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She kneels beside me to help roll him, but before he budges, her hand clamps onto my arm. My name slips out in a cracked voice, filled with despair and terror. “Arlow.” Her wide eyes are locked on the graveyard where a man makes his way toward us. “Someone’s coming.”
I’m not proud of the thought that hits me in the first few seconds, before I recognize who it is.We’ll have to dig a deeper hole.That I could even entertain killing a stranger because we were caught is terrifying and my only excuse is that I love her. I won’t let anything happen to her, no matter who stands in my way.
“It’s okay.” I lay my hand over her fingers that are digging into my bicep. “Calli, it’s Lee. I’ll talk to him. It’ll be alright. I promise.”
The tears that slip out of her eyes say she doesn’t believe me. She doesn’t know Lee’s background, or the things he’s done. Though he’s moved on from his former life working for a vigilante group, this isn’t anything he hasn’t seen or participated in before.
And he’s my best friend.
He stops a few feet away, his gaze skipping between Calli, the body, and me. “I was going to say you better have a damn good reason for ignoring my calls, but this is a hell of an excuse.”
“He came after her. I didn’t have a choice.”
Lee nods, and though I doubt he needs any convincing, I pull out my phone and load up the video of Calli being marched through the woods at gunpoint.
He looks up from the screen to Calli. “He choked her.”
“I got there just in time. She was losing consciousness.”
“Do you think he had any partners?”
“There’s no reason to think so. He’s the one she saw in the forest before. If he had help, they would’ve stepped in once I showed up.”
He drops his voice so she can’t overhear. “Is this a secret you think she can keep? Can she live with it?”
It’s a fair question, but not one that worries me. “She led him to the woods to push him over the cliff herself.”
His lips twitch up. “Good for her.”
Calli looks up at him with fearful eyes when he approaches her. She doesn’t resist when he lifts her head to look at the angry bruises on her neck. “You won. Whenever this night comes back to haunt you, remember that. You won.” Her stiffened posture relaxes as he continues. “Did you check him for ID?”
She nods and holds it up. “And his phone and gun.”
“Good.” He picks up her shovel and runs his hand along the blade of it, then picks up mine and does the same. “Look away,” he tells her, holding the blade of the shovel over Carl’s fingers.
Calli jerks her head away and closes her eyes while he chops off the tips of the fingers, driving the shovel down with his foot. It takes a few tries on each hand, but he manages. Calli hands over the ID when he reaches for it. He walks a few feet away, then drops the fingertips and ID in a pile. He pulls a lighter out of his pocket, cracks open the bottom of it and douses them in lighter fluid. The last of the fluid is used to strike the lighter and set the pile aflame.
The ID melts and blackens almost instantly and the smell of the fingers makes me never want barbecue pork again. Leaving it to burn, he approaches the body and nods at me. “Let’s get this done. I want to get home before the storm.”
With Lee’s help, it doesn’t take long to fill in the hole and even out the ground. The whole area is dirt and will be muddy soon with a storm coming. It won’t look like we’ve been digging here. Calli sits at the edge of the grave to rest while Lee collects the gun, phone, and charred remains of the ID and fingers.
“I won’t take the SIM card out until I get to the lakes,” he says. “This looks like a burner—no contacts or anything in it—but if anyone ever tries to trace it, it’ll end at the lakes, not here. It’ll be on the bottom of the lake with the gun.” He sweeps his eyes over us. “You two need to clean everything the body touched with bleach and burn the clothes you’re wearing.”
Calli doesn’t ask how he seems to know what to do, but I can see her curiosity as she nods. “Lee,” she calls as he starts to leave. He pauses to look back. “Thank you.”
“Thank me by keeping this between the three of us. No one else. Ever.”
“I swear.”
After he leaves, I hold out my hand to help her to her feet. We still have a few things to do before the night is over, but all that falls away when she cradles my face in her hands, stopping me in place.
Her thumb brushes over my jaw as she looks me in the eye. “I love you.”
It’s the last thing I expect to hear and my heart races every bit as fast as it did on my run through the woods. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, and the shake of my head is an involuntary denial. “Calliope.” Her name slips out on a whispered prayer to the heedless universe.
“No.” Her voice is unwavering, resolute. “You don’t get to kill for me and then say I can’t love you.” She kisses me softly, then rests her forehead on my chest. “All I could think about as I was losing consciousness was that I should’ve told you before it was too late. I’m not asking you to feel the same or say it back, but I need you to know.”
Her words crush me. I’m overcome by so much emotion. The intensity of my love battles with guilt for letting it happen and allowing her to think for even a moment that it’s one-sided. I can’t let her go another second believing she’s the only one.
