No matter how much she may have hated her mother, I worry how she’s going to feel when what she’s done sets in.
I set the body down at the edge of the woods nearby where it isn’t visible before I go through her pockets. No phone or ID to worry about this time, only the cash Calli gave her. If I had to guess, she’s been living on the street, maybe in the woods.
Calli walks toward me through the graveyard, and I meet her halfway. “Where did you put…?”
“Out of sight for now. Are you sure you want to do this? I can take care of it.” When I move to put my arm around her, she steps back, shaking her head.
“I’m sorry. I’m just…I’m holding it together and if you hug me, I might not so…let’s just get to work, okay?”
“Alright. This is going to take a while, with it being only the two of us this time. If you need a break—mentally or physically—take it. Do you hear me?”
She nods without replying and silence reigns for the next couple of hours as we dig. I’d give anything to know what’s going on in her head but if she needs space to zone out right now and not think about any of this, I can do that.
It isn’t until she turns and starts gagging that I toss my shovel down and go to her. She waves me back. “It’s the blood on me. It stinks so bad. I need to wash it off.”
“Okay, let’s take a break, go back to your cabin and?—”
“No. Stay. Keep digging or it might be daylight before it’s finished. I’ll jump in the shower and come back.”
I don’t like it, but I nod. “Ring my phone if you need me and I’ll be right there.”
Once she walks away, I activate her porch camera to keep an eye until I see her make it safely inside and turn on the notifications, so I’ll know when she leaves. Then I shovel like hell. The faster I can get this done, the quicker I can comfort her and put all this behind us.
Sweat coats my skin, attracting the dirt like a magnet. My back and shoulders scream in protest at the sudden vigorous exercise but they’re easily ignored. All I see is Calli’s face, her voice confessing that she did this for me. When I shot Carl, no part of me expected her to have to do the same. It wasn’t a favor she should have ever had to return, especially by killing her own mother.
It takes nearly an hour to get the grave deep enough. It doesn’t need to be as wide as our last, which helps. Plus, the ground is soft but not too wet or heavy. I scoop up the body again and carry it to the hole. My hoodie is soaked in blood when I remove it from her head. It’ll need to be burned later. After a moment of consideration, I don’t mimic what Lee did, cutting off fingers. If these bodies are found, we’re done for regardless. A DNA test would link her to Calli. There’s no reason to think anyone will come looking. She certainly didn’t have any friends or any help, judging by the state of her.
After I dump the body in and toss a dozen or so shovelfuls of dirt to cover it, I take a break to call Calli. She’s been gone too long. She shouldn’t be alone. Before I can call, a notification shows up from her camera as she leaves her cabin.
After another couple of minutes, she approaches me, holding out a bottle of water. Her wet hair is pulled up into a bun, and she wears an old sweatshirt and worn leggings. “Take a break before you give yourself a heart attack.” She winces and looks up at me, her lips nearly forming a smile. “Sorry, poor choice of words.”
“I’m fine. All I need to do is finish filling it in.”
Her face is puffy from crying, but she seems more alert, more herself as she starts shoveling in the loose dirt. Between the two of us, we get the hole filled with plenty of time to spare before sunrise.
“I’m not sorry,” she announces, tossing her gloves aside and sitting in the grass beside the grave. “I don’t care if that makes me a horrible person just like her. She’s been a monster in all my closets, peeking out to remind me she’s still there and can start screwing with me again at any time. I’m glad she’s gone. I’d do it again.” She looks up at me. “For both of us.”
“You aren’t a horrible person. There’s only so far any of us can be pushed. You’re nothing like her.” One thing puzzles me. “She looked like she was homeless. If she’s known all this time, why wait all these months to show up?”
Calli’s laugh is bitter. “Because that’s what she always did. Give you time to feel safe, to remember how good things are without her, before showing back up to ruin everything again. It was part of her game. She got off on it.”
“You’re safe now.”
“Are you going to be able to look at me the same?” she asks, averting her gaze as I sit beside her and pull my gloves off.
That’s what she’s worried about? “Calliope.” She drags her gaze to mine reluctantly. “When I look at you, I see the strongest, bravest, sweetest woman I’ve ever known. I’m in awe of you and fucking stunned that you love me like you do. What you did tonight?—”
She brushes her fingers over my face. “Was no more than you did for me. We protected each other.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” The truth in my statement should be concerning, and her response is unexpected.
She straddles my lap, grips my face and parts my lips with her tongue. My arms wrap around her automatically as she deepens the kiss and slips her hand onto my nape. The effect she has on me is remarkable and something I may never understand but I don’t care. I slide my hand under her hair, gripping it close to her scalp and tug her head back until she’s looking me in the eye.
The air heats as everything around us fades to nothing. All I see is her. Her chest rising and falling faster, the desire in her gaze bordering on desperation. My cock hardens in seconds, and she flexes her hips, pushing against it. “Calliope.” Her name falls out, half question half supplication.
With her eyes burning into mine, she nods, and our mouths collide again. She rips my shirt open, sending the buttons flying, and runs her hands over my chest, grinding on me. I pull her sweatshirt off, tossing it behind her and dip my head to suck her nipple.
Her fingers fumble with the button of my pants. I scoot her off my lap, laying her on the ground above the buried evidence of our devotion. She frantically removes the rest of her clothes while I strip my bottom half.
When I kneel to plant my face between her legs, she shakes her head. “Just fuck me. Hard, please.”
Something ignites inside me at her plea. Some buried part of myself that will never again let me doubt humans are animals, despite our civilized performance. Her legs wrap around me as I bury myself to the hilt and catch her sudden shout in my mouth. The way her pussy clenches around my cock has me seeing sparkles in the darkness behind my eyelids.
Fingernails dig into my ass as she urges me on with curses and cries for me to fuck her harder, faster. If that’s what she needs, I’m going to give it to her. I pound into her, losing myself completely in the pure primal ecstasy of it. Our voices fill the air, a cacophony tossed into the night for the dead around us to hear. If they crawled out of their graves right now, I couldn’t stop. I’m too far gone. We both are. I don’t know where I end or she begins, and I never want to.
“Oh fuck, yes,” she gasps out a second before her shout encompasses me, forcing me into that moment of devastating, blistering pleasure with her. “Arlow!”
My mind blanks. She’s all that exists in that sweet all-consuming darkness. If this is what death is like, let me go, as long as she’s there with me.
I open my eyes to see her lying with her head tilted back, her eyes shut as she catches her breath. Lying down beside her, I roll her onto my body, off the cold ground. She tucks her head under my chin. We lie there in silence, covered in soil and grass, moonlight painting our naked bodies in blue.
There are some things neither time nor miles can put behind us, and I know this moment is one that will never be forgotten.
The chill of the air can’t be ignored for long, and we rise to get dressed. “Are you okay?” I ask.
She looks over at me, her lips twitching before laughter pushes through. “Silver once asked me if we fucked in the graveyard like a couple of ghouls. She was teasing but imagine what she’d think of this deviance.”
“Good thing only the sky was watching,” I quip.
She grins, picking up her shovel. “I’m sure the stars have witnessed worse.”
I grab my shovel in one hand and take her hand in the other as we walk back across the graveyard toward home. She’s quiet but I hope she’s feeling what I am. The fulfillment and security that comes from knowing the best and worst of each other. No judgment exists between us, only a powerful, obsessive love.
We put away our tools, and I spray away the puddle of blood left at the edge of the driveway, dumping bleach on it and covering it with more gravel. I’ll need to make sure things are cleaned up better tomorrow but for tonight, we’re good.
We shower together, crawl into my bed, and sleep.
A sharp pain shoots across my chest and into my shoulder, waking me earlier than usual. Calli is still asleep beside me and doesn’t budge when I slip out of bed. The pain comes again, not as sharp, but now it’s steady, spreading across my collarbone and down into my ribs.
Fuck. No, please. Just let me get things finished today. I need time to check the graveyard and make sure there’s no evidence left in the driveway.
I pull my blood pressure cuff out and try to keep calm while it squeezes my arm, so my fear won’t affect the reading. It’s normal. So is my heart rate. I run it again. The cuff has a setting to detect an irregular heartbeat as well, and it doesn’t trigger.
Okay. I’m okay.
Ignoring the pain, I get moving. After another bucket of bleach water and some rearranging of the rocks, the driveway is done. I pick up the gloves we left near the grave. There’s a bare patch but it isn’t in an unusual spot, and it’ll be fine until I can get more bushes. There’s nothing left behind inside Calli’s cabin, but I find my stolen ATV parked around the side. I guess we know how she got here now.
The pain only gets worse and more concerning. There’s no denying I’m going to have to get checked out. I’m not going to let Calli find me dead of a heart attack after all this.
When I walk back into my living room, she’s standing by the coffee table where the blood pressure monitor that I forgot to put away sits. She looks from it to me. “Are you alright?”
“I’m going to be...but I need to go to the hospital.” It’s a hard thing to tell her when she must already be overwhelmed. “My chest hurts.”
She rushes over to me. “Are you dizzy or anything?”
“No, plus my blood pressure and heart rate are normal. I’m probably fine, but it isn’t something I can ignore. I need to leave a message for my cardiologist.”
She shoves her shoes on and grabs her keys. “Call him from the car. Let’s go.”