Page 115 of Killer Kiss

“No,” he mumbled into the back of my neck, like a tantrum-throwing child.

But damn, he was cute.

But there was no way around it. I had to go home eventually. I couldn’t hide here in Augie’s little love nest where we’d been holed up for days, ignoring the rest of the world and the horrible things that happened in it.

In here, it was just me and him.

I wanted to stay in it forever.

Augie’s phone buzzed on the nightstand, and I took it as an opportunity to escape. I picked it up to toss it at him and paused, noticing the text message preview on the screen. I shook his arm. “Why is that private investigator saying you owe him two thousand dollars?”

Augie blinked open one eye and squinted at me in the morning sunlight. “Him again? Don’t worry about it.” He reached for the phone.

I held it out of his reach, worry erasing some of my happy glow. “Do you owe him money? Fuck, Augie! I told you he had connections. You have to pay him.”

Augie flopped an arm over his eyes. “He’s a low-level nothing and all talk with his ‘Pay up or I’ll take this further,” bullshit. He didn’t even produce the information he was supposed to get, just sent us on a wild-goose chase. I’m not paying him.”

Unease settled inside me, but I wasn’t Augie’s keeper. He was a full-grown man and could make his own decisions. We’d barely been a couple for forty-eight hours; I didn’t want to start nagging him like a whiny girlfriend already.

I had enough problems of my own that needed dealing with anyway.

Riddick and my mother being the top two.

I loved Augie. I couldn’t keep running in circles, trying to keep both sides of my life from exploding into each other.

I had to get ahead of it.

Take back control over my own damn life.

I got dressed while the PI and Augie text argued. I kissed his lips, and he mumbled something about I better be coming straight back.

I smiled against his mouth. “Nowhere else I’d want to be.”

I meant it.

We needed to stop hiding. I needed to tell my mother and my brother and Augie’s friends about Fawn. I knew we’d never get her body back. Eddie would dispose of it so he couldn’t be linked back to his crimes. But over the past two days, Augie and I had talked a little, making some plans for a memorial service.

We all needed closure.

And Fawn needed to be laid to rest.

It was all I could do for my sister now.

I pushed the thought away, unwilling to cry anymore. I didn’t know how my body wasn’t bone-dry after all the breakdowns I’d had in Augie’s arms. It had left me with a raging headache and sore eyes, but there was something cathartic in the not wondering.

In knowing she was no longer suffering at Eddie’s hands.

Revenge would come later.

Scythe and I would see to that.

But first our sister needed to be laid to rest.

“I’ve got to go to the club for a bit today anyway. Eve is going to fire me if I call in sick again, and she needs to know…” His voice was heavy.

I paused. “Do you want me to come with you? If you wait ’til I go home and get changed…” But I didn’t want to. It was going to be hard enough to tell my brother. I’d barely pulled myself together, I wasn’t sure I could take too many more hits in such a short space of time.

Augie seemed to know it. “I need to be the one to tell the others at the club. You go get what you need and then come back.”

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