“You fucking bastard—”
“What did you guys do with the body?” he interrupts her, asking me.
“Kellan got a call and had to leave; he rode with Bennett, so they all left. I told them we would take care of it.”
“Perfect. Call my phone with hers.”
I all but roll my eyes. What is he up to? “What? Cole, we don’t have time …”
“Call my phone with hers, Deke,” he snaps.
I let out a huff but look down at her phone and see it’s still unlocked. I type in his number, and seconds later, it starts ringing in his pocket, but he doesn’t answer it.
I don’t expect him to explain himself.
He stands up, and she takes the opportunity to try to scramble away, but he grips her hoodie and yanks her to her feet. Wrapping his hand around the back of her neck, he starts shoving her forward up the hill. She twists in his grip, and his hand slips, allowing her to get a few steps ahead of him.
What the fuck is he doing?
He runs after her, fisting her hair to pull her back against his front. Wrapping his free hand around her waist, he says, “We’re not done, sweetheart.”
“Where are we going?” she demands.
He doesn’t answer her, and I don’t say shit ’cause I have no fucking clue what he’s doing. Maybe he plans on burying her with Jeff’s body. Anything is possible when it comes to Cole.
He walks her over to where he knows we had Jeff. And I shine my flashlight on the body. She shows no sign of fear as she stares at the dead man. She saw everything we fucking did. How did she know where we were? How long had she been following us? The Lowes estate is just down at the bottom of the hill, but it’s over a hundred yards away. There’s no way she heard us.
“Hold her,” he demands, shoving her into my arms.
“Let me go, you son of a bitch!” she screams as she bumps into me.
Her small fist makes contact with my face. “Fuck,” I hiss. “She punched me,” I say, irritated with this turn of events. She’s like a fly I want to flatten under my hand.
I grip her hair with one hand, dropping my flashlight, and wrap my now free hand around her neck. I choke her, taking away her air. I’m not gonna go easy on this bitch. I don’t care what Cole plans on doing with her. She tries to fight me, but just like when Cole held her, she has no chance.
I hear him digging into our black bag, and he pulls out the knife. “Pin her to the ground. Face down.”
I smile and shove her to her knees with my hand in her hair. She grunts and cusses me as I force her to her stomach with my knee in her lower back.
Cole grabs his flashlight and shines it down on her. I straddle her ass, her hands pinned in mine against her back.
He kneels beside us and yanks her sleeve up. “What are you doing?” she asks in a rush.
“Insurance,” he replies and then drags the blade against her forearm.
She cries out in the cemetery as the skin gives and blood starts to pour from the wound. He then takes the knife and stabs Jeff in the chest. “Now your DNA is in him with the murder weapon.”
I chuckle. This bastard …
“You go to the cops. They dig him up and investigate his murder, and you go down with us.”
“Fucking …”
“And you called me. More proof that we were communicating the night of the murder. Around the time of death.”
Her body lies stiff under mine, and her breathing is labored.
“Return her phone and let her go so we can bury this body,” he tells me.
I release her, and then I stand up, hovering over her. She crawls away from me, and I toss her phone to the wet ground. She stands up on shaky legs, holding her arm where he cut it. We both shine our lights on her.
“Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind,” he growls.
She turns and runs.
“We should have killed her,” I say, not really knowing what the fuck he’s doing with her. She could still talk.
“That wasn’t part of the plan,” he argues.
I fist my hands. “I don’t fucking care about the plan. What I care about is not going to prison. We should, at the very least, have taken her with us.” Even I knew that wasn’t a possibility, but what other choice did we have other than killing her? Bruce Lowes is a fucking evil bastard. How do we know his daughter isn’t just like him?
“Did you want to take her home?” He arches a brow. “Keep her as a pet?” Then he shakes his head. “She won’t say anything.”