Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
TJ met my gaze. “You got any plans after this? Because I could sure use an opportunity to blow off some steam.”
“Are you flirting with me over a corpse?”
“Yes.”
“What the fuck, TJ?”
“Don’t tell me you think this guy deserves our respect just because he’s dead. I did kill him after all. Are you mourning the asshole? He would have shot you.”
I adjusted my grip. The guy was fucking solid. “No, but… it’s gross.”
“I know you’ve seen worse. This was a very neat kill.”
He was right. TJ had killed him with one small bullet hole through the forehead. Not messy at all.
“Do you have any limits?” I asked.
“Like sexually or…”
“Like does anything bother you?”
“You getting shot would have bothered me. Me getting shot would have bothered me.”
“Jesus. Let’s just get this guy out of here?”
Madison and Colton covered us while we got the body into the back of the truck. Then Colton took off on the ATV, and the rest of us drove the body out to a secluded area far enough from the barn and house but also from any roads.
I stopped the truck by a shed near the back of the bunkhouse where we kept things we might need for the illegal part of our business. Madison went inside to get the supplies, and I climbed onto the back of the truck to more closely examine the corpse. We needed to look for anything that might identify him or who he worked for.
I knelt and reached into the pocket of his jacket, but I made the mistake of looking at his face as I did. Really looking. My personal hell all came flooding back.
The man didn’t really look like my father, but he had the same build, the same color hair, and the same bullet hole right through his forehead. A bullet hole I’d put there myself.
Bile rose in my throat, and I scrambled away from the body and off the bed of the truck. TJ called after me, but I didn’t respond. I was going to puke, but I didn’t want to do it in front of him.
When I’d expelled all my breakfast, I stayed bent over, hands on my knees, trying to remember to breathe. I fought to push the images from that horrible night away, but I saw it all over again—my dad planning to go after my brother and me knowing I couldn’t let that happen. Grant was away, and I had to take care of the bastard myself. Once it was done, I sat down and cried, then I picked myself up, dragged the body away from the house, and set things up to look like a deal gone wrong.
No one knew, not my brothers, not any of the men my father considered friends, and I couldn’t let them find out. I had to get myself together.
“Are you all right?” It was TJ. Why the hell couldn’t he just leave me alone?
I waved him off, not speaking.
“I know you’ve seen enough dead bodies not to react like that. I’m guessing there’s something else going on.”
“Go away.” Seeing him only reminded me that I was a killer like he was. I had no right thinking I was morally superior.
“Look, Madison said she’ll handle everything. I can take you back to the house.”
I just wanted to be alone with my embarrassment, my grief, and my anger that I was torn up over a man who had never been anything but a fucking bastard to all of us.
“I’ll be fine in a minute. I probably just ate something bad.”
“You don’t actually expect me to believe that, do you?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you believe.”
He walked away, and I let myself sink to the ground.
A few moments later, he came back carrying a cup of water. The last thing I needed was for him to be nice to me.
“You’ll feel better if you at least rinse your mouth out.”
“I don’t need a mother.”
“And I don’t intend to be one, but apparently, I’m not totally the monster you think I am.”
I glanced up at him. He was studying me in a way that seemed to penetrate far too deep. He knew I wasn’t squeamish, and he knew I didn’t have food poisoning, but there was no way in hell I was going to tell him the truth.
I took the water, drank a few sips, and handed him back the cup. “You can go back to the house. I’m fine.”
“Madison told me to walk back with you.”
“So now you take orders from her? I didn’t think you listened to anyone.”
“She asked nicely, and she’s a little scary.”
I couldn’t fight my smile. “Yeah. She is.”
TJ held his hand out to me. I wanted to be petty and stand on my own, but I honestly felt really unsteady. This wasn’t the first time I’d been thrown back to that awful night and left sick and shaking, but it hadn’t happened in a long time.