Nathan’s face has lost multiple shades of color as he starts nodding and doesn’t stop.
“SURE WAS.” And when he starts scream-talking, I realize that my dear husband is currently holding Sophia’s husband at gunpoint… while Patel stands there oblivious to it all since the gun is held just out of her sight.
“Everything okay?” Patel asks, probably questioning why she got stuck with people like us.
“Rat! Big. RAT,” Nathan chokes out.
Patel stares for a suspiciously long time. “Leland, Jackson, can I meet you both at my office?”
“We’d love to. Be there in twenty for sure. We didn’t get lunch, so we’re going to swing by and grab something because Jackson is getting hangry, which is still oddly sexy on him. Do you want something?”
“Are you going to poison it?” she asks.
“Ha… ha ha ha. Detective Patel, if I was going to off you, poison wouldn’t be my go-to,” Leland says with a laugh. “I’m much more of a… hug you to death kind of guy.”
“I see,” she replies as she turns around. “I was just joking about the poison, for the record… and sure, I will take something. I don’t even care what it is.”
“Awesome. I’ll see if Daddy Henry wants anything too! He said he misses me sitting on his lap while I eat lunch, so maybe we can do that together.”
“I’ll eat my lunch separately. Keep the receipt, I’ll pay you back,” Patel says and then leaves.
The moment she’s out the door, Sophia slides the lock into place. “She’s finally fucking gone. Dammit, Leland, are you holding my husband at gunpoint?”
“I sure as fuck am,” Leland hisses. “What did you want me to do? Go, ‘Oh, Natey, ignore the dead fucking body under your car, pretty please with a cherry on top, and don’t blurt it out in front of thedetective.’”
“Nathan,” Sophia starts.
Nathan is staring at her with eyes that are threatening to escape his head, clearly waiting for her to continue, but she says not a damn word.
“What’s going on? Did these guys take our son? Then they killed someone and fucking… hid the body under my car?”
“Yes,” Sophia says. “They killed the person.”
Leland’s head cocks to the side. “Did we,Sophia?Did we?”
Sophia bows her head. “Nathan, we need to talk and you’re going to freak out, and you’re going to leave me and take Cam from me.”
“What are you talking about?” he asks.
“I killed the man. Leland and Jackson helped me hide him so Patel didn’t see him when she did a search of the house. He broke in here and tried to kill me. He had me pinned against the wall and was trying to shoot me in the head, and I twisted his hand around and shot him instead.”
“You should have told the detective! It was self-defense!” he says.
“Nathan… I can’t. I am… I grew up in a really bad place with really bad people. But it was the only place I had, so… I stayed. Then I had Cam and I just… I couldn’t fathom watching him grow up like that. He would have become some drug mule or some… grunt or some shit and ended up dead before he was sixteen, so I got out. Everything got better. I met you. I just… I never told you what I did… or who I am. But… this family who had control over me knows where I am now. And if they find me, they will kill me and take Cam.”
“You two have a lot going on, so we’re just going to head out,” Leland announces.
“The body!” she protests.
“I’ll call my cleaner.”
“Your… you have a cleaner… for bodies?” Nathan asks.
“I’m sure they clean other things too,” Leland says. “Good luck. Nathan, if you decide to run to the police about this, just remember… I have a cleaner for bodies on speed dial, and my best friend is the chief of police. Just something to think about.”
Nathan looks horrified, and that is the state we leave him in as we start toward the door.
“Leland, wait,” Sophia says. “Obviously, I don’t know everyone who works for the Barlow family… but I don’t recognize this guy. Did you get a good look at him?”
