He couldn’t hide that part of his life from me.
It was a part of him.
And if I wanted to be with him in a permanent way, I needed to show him that I could handle it.
Besides, who was I to judge?
I had a body on my conscience too.
Taking a deep breath and steeling my stomach as best I could, I pushed open the door.
Red was what I saw first.
Blood.
On the walls. On the floor. Across the toilet and the bath towels.
Second was the body of Raúl, his upper half inside the tub where his blood was steadily dripping down the drain from the hole in his head.
His eyes were open but lifeless.
There was blood coming from his nose and his mouth and one of his eyes was almost completely red.
I knew what I was supposed to feel.
Shock.
Revulsion.
But the overwhelming sensation that flooded my body was relief. Peace, even.
Because it was over.
Raúl could never come for me again.
I would never have to look over my shoulder anymore.
I was free.
I could live without fear.
I could build a future.
With Cary.
“Love, don’t look,” Cary begged, drawing my attention over to the other side of the bathroom. Where he was leaning against the sink vanity, blood splattered across his shirt, his neck, his face, and even flecked in his salt and pepper hair.
His lip was split and his knuckles were broken open, but otherwise, he seemed to be the one doing most of the damage, not receiving it.
Taking a deep breath, smelling the metallic tang of the blood all around, I moved toward him, reaching out to place my hands on his elbows as I gazed up at him.
“Thank you,” I said, offering him a soft smile.
“Anything for you, love,” he said. “I’m just sorry I—“
I didn’t let him finish that.
I didn’t want his apology.
“I’m finally free,” I said. “We’re free,” I added.
“Almost,” he agreed, nodding.
“Almost?”
Just as he was about to explain, the room door opened again, and a second later, Voss was walking into the bathroom with a backpack in his hand. His gaze moved around the room until he settled on Raúl’s body.
Then he nodded before walking in that direction, reaching inside his backpack to pull out gloves that he slipped on while we stood there in silence and watched. Next out came a giant black bag that he shook open, then started to slide up Raúl’s legs.
“Love, I need you to carefully walk back to the doorway, slip out of your socks, and then step back into the room, okay?” Cary asked, nudging me when I kept watching Voss load Raúl into a garbage bag. “Abigail?”
“Okay,” I agreed, sensing this was important. I mean, if they didn’t clean up the scene properly, there was a chance we could all go to jail, right? I had to do what he said. “Now what?” I asked when I was in the room without my socks.
“Did you get anything on your hands?”
“No.”
“Okay. Then I need you to start packing everything up.”
“I can do that,” I agreed, glad to have something to focus on.
It wasn’t long before Dezi came back.
He went right to work scrubbing down the room itself with a pack of bleach wipes he pulled out of his back pocket.
“Isn’t Cary’s name on the room?” I asked, not understanding why he was wiping everything like the actual room wouldn’t trace right back to us.
“Nah. Different ID,” he said, scrubbing away at the walls, the nightstands, the light switches.
“Come on,” Hope said, stopping in the doorway. “I’ll take you out of here so you don’t touch anything by accident. Is that good with you?” she called toward the bathroom.
“I appreciate it,” Cary called back. “It’s okay. Go with her. We are going to be a while.”
“Okay,” I agreed, nodding, handing half the bags to Hope, and taking the rest with me.
“You alright?” she asked as we got in the elevator.
“I, ah, I think I’m a little numb right now actually.”
“Good.”
“What?”
“I mean, not good-good, but you know, good for me. Big, over-the-top emotional displays… that’s not for me. I’m not good with that.”
“I’m not going to get over-the-top,” I promised her. “Where are we going?” I asked as we walked through the lobby and out to the lot.
“Wherever you want, babe. You’re officially a free woman.”
In that case, I knew where I wanted to go.
“I want to go to the apartment then.”
“You sure? You don’t have bad memories there?”
“I have more good ones than bad,” I said, shrugging. “What?” I asked when I caught her sending me a sideways look.
“Um. Well… let’s just see the place first, okay?” she asked, stubbornly keeping her gaze out the windshield so I couldn’t try to read her.
It wasn’t a long ride anyway.
And before I knew it, we were pulling up front.
“Um… what’s going on?” I asked.
“That’s Andres and his crew,” Hope said, nodding.