Page 10 of Grave Stone

“Thank you for the backhanded compliment, bitch.”

“Yoo-hoo,” Hadley said.

“Right. Sorry. What’d you find?” Stevie asked.

“He was in a lot of debt. Two months ago, he lost his house and moved into an apartment with Tori. He’s two payments behind on the booger-mobile. He was fired from the law firm earlier this week. And he has multiple credit cards completely maxed out.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed. “Where was his money going?”

“I’m still working on that.”

“I’ve heard he’s gotten into booger sugar, but that’s purely courthouse gossip,” Stevie said.

“Great. Do I need to worry about his dealers coming after me, too?”

“Oh, please, can we call them boogeymen?” Hadley asked.

“The answer to both questions is no,” Stevie said. “The only reason anyone is after you is because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. As long as his dealers weren’t there, you should be fine. And no to the other. Just no.”

“Okay, so just loan sharks and a motorcycle club. Got it. What the fuck am I gonna do about this?”

“You’re not gonna panic,” Stevie said firmly. “We’ve gotten ourselves out of sticky situations before.”

“You’ve gotten us out of sticky situations,” I corrected.

“Well, aren’t you lucky? Look who’s here.”

I turned around so fast my head throbbed. “Who? Where are they?” I scanned the cars behind us, looking for anyone suspicious.

“Fucking hell,” Stevie groaned. “I meant me.”

“You scared the shit out of me.”

“You want some weed?” Stevie asked. “I think it’ll help. There’s a joint in my purse.”

I scrunched my nose. “I think I’ll wait until I’m not in a moving vehicle. My head still feels swimmy.”

“Do you want to put your earbuds in and try to nap?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“I’ll wake you when we get there.”

Once I found something to listen to, I leaned the seat back and closed my eyes. I couldn’t stop thinking about the events of the day, so I didn’t try. I let them flood my mind as they came until I fell asleep with the vision of horrified blue eyes staring back at mine.

6

STONE

When Danger, Tomb, Juice, and Halo arrived, Sin told them what happened. He left out the part about Kim, and I couldn’t have been more grateful. What happened with Kim was specific to me. No one else would have been affected by an unexpected woman jumping out of a casket the same way I was, since no one else had unknowingly cremated someone because she was in a casket when she shouldn’t have been.

It would’ve happened again if you hadn’t checked the casket a second time.

I tried to ignore the thought. There was no way I wouldn’t have checked again. The noise was coming from inside the casket. I wouldn’t have stopped looking until I found it.

Unless she passed out.

She would’ve had time to wake up again. I was still waiting for Sin to give the all-clear from the background check.