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Chapter Sixteen
Hunter
After he’d collected his guns and sorted them from when Vanessa carelessly tossed them to the ground, and after they’d showered and dressed, they were ready to head out. He took his bag of ammo to the car then returned to lock up.
When he slid into the driver’s seat, Vanessa looked over at him and put her hand on his to stop him from starting the car.
“Wait, Hunter.”
He looked into her eyes, waiting as she’d asked.
“I think there’s another way to do this,” she said.
“Do what?”
“I think we can get Jeremy out of the way and keep us safe without having to kill him.”
“How?”
“We could go to the cops. Tell them he hired you.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Right. Go tell them I kill people for a living.”
She shook her head. “They don’t have to know that you’ve done it before. Only that he hired you to do it this time, and you couldn’t go through with it. Is it a crime to take money to kill someone if you don’t actually kill them?”
“Yes.”
“But it has to be a much lesser crime, right?”
“Vanessa.” He dropped his hand from the ignition. “We’d need a lot of evidence to build a case against him. They’re not going to just take my word for it.”
“But there’s your word and mine and Opal’s.”
“Not enough. And we’re all on the same side. Too easy for us to all be lying for each other. It’s not evidence. Not enough to put him away for any length of time.”
“How do we get evidence?”
“I don’t really know. I’ve always been better at avoiding having any sort of evidence than gathering any.”
She tapped her finger, thinking. “And there’s evidence against me. Like from the doctor, and from CPS. They’ll say I was the one who hurt Opal.”
“Exactly.” He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “It’s much better for me to kill him. Otherwise, you might end up getting yourself arrested, and it would be too hard to try to get enough evidence for us to get him arrested.”
“There has to be a way to make it work. I don’t want you to have to do this.”
“Why not? I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”
“I know, but I don’t want to be the reason. I don’t want to feel guilty for the rest of my life, knowing you killed for me. What if you get caught? What would I do then?”
He looked over at her with an unamused gaze. She clearly didn’t have enough faith in him and his ability to do his job well. “I know how to do my job without getting caught. I’ve done this many times.”
“And you never once came close to getting in trouble?”
He took a moment to answer. Should he lie or just be honest? “Not any time recently.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Recently? So you have been arrested? Have you been in jail?”
He clenched his jaw and nodded.
