Page 104 of York

I led her into her old bedroom, then through to the en suite bathroom to strip her down and push her into the shower.

The water ran red for a long moment before it dulled to pink, then nothing.

“Listen to me, babe. I need you to wash yourself, okay? Body, hair, under your nails. Every nook and cranny. Then when you think you’re done, do it all over again. Then again. Three times, okay?”

“Okay.” She reached numbly for the soap.

I didn’t want to leave her.

But the last thing in the world we needed was a half-dead Sonny crawling for help.

This ended now.

I gathered the clothes, pausing only to tell Denali everything was okay, but that I needed her to stay in her room for a few more minutes. Then I stopped to throw the clothes in the wash with half a bottle of bleach before rushing back in the direction she’d come from.

I nearly fell on my ass several times with the uneven terrain. But then I saw it.

A pickup truck.

I ran that way, the gun heavy in my hand.

But Runa was right.

Sonny was dead.

“Fuck,” I said, sighing.

Alright.

Crisis mode.

I reached for my phone, calling Huck and filling him in.

“Call Slash,” Huck demanded. “You need reinforcements. Shady Valley is a lot closer by plane.”

“I’m not leaving a body here that long. I have no fucking idea what kind of staff might be coming by or who might be missing him at home. I’m not having evidence pointing back here.”

“Okay. You get that started. I will call Slash. Make sure your phone pings nowhere but that house.”

“Used to do this for a living,” I reminded him. “I’m going to leave my phone with Runa. If you need to talk to someone, you’ll have her until I fix this.”

With that, we ended the call and I grabbed the knife and gun and booked it back to the house.

Inside. The knife and gun went into the laundry room sink with bleach. I washed my hands and went back upstairs, pleased to find Runa out of the shower and dressed.

“Runa, listen, Huck is going to be sending some guys over from Shady Valley. Maybe four to six hours from now.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding a little less detached.

“I need to deal with the body.”

She tensed. “No, I should—”

“No,” I cut her off. “I need to do this. I know what I’m doing. But it’s gonna take a while, and I need you to hold onto my phone, to answer it if it rings, or if anyone texts you. No details about the body or anything like that. But in texts, pretend to be me. We need an alibi just in case.” Her eyes went panicked. “I’m not going to get caught. I know what I’m doing. But I like being careful.”

“Okay. I answer calls and texts, being you.”

“Yep. That’s all. No one is going to ask about the incident. They will likely be giving you ETAs or asking for an address. That’s all I need you to do. Well, that, and I need you to be with Denali. I got the call from Arty and locked her in her room. She’s scared. She needs you.”