He dropped my chin. “Alright, enough chit chat—let’s get him in the back of the car. I don’t think he’ll fit in my trunk, so backseat it is.”
Winder opened the back seat, and between the two of us we managed to stuff Leon’s body inside, even if it was at a weird angle.
I climbed into the passenger seat, and Winder took the wheel, starting the engine. We drove through the city, to the outskirts where the river sliced us apart from the next town over.
We stood side by side and watched Leon sink into the dark, murky waters. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was watching my old self slip beneath the surface with him.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
WINDER
Iwanted nothing more than to crawl into bed, Blaire curled up next to me, but unfortunately, that couldn’t happen quite yet.
We had a mess to clean up first.
Blaire was on her hands and knees beside me, and not in the way I would’ve liked.
“Can I have the bleach?” she asked.
“Here.” I passed her the jug, nearly empty by now.
The bathroom looked miles better than it had when we first started, but I didn’t think we were ever going to get the residual red stain out of the porcelain. I doubted any of my housemates would notice, let alone care.
I wiped down the rest of the tub, and sat back on my heels to examine my work. Mopping up a bathroom of blood wasn’t on my list of favorite things to do at 2AM, but I guessed it could be worse.
“Winder?”
“Yeah, baby? I’m almost done here.” I scrubbed at a small spot I missed the first time.
“I have a question.”
I threw my rag into the bucket of soapy water next to me, and turned to face her. “Shoot.”
She followed suit, sitting on the now-clean floor with her arms wrapped around her knees. “Who is Conrad?”
My hands twitched. I knew this question was unavoidable, and yet, now it was here, I wanted to run in the other direction. “Conrad is…a powerful man in my world. He runs a large drug ring, but doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. Him looking for you isn’t exactly a good thing, but it does make perfect sense.”
Blaire tucked her chin into her knees, looking up at me. “What do you mean?”
I stripped off the plastic gloves I wore, sprawling my legs out. If I was going to have this conversation, I might as well get comfortable. “You and Oliver were on a major drug bust when…when it all went south. It had to have been someone big enough to warrant not wanting their names to get out there, and someone with enough power with both the copsandthe press to make it disappear. If you were close to getting Conrad, and he found out, well…all of this falls into place.”
“If he’s so powerful, why didn’t he come for me sooner? It’s not exactly like I’ve been in hiding all these years, even if I didn’t remember. I’ve been here, in the city.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “He could’ve done anything, at any point. Why now?”
I shrugged, helpless. “I wish I knew. I truly do. Maybe you weren’t enough of a problem with your memory loss, until you were. Maybe he’s playing some kind of long game we don’t understand yet. All I know is that you’re on his radar now, and he’s not going to stop until he gets you.”
She sat quietly, but I knew that look. I knew it all too well. She might have been able to fool other people with her silence, but I had always been able to read her like a book.
It was one of the things that hurt the most.
“Speak, Blaire. You might as well say what’s on your mind before you explode.”
Blaire licked her lips. “It’s just that…I don’t know. You just seem to have such a visceral reaction to his name.”
The blade in my chest twisted a bit, a sharp reminder I didn’t want. “It was Conrad’s men I took the fall for when I went to prison. Like I said, Conrad is powerful. Powerful enough that he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. But also powerful enough he could’ve gotten me out. Instead, he decided I was low enough on the totem pole that he would let the state have me.”
“Oh, Winder. I’m sorry.” Blaire’s eyes were wide, and her hand tried to close the gap between us.
