Page 66 of Claimed By Ruin

He looked back at the storeroom, then at me, a smile on his face.

“And what if I don’t⁠—”

The knife found its target unerringly. Messy as his guts spilled out into the dry dirt, but effective. He screeched, then fell to his knees. Two quick slashes, left to right, then right to left, and it was over. He fell to the dirt, his eyes open, staring wordlessly at the sky.

A second later, I heard her voice.

“Jack?”

TWENTY-THREE

Asia

Jack wiped his knife on his pants. Steven lay on the ground. Dead.

“Get Elliot and get this body in the burn pit. I’ll drive the truck off the farm. The story will be he never made it here. Jack, we have to move. Now!” I snapped when he did nothing.

“Wait,” he said.

I moved towards the wheelbarrow myself, but stopped. “Wait for what?”

“You’re not going to ask me what happened? Doesn’t it matter?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, it doesn’t matter, Jack. What matters is what we do next. He’s dead. Once Christopher knows that, he’ll be here. We need to be prepared for that.”

Jack didn’t move an inch, apparently having decided that now was the perfect time for this conversation. “How long have you been letting them do this?”

I shook my head, not yet ready to give in. “Now is not the time, Jack.”

“It is.”

I sighed. “Too damn long. Sheriff Hayes ‘disappeared’ about a week after…you left. I tried to keep things steady.”

“But that’s over now,” Jack said.

“Exactly. That’s over now.”

I looked at him, and he looked at me. His expression was granite, but his voice was soft. “I did what had to be done, Asia. He was going to take the baby’s things.”

“You always do what has to be done, don’t you?”

“Always,” Jack said.

I sighed and rubbed my temple as I looked from Steven’s body to Jack to the storage shed. I pulled open the door and walked inside, Jack on my heels. I faced him. “So I was right. We do need to get ready because you just started a war.”

Jack

“No, not if I stop it first.”

Asia stared at me, her face impassive save for a questioning brow.

“I’m going to kill Christopher.”

She pursed her lips.

“For both of you,” I whispered.

“You never think about the consequences, do you?”