It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I hadn’t meant to kill Mike, get my alibi started, but since he thought I did do it—for him no less—I didn’t. Guilt took a swipe at me, but I kept my mouth firmly shut. I couldn’t help it, though. The horrible humor of the situation got to me, and a dark chuckle escaped into the air between us.
“So, you’re saying I did you a favor?” I asked.
His mouth fell open. “Are you okay?”
“No, but at least you’re here.” Warmth tickled me because he cared enough to ask, but it was swiftly followed by a thousand terrible emotions. “At least I’m not alone with....”
He stepped forward, and I was shocked when he hugged me, blood and gore and all. His arms were wiry but solid. Heradiated strength I was missing right now. It was just what I needed.
“Fuck, I missed you.” Hell, perhaps I was the one having a meltdown. I sniffled and sagged against him.
“I thought maybe you didn’t go to California.” He gave me a squeeze. “Thought maybe your dad had killed you, especially after what he did to me.”
I nodded, too choked up to speak for a minute as our situation hammered me.Wham!Like a baseball bat wielded by a psychopath in a serial-killer movie. My emotions were all over the place and my fingers twitched. “We could call the cops?”
He stepped back and his jaw tightened. A glimpse of his old self shined through. He’d always been a happy-go-lucky guy with a ton of common sense. He glanced down at Mike. “If we do, what’s to stop your dad from using this to finish cleaning up his mess? The electric chair would do it just fine.”
When I cocked my head and frowned, he pointed at his face.
“Oh. Oh fuck!” My stomach flipped, doing its own version of a highwire act. “I don’t think New York still has capital punishment, so we’d just get life in prison.”
He lowered his head and stared at me.
“You’re right. That isn’t better. So, how do we do this?” I asked, forcing a cheerful tone.
He scowled. “I know a guy who can help.”
“Call him?” My stomach churned becauseTyler knew a guy who could help clean up a fucking murder. That wasn’t good. What sort of people had he been hanging around with since I’d left?
He sighed and bent over the corpse. I wasn’t sure what he was doing until he stood up with a key ring he’d obviously lifted from the body and shook it at me. “Does calling someone from the scene of a murder seem smart to you?”
“Oh. No.” I shook my head. “To be fair, I’ve never killed anyone until today.” What was I doing? This was going to be a lie that came back to bite me on the ass—perhaps forever—and I was telling it why? Because I wanted so much to make things up to Tyler? Shit, this was insane, but I didn’t open my mouth to tell him it was an accident, either.
“Come on.” He headed toward the back of the shop, as if he knew where he was going.
My stomach felt wobbly. Did he really service men behind this rundown junk shop? Was that my fault because I never checked on him? “I’m sorry for leaving?—”
“Don’t talk.” He glared over his shoulder at me. The fluorescent lights overhead made red bruises on his neck stand out. Were those finger marks?
“Those weren’t there earlier. What happened?” I asked, brushing my fingers on my own neck when he glanced back again.
He huffed. “Don’t. Talk.”
A cold blast of air hit me as he shoved open the back door. Since I had no fucking clue how to fix this, I figured I’d better start following some orders.
I slapped a hand over my mouth.
5
TYLER
I dragged Eddie out the back, far away from the crime scene, before I pulled out my phone. The battery was at two percent, but I trusted the charge was enough to call Ari. I’d seen him a couple of times sincethe incidenta year ago—a.k.a. he and his boyfriend had killed my boss, who’d treated me like shit. Ari had trusted me enough that night to let me go. He’d have my back if I called.
The cold air whistled around us in the narrow alleyway. The sun was starting to fade because it was cloudy and the time of year when it got dark not long after four o’clock in the afternoon. The Christmas lights in the connected street burned bright enough that we got some light from them.
I turned toward Eddie and hesitated. When he’d given me back my list, I hadn’t considered he could’ve taken a photo of it and gone to visit these people. He’d never been the type to stick his nose in other people’s business. I supposed his idiotic good-guy quest made sense if he felt guilty for leaving me.
Sorrywas the last thing I wanted to hear him say. I was still too furious. Or was I? I didn’t know. Something new had unfurled in my chest.
