“Hate to see you go down over something like this. Doesn’t seem worth it.”
My voice came out low. “Be very careful what you say next.”
He held up his hands. “Look, I’ve done what you’ve done. Maybe worse. You want to be her knight in shining armor? Fine. But you just remember that nobody cares about her, nobody cares about you. At the end of all this, you let her go, get rid ofher, or keep her close and watch her die in your arms. That’s where we are, and you know it.”
He let the words hang, and I just sat there, the weight of her presence still hot against my skin. I hated that he wasn’t wrong, but I hadn’t forgotten what had to be done.
Rook sighed. “Look… you want her safe? I’ve got a way. It’s messy, but it buys time.”
I already didn’t like where this was going.
He continued, voice dropping. “Give Matteo a body. Get someone who looks like her, stage it right… a burner phone, some blood, a story they can sell themselves. Then deal with whatever you got to, after that.”
“That would require me to kill some innocent woman.”
“And? Hands like ours don’t come clean, Halo, and you know it.”
He was right again, and I was already formulating a plan in my head. If I had to kill someone innocent to save Eden, I was willing to do it.
“Consider it. There are other options… Find an overdose victim, corpse from cold storage, someone undocumented… I’m saying youcoulduse the kind of rot already in the system. You don’t make the corpse. You just… borrow it.”
Still, I didn’t speak.
“I gotta get outta here. You got your files, you got my opinion. I’ll be back in Sunning if you change your mind.”
I reached into the duffle bag and withdrew a stack of cash, laying it in the cupholder of the car before I stuffed the files inside the bag and retreated.
After his car pulled away, I stood alone for a long time. I wasn’t rejecting the idea outright; I was calculating the odds.
When I returned to the room, the door stuck again on the way in. I pushed harder than I meant to, and the slam of it against the wall made Eden flinch where she was sitting on the bed. Herhair was pulled up into a messy knot, but she looked well rested. Worried, still, but well-rested.
I dropped my bag to the floor and locked the deadbolt behind me. She didn’t say anything at first, just watched me with anticipation, like she was trying to draw what had just happened out of me. I don’t know why, but it felt like she knew I was about to do something terrible.
“Everything okay?” she asked finally, voice still soft from sleep.
“Fine,” I said, just a minute too long after she asked. I could hear the hollowness in my own tone, and so could she.
Her brow furrowed slightly, but she didn’t push. I hated how easy that made it. She wanted to fight me tooth and nail for everything, but she wasn’t pushing this.
“I need to go back to Sunning,” I added, unzipping my jacket, “just for a few hours.”
She stiffened. “Back there? Why?”
“Someone I need to see.” I avoided her eyes, checking the magazine in my handgun. “You’ll stay here. Lock the door behind me, don’t answer it. When I get back, I’ll let myself in.”
“I don’t like this.”
“You don’t have to.”
She was already shaking her head. “No. No, I’m not staying here alone.”
“You’re going to have to. It’s too dangerous for you,” I cut in, sharper than I meant. At the pained look on her face, I softened my tone. “Eden, you'll just be a distraction to me, too. So it’ll be more dangerous formeif you go. It’s just one night, less if I can help it.”
She stood, folding her arms across her chest, suddenly looking even smaller than usual. “I could sit in the car… You’re asking me to sit in this cheap-ass motel, alone, after everything that’s happened? What if someone finds me and you’re not here?”
I stepped closer, not to intimidate but to close the space between us. To quiet the fear in her eyes that I didn’t have the luxury of comforting properly.
“Nothing’s going to happen to you. I’ll be gone for a few hours, max. If I’m not back by sunrise, you take the cash from my duffel, and you run. No questions.”
