His mouth fell open, then he shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that. I want what’s right. The thing is, Rena was only in it for Rena. I got tired of having to watch my back when she was supposed to be looking out for me. Not a very good partner if you think about it. You never know when someone like that will decide they’re done with you.”
I kept my gaze trained up and away from Rena. “As I found out today. Now what do we do? We can’t leave her here. My parents could come home any second.”
He scratched the sparse stubble on his chin. “I have something in my car. Be right back.”
As if roots anchored me in place, I stared at Rena and her glazed, down-cast eyes. Maybe it would be less gross if her eyes eyelids were closed. Leaving the support of the couch, I reached down. She inhaled and I leaped away yelping, my heart pounding.
“What happened?” Chait was by my side in a flash, dropping a tarp next to Rena.
I threw myself at him and buried my face in his chest. “She made a noise, like air whooshing in.”
He wrapped himself around me, his chin resting on my head. “She wasn’t coming back to life. That was her dying breath. Literally.”
“Oh, that’s great. I just watched the exact moment of her death.” I whimpered.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”
“Yeah, how did you sneak in here without us hearing?” His heartbeat in my ear soothed me.
“Like I said, I trained with a really old guy. He couldn’t stay alive that long unless he knew how to go stealth.”
“Rena should’ve sensed you,” I said.
“She was distracted, you know, with trying to murder you and all.”
“Things might’ve ended differently if you’d knocked first and waited for me to let you in.” So many other things could’ve changed the outcome. If I hadn’t thought to stall her or if I’d said something different and pissed her off, she might have moved faster and… What if Chait hadn’t arrived in time to save me? If he had arrived ten minutes later, could I have fended off Rena by myself? Or would I be dead now? So many what ifs. But I couldn’t allow myself to dwell on them. “How’d you know you needed to go stealth?”
“Because we never leave without informing someone and we never go out alone. I couldn’t think of any reason Rena would go AWOL unless she was up to no good. When I saw her car parked out front—”
“Right in front of my house?” I asked. “That’s so obvious.”
“She probably thought parking further away and hiding the car would give her less time to kill you.” Chait sighed. “I thought it was suspicious that she knew about your sister while no one else did. I had this nagging feeling she’d been involved in that somehow.”
“You were right. Rena was jealous and admitted she killed my sister. She was in love with David and thought he liked Zoe. Same reason she wanted to get rid of me.” A strange sound rose from my throat. I shuddered and lifted my face to his. “Why didn’t I sense her, Chait? I should’ve known she was there. I’m a terrible witch. Useless.” My heart felt heavy. “If I joined Boris, I’d probably be doing you guys a favor.”
“She’s a Blocker. You couldn’t have known.” He brushed a hand over my hair and I dropped my head to his chest again.
“What’s going on here?”
I’d been too absorbed in myself to notice Hayden’s arrival. Relief filled me and I ran from Chait’s arms and into Hayden’s.
“Whoa, baby, what happened?” He held me firmly, his arms crossing behind me. Then he saw her. “Is that Rena?”
“Yeah. While you were busy doing whatever, I saved your girlfriend from becoming dead, like her.” Chait’s tone held a bitter edge.
Hayden tensed against me and I wiggled out of his embrace. The last thing I wanted was to referee another pissing contest between them. “Can you guys bicker later? Maybe after we get rid of the body?”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Hayden
Chait couldn’t have known that Tessa belonged to me now, but I didn’t care whether or not he was innocent. He’d saved Tessa’s life, but I felt like he’d gone beyond and used it to his advantage.
I wanted to kill him.
He stood near the bushes outside Tessa’s bedroom, waiting to catch the body from the window as I shoved it through to him. He’d already moved his car into the driveway, so we could carry the lump of tarp-wrapped Rena to the wooden gate, then lug her several yards down the driveway and drop the murdering bitch into his trunk.
Holding one end of the load, I stopped. “I find it interesting how you pretended not to sense me when I got here,” I growled. “You knew I’d arrived but you didn’t bother telling Tessa. No, you kept holding her. Nice, Chait.”
“Why would I need to tell her that you were there? She could sense you as well as I could,” Chait scoffed. “Didn’t it occur to you that she might want you to catch us?”
I dropped my end of Rena and pounced, got him in a chokehold and pinned him to the ground.
“Hayden, what are you doing?” Tessa whispered as loudly as she could without alerting the neighbors.
That only pissed me off more. If I hadn’t been so distracted by fury, I would’ve known she’d come outside. I’d bet anything Chait had known. Again. Son of a bitch.
Tessa swatted my back. “Let him go.”
I did — reluctantly — and resumed my hold on Rena. In silence we dumped her in the trunk.
Chait closed it, then turned to face me. He blew out a breath and met my eyes. “It’s not his fault.” He switched to Tessa. “That was a crappy stunt I pulled. If someone was holding my girl like that, I would’ve tried to beat his ass too. Worse probably.” He rounded to the side of the car and opened the door.
“I wish you two would grow up.” Tessa lowered her voice to a whisper. “Hey, what do you do with the bodies? Do you cremate them?”
Chait scanned the area for eavesdroppers and spoke softly. “We don’t have contacts in any mortuaries in this area and our current house didn’t come with an incinerator. Can you believe it?” He snickered. “We can’t drop bodies off without someone calling the police. Even if we got around that somehow, we can’t allow autopsies. But we have an out-of-the-way spot where we bury everyone.”
“Why avoid an autopsy?” I asked. “Are we different inside or something?”
“Not in a freakish way, no. They’d notice the abnormal lack of disease and perfect organs though. In Rena’s case, they’d also discover the poison. Not good.”
“What would they have done with Zoe’s body? Same thing?” Tessa asked.
Losing her sister was awful and I felt bad for her, but Tessa’s growing obsession worried me. Rena had confessed, but we don’t know whether it really was over jealously or if someone gave the order. If Tessa insisted on prying further into Zoe’s death, it could mean her own.
But would I behave the same if I’d remembered a brother or sister and lost them? Probably.
Chait nodded. “Yeah, there’s a good chance they would’ve taken the body, did a switch or something. There’s always a way to get around the authorities. And that cemetery is the only place we dump ’em.”
“I’m going with you,” she said. “I want to see this place.”
He put his hands up as if to say he hadn’t planned that. I believed him. It still sucked. Wait — why couldn’t I go with them?
I opened my mouth to speak and she turned to me. “Hey, huge favor? If I’m not back in an hour, will you pick up Bree? She’s only across the street. I’ll let them know you’re coming.” She took a deep breath and forged on before I formed an answer. “I feel like I never got a chance to say goodbye to Zoe. I’ll come back soon though. I’ll get Bree to bed and we’ll have the rest of the night to ourselves. Please?”
Let her go off with Chait? My instincts said no. But my other option was to refuse and look like a callous, jealous ass. “Sure. Call me when you get there, okay?”
Tessa stretched up on her ti
ptoes and draped her arms around my neck. She smiled and whispered, “Thank you.”
I leaned in and closed my eyes to lose myself in her. Our lips met and Chait cleared his throat, reminding me of his presence. I released her.
“I save her life and you get the kiss. So unfair.” He shook his head.
“Take good care of her.” I glared at him.
He suddenly looked very solemn. “I’ll call in the incident right away and arrange for someone to follow us.”
“Good.” I accompanied Tessa to the passenger side, brushed her lips with mine and closed the door once she was inside. I hated the way I felt, like I was losing her in a small way. It should have been me driving her.
“Hey.” She reached her arm out the window to hold my hand. “If you weren’t taking care of Bree, I wouldn’t be able to do this. Thank you.” She smiled. “See you soon.”
I silently cursed Chait and watched them drive away. Apologizing for his behavior only made him seem like the bigger man. Hell, he didn’t need that added boost — he’d rescued Tessa. My dislike of him was unjust. I resented him anyway.
Noting the time, I texted Tessa and reminded her to call the neighbors. I headed home since Bree didn’t have to be picked up for another hour.
At my house, I walked up the driveway and spotted my mom.
“Hi, honey.” Her face lit up like it always did when she saw me. She looked stunning in a dark purple dress and very high heels. “We were about to go out to dinner.”
I smiled back, realizing how much I’d missed her the last few days. “You look awesome.” Sam was probably taking her to a super expensive restaurant with her money.
She hugged me and whispered in my ear. “Sam’s in a particularly good mood. Might as well take advantage.”
Especially since his pleasant side showed itself so rarely. “You’re leaving now?” I squeezed her for a moment and released her.
“As soon as he comes out.”
Right. I’d successfully avoided him for days. I didn’t need to see inside his twisted head. “I have to go.”
Her face fell. “What’s the rush?”
“Hayden,” Sam called, hurrying toward us. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.”
He didn’t need to talk — I got his pictures. He was thinking about getting another car and wanted to discuss horsepower. Sam had other things on his mind too. Things that if I ever had to repeat or even think about, I’d want to beat him senseless.
In a flash, I gripped him by his collar and dragged him toward the house. “Mom, come with us. You’ll want to see this.”
Sam struggled against my grip and though he had two inches on me, he couldn’t free himself. My new sorcerer strength couldn’t have been handier. I opened the side door and shoved him through.
“Hayden!” Mom yelled. Her heels clicked on the concrete path as she hurried after us. “What are you doing?”
“Mom, get the other door. Now.” I stopped outside Sam’s office.
“What has gotten into you?” She caught up with me and opened the door that led to Sam’s computer.
“You’re about to find out.” I pushed Sam past the doorway, his head banging into the frame. Then I tossed him in front of the nearest computer. “Log into your email.”
Sam’s eyes blazed with fury. “I will do no such thing.”
“Yes. You will.” I put my hand on his shoulder and spun his chair to face the monitor. “Don’t you think Mom should know about the women you’ve had on the side? Not that they were ever girlfriends. Wait. Does a stripper from Barely There count as a girlfriend? What if you spent one night with a prostitute? Does she count? We need to check out the history on your browser.”
“Sam,” my mom said, “is this true?”
He made a noise deep in his throat, his face scarlet. “Of course not. How could you believe something like that? Rachel, I love you. I’ve never cheated on you.”
My hands wrapped around his neck. “When you were at the Camel Motel last night, that wasn’t cheating?”
“W-How do you know about that?”
“What’s your password?” I asked, hands still around his throat. He didn’t need to tell me. I only needed him to think of it, picture the letters. “Big rack is your password? Why am I not surprised?” I held his shoulder down with one hand and typed with the other.
He freaked before I punched in the last letter. His arms flailed and his shoes banged into the desk leg as he tried to strike at me any way he could. I effortlessly dodged him.
“Who do you think you are?” he shrieked. “You worthless piece of—”
In a split second, I flattened him to the floor, my fists slamming into his face. “You stay away from my mother or I’ll tell her the rest.” I didn’t want to. I could hardly think about what he’d done, much less say it out loud.
“That’s not necessary, Hayden,” my mom said, her steely voice cutting into the visuals I had of Sam’s escapades. “Let him go.”
My gaze shot to her. “But, Mom, I—”
“Let him go,” she said loud enough and with enough authority to make me obey.
I released him, my fingers twitching as he stood up and wiped at the blood on his face. If she let him stay, I didn’t know what I’d do.
“Sam,” my mom said slowly, hands on her hips. “Listen to me carefully. After you wash up, I want you to pack your bags and leave.”
“Baby, he’s lying. He set me up. You’ve gotta believe me.”
“For years, I’ve put up with your insults. Let’s not forget the physical abuse.” Her voice vibrated dangerously as she stepped closer to him, her eyes narrowed to slits. “I was about to leave a few years ago, but you stopped hitting me. I stayed because, for once in my life, I wanted to make a marriage work. I wanted to believe you were worth it, that I hadn’t made the biggest mistake of my life. So you had another chance.” She shook her head, chin quivering. “Wrong again.”
“Rachel, you’re everything to me. I love you. I’d never hurt you. I swear.” He dropped to his knees in front of her, groping for her hands.
“Is that why you stole money from her company?” I asked him, then turned to her. “Proof is on his hard drive.”
She stepped back and took a deep breath. “You have one hour to gather your belongings. I’m cutting you off from all financial support and if you try to get anything from me, I’ll turn you in for embezzlement. You should be able to live off the stolen money until you find a job.”
“I already have a job.” His face reddened again, fists balled. “You can’t do this. It wasn’t me.”
She scoffed. “It all makes sense now. No wonder you spent months examining the books and couldn’t figure out where the money went. You were the one who stole it. After tonight, I never want to see you again. If I do, next time I won’t ask Hayden to stop.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
Tessa
David and Jason stood guard while a woman and another guy shoveled dirt at lightning speed several plots away — preparing Rena’s final resting place. David hadn’t even flinched when we’d told him what happened, as though he never doubted our word for a moment.
I tried not to think about the body in the tarp or that it had traveled with me in the trunk the last half hour. Thankfully, Rena would remain here and only Chait and I would be in the car for the trip back.
My mind drifted to Zoe. According to Chait, she should’ve been around there somewhere.
He must have read my mind. “There are some older graves over there and there.” Chait indicated two spots in two different directions, both about twenty yards beyond Rena’s body. “I’ll wait here.”
On my way to the first burial spot, I texted Hayden to confirm that he would pick up Bree in about thirty minutes. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Rena’s new home already half way dug.
I continued on and stopped in front of several headstones that lined a small section near some brush. Without looking, I knew which belonged to
Zoe. The space around the left headstone pulled me in. I sensed an odd energy. Not like someone was actually there — by now, I knew the difference. This was a faded version, as though only her memory lingered, a bit of her essence maybe.
“Zoe, it’s Tessa. I’m sorry we didn’t have more time together. But I remember you now. I remember everything about you, every moment we had together. And I miss you… so much.” A tear trickled over my cheek and I turned again to check on Chait and the others. They had finished and looked ready to go. “Goodbye, Zoe,” I whispered, then turned and headed back to the car, my throat aching.
“Are you okay?” Chait asked.
I nodded and got in the car, then took a moment for some slow deep breaths. “It’s funny. Even though Rena’s motives had been vile, she opened my eyes to Zoe. And Rena’s death brought me back to her.”
Chait nodded and briefly touched my hand. “So back at your house, did Rena say anything else?”
“No. Just that she killed Zoe. Jealousy over David.”
His head snapped to me. “First your sister, then you. I can’t figure out how she thought she’d get away with it. How could Rena not expect to answer to the rest of us?”
“I’d arranged to meet with Frank and Lila today. We met at the park and Boris was there. Rena accused me of joining them. That’s what she would’ve told all of you. How I was a traitor.”
“Boris, huh?” He frowned at the road ahead. “Even if you’d requested an audience, normally he would’ve said no. What makes you special?”
“Thanks a lot, Chait.” I tried my best to sound sarcastic.
“No, I already know you’re amazing.” He chuckled. “I think every guy in town agrees. What I mean is that Boris doesn’t meet with recruits. There’s something else about you that prompted the meeting, something we need to find out. Knowledge is power. I want to know what he knows.”
“I wish I knew how to figure that out.”
“We have a library crammed with old books on sorcerers, vampires, werewolves and anything else you can think of. But getting you inside our house without Boris finding out is going to be a challenge. If he thinks you’ve joined us, you’ve got a problem.”
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