Page 59 of The Player

“Fuck right, I am. But you aren’t wrong; we need to stop Bryson.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I’m a lucky bastard that Julie isn’t kicking my ass out. She would be in her right to tell me to hit bricks, but I am glad she isn’t. It just wouldn’t go over well for me. Julie doesn’t even have a clue what real stalking is about. The idea of losing her and Lennox is enough to drive me into the psychotically insane category.

Carrying her down the stairs, she has her arms hooked around my neck. “Do you have to carry me? I’m capable of getting down the stairs myself.”

“Let me carry you, Ju-Ju. It’s not a hardship.” Hell, not even my knee could make me stop carrying her. She doesn’t need to walk when I have arms that can move her from place to place.

“I do enjoy being in your arms. It’s that I don’t want you to get tired.” She’s always thinking about others. It endears me even further to her. Not that I’m already completely gone over her.

When we get down to the kitchen, I quickly turn around and walk back to the living room. Bryson has already killed Josh. He took the knitting hook from his side and stabbed him in the eye. Fuck.

“Ju-Ju, I need you to sit down in here until…” I trail off as she searches my eyes.

“He already ended Josh’s life, didn’t he?” Her words are barely audible, but I read her lips.

“Yes. I know you didn’t want that to happen, but it’s probably for the best.” I’m expecting Julie to have a fit and tell me we are calling the police.

Instead, she closes her eyes for a moment and shrugs. When she opens those beautiful brown eyes at me, I see the resolve in her. “It’s fine. Do what you need.”

Julie’s acceptance means the world to me, especially since it’s Bryson’s life on the line too. If it were mine, I’d turn myself over in a heartbeat if it meant Julie was happy.

Taking my time to place her in the chair and kiss her, I memorize the way she moans into my mouth. Yeah, we will be doing that later. Right now, I’ve got a body to hide and evidence to destroy.

* * *

I left Julie over at Kaylee’s and she agreed to take Lennox to the bed and breakfast for the night. It was hard to let her go, but I knew I had to for now. In the back of my mind, I keep seeing her turn me over to the police, but they never come.

“We are fucking screwed if anyone finds him,” I tell Bryson, who looks at me as he sweeps the glass into the pile of trash.

“Once we clean this part of the house up, we are going to dump it onto the fire. Then the body. He’ll be ash in no time. Whatever is left, we bury within the hole that we dug for the fire. Stop worrying, little brother.”

“Yeah okay, fucker, you try not worrying.” I raise an eyebrow at him, and he chuckles.

“Okay, fair enough. Let’s just clean.”

Bryson is a workhorse. We have the living room cleaned, and there’s not a trace of blood anywhere. I called the nearest window company, and they can’t get to us until tomorrow. I don’t even want to think of who might try to get into this place.

“You gonna sulk all day, or are you going to dig?”

Blinking, I look at my brother and shrug. “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about the fact I would have told anyone that said I’d be burning a body today that they were off their goddamn rocker.”

He laughs at me and throws wood into the hole. “You’ve dug far enough, brother. Hell, we are going to have the perfect cover. There’s a dead bird over there that we can bury a few feet down so that it throws anyone and anything off the trail.”

I don’t want to know how my brother knows how to do this. Nor do I want to think about the little thrill that I have at doing this with him. Should I be going to a therapist? Fuck, probably. But I won’t.

By the time the sun rises, I’m sitting down on the couch, looking out the shattered window, seeing the fire winking out. Bryson stirs next to me and moans.

“It’s too early to be up, Aaron. Go to bed.”

I chuckle. “I haven’t been asleep, Bry. While you were snoring, I cleaned the entire house and watched the fire all night to make sure nothing would get close to the house.”

“Shit man, you are more paranoid than I am. And that’s not a compliment.”

Guilt runs through me for a moment. “I’m sorry for whatever you went through, bro.”

“Shut up. That’s not why I said that. I’m just saying relax. We will make this all disappear. Take a deep breath, get you some sleep, and I’ll take care of burying the remains.”

---