She smiles as she points. “Right there, we need to get down at least three feet, and that won’t be easy here.” I swing the pickax into the ground, grunting as I find there is as much stone as there is dirt. “I’ll dig out what you break up.”
I step back to let her, and that’s how we continue to work. I swing and break up chunks of earth, then she digs them out.
CHAPTER 19
HADRIAN
At some point,Nina leaves me to finish digging on my own. I don’t know where she is, and maybe I should care more, but I’m exhausted, and Carl is starting to smell… off. With one final swing, I empty a shovel full of dirt onto the pile beside the grave and then turn to his sorry ass. I pull him off the low back porch, and he thumps to the ground. Rolling him with my foot, I line his body up with the edge of the grave, and then a swift kick shoves him in. It’s not a pretty grave, but Carl didn’t deserve anything better.
I take a long look at the top of his head sticking out from the rug. I nearly spit on him before I realize what a bad plan that would be. Instead, I pick the shovel back up and start piling in all the rocks and dirt until there’s nothing to be seen but a patched-in hole that’s a slightly different color than the rest of the ground. I’m filthy—sweat, dirt, and grime coat my skin—and I hate to admit this is probably the most physical labor I’ve ever done in my life.
I look around, and Nina is still nowhere to be seen, but the sun has sunk low on the horizon, and it’s quite dark. As I walk, an automatic light kicks on. While I’m glad to see better, I suddenly feel like people are watching, and it’s a spotlightpointed at me. There is absolutely no one around, though. The small town nearby is still several miles away, and despite being able to see the highway when it was still lit, no one passed.
Walking around the perimeter of the house, I check where the car is parked, thinking she might have abandoned waiting in the cold. The automatic lights shine here too, and despite the years without them visiting, they’re still bright enough to illuminate the entire area. I can just see the outline of Soren and Sable in the car, both ignoring one another. I keep walking and find Nina kneeling on the ground beneath the permanently installed basketball hoop in front of the house.
She’s hard at work, with a container of paint beside her and a brush in her hand. The name “Briarwick” stands out in bold, block letters against the pavement, but the second word is hidden behind her body.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask. Surely, this will leave some evidence we were trying to avoid.
She finishes, staring at her handiwork, and I see the second word. “Curse.”
“Is he buried?”
“Yes, but?—”
She jogs away from me and back toward the house. If I wanted to ask her again, I’d need to shout, and I think she knows I don’t want to draw any more attention to us. I’m not sure what she’s doing, but I’ll admit I’m begrudgingly starting to trust her. A flash of light sparks near her, and my eyebrow bends in confusion. The source of light grows, picking up speed, heat, and intensity.Shit, shit. The side of the house licks up in flames faster than I imagined possible. She must have doused the thing in accelerants before I finished.
“What the fuck?” I shout, the sound of my voice partially drowned out by the hungry flames and the slam of the door as Sable jumps out of the car.
“Get back inside!” I yell to her, but she doesn’t seem to hear me as she flies at Nina.
“Are you fucking insane?” Sable asks her former friend. Tears drip down her cheeks, and I can’t even imagine what she’s feeling right now. This place was special to her at one point, but after everything that happened here, I don’t know what it means now.
Sable slows as she approaches me. The fire is too big for Nina to stay where she is, and as we advance on her, she meets us in the middle with her hands up.
“Yeah, probably, but I think my plan will work.”
“What plan?” Sable wails.
Nina places her hands on her hips, giving us both a look that dares us to act against her. “You have a lot of nerve to give me an attitude when none of this would be necessary if it wasn’t for you, Miss Murderer.”
“Did you have to fucking burn it down?” she cries.
“Yeah, I vandalized the place so it would look like the local yokels got scared of your family curse and chased you out of town. No one is even going to know your uncle was here to look for him.” A self-satisfied smile stretches across her lips.
“What if someone in town saw him? We’ve been here a month!” Sable argues. Her entire body shakes with her distress, and my every instinct tells me to get her out of here, especially with the blaze climbing. We may be far out, but it will get large enough for someone to see, and someone will eventually call the fire in.
Nina gets closer to Sable than I’m comfortable with, reaching out to take her hand. “I don’t think so, Sable. He had you out here as a hostage. He wasn’t trying to show his face. This is the last place they’re going to look when they realize he’s gone, and that’s exactly why he brought you here.”
I shake my head. “Why not just burn his body if you’re starting fires?”
She shoots me a dirty look. “Do you know how hot a fire needs to burn to actually incinerate a body? Carl was never here. The lazy, bum sheriff from this middle-of-nowhere town will show up and see the fire, the vandalism, and assume some kids got a little crazy. They don’t have the money or manpower for anything beyond looking around to see what makes sense, and we gave them an easy answer. Now, let’s go. We need to be gone before they see the fire.”
I feel uncomfortable agreeing with her, but I was thinking the same just a moment before.
“Seriously, Sable. She’s right. It’s time to go.” I wrap my arm around her again, prepared to bring her back to the car, but she refuses to move.
“Why are you doing this?” Sable’s voice cracks, and I flinch. “Why are you helping?”
