My hand drops back to the railing and I look out onto my property, the woods dark yet not all that quiet. The wildlife is loud tonight, the bugs too. It’s probably their last hoorah before the first frost kills them off. I hardly notice them. My thoughts turn to Blair.
She’s out there with Santi. It pleases me that the two of them have clicked. He’ll be one more reason Blair won’t want to go when the time has come to tell her the coast is clear and all is well. Tonight, that seems to be a distant future. Much further than I ever intended.
With a sigh, I push away from the railing and head inside through the front door. Rhett’s still up, lying on the couch with his hands behind his head watching some television show. He doesn’t look up when I walk by to head downstairs but when I walk past the room again, with my rifle slung over my shoulder, he notices.
He sits up straight as I pause in the threshold of the room. His dark eyes sharpen as he gets to his feet.
“What happened? Is Santi?—”
“As far as I know, they’re fine,” I assure him before he can worry. “I got other business to take care of. Wes is upstairs, sleeping. If something happens while I’m gone, wake him.”
The tension in Rhett’s body eases but only just a bit. He takes one of his lip piercings into his mouth, then lets it go after a long thoughtful minute.
“You need help?” he asks.
I raise a brow, surprised by the offer. If IaskedRhett for help he would be by my side without a single objection.
But he’s not one to offer assistance.
“It’s not going to be pretty,” I warn.
“I kind of figured, you know what with the gun in your possession.” He rakes his dark hair out of his face and moves towards me. “It’ll beat sitting around all night waiting for the others to get home.”
“They shouldn’t be out too much later,” I point out. “How long can shopping and dinner take?”
“Given that Santi’s wanted to play The Hunt tonight, it’ll be late. Disposing of the body takes time.”
My body stiffens and fury burns through me.
“Damn it! Blair’s supposed to be laying low, not murdering people! Why aren’t you out there playing with him instead? Why’d he involve Blair in this?”
Rhett’s dark eyes flash and his lips press together in a thin line as he passes me. Over his shoulder he says, “You’ll have to ask him yourself.”
Son of a bitch, I’m going to kill Santi when they get back. I told him to behave and he’s going directly against the order. Maybe Blair will talk him out of it. Maybe?—
I pause as I register Rhett’s tone.
My anger wanes a bit as understanding dawns on me.Thisis why Rhett’s still up. Something’s going on between him and Santi. Is he pissed he wasn’t invited to play tonight? Or was he invited but declined, hoping that would keep Santi in for the evening?
I don’t dive into their personal lives but I know Rhett is quietly possessive when it comes to Santi. Blair is throwing a wrench into, well, whatever the two of them have together. Rhett doesn’t hide his irritation whenever Santi and Blair are together, and Santi does a piss-poor job hiding that he loves Rhett’s reaction. I hate to admit it, but jealousy gives Rhett a bit of life in that otherwise stoney expression.
Maybe Santi and Blair being out won’t be too bad after all if it helps break Rhett out of his fucking shell a bit. Blair knows how to clean up a mess and Santi’s been doing this for a while… I guess it should be okay.
I turn to watch Rhett run up the stairs. From the top he calls down, “Give me five minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”
Rhett isgreat company for jobs like this. He lacks the standard curiosity that most people have. Give him instructions and he’ll see them through without question. The only issue with having Rhett with me on something like this is that he’ll walk straight into danger in the hopes of getting a bullet right between the eyes.
He’s stone-fucking-cold like that.
When I pull over on an obscure emergency road in a particularly wooded area, Rhett doesn’t ask me why or what’s going on. He simply pulls a cigarette from the pack in his shirt pocket, lights it, and takes a long drag.
“What do you need me to do?” he asks.
I jerk my head toward the direction of the road we’d just come from.
“Head that way until you get to Guppy’s Motel, it’s about a mile from here. Knock on the last door on the right and step out of the way when the door opens,” I explain. “Once the target is down, tie their wrists and ankles together. I’ll pick you and the target up right after.”
Rhett tips his head back and blows the smoke from his lungs out through the crack of the window.
