Page 25 of The Arrangement

“What did you do with the clothes?” he asked.

“They’re in the wash.”

He nodded.

I lowered my voice and stepped a bit closer. “I’m going to take my shower. You need to put the lattice back. You left it lying in the yard.”

He cursed under his breath. “I was waiting to put it back until I gave you a chance to double-check that I’d done everything okay. Did Dylan notice?”

“He’s the one who told me. Not only did he notice, but I’m sure Micah’s parents did too when they dropped him off. You could’ve at least set it back in place. You knew any of the kids could’ve come home at any moment. How could you be so stupid?”

He stalked past me, refusing to argue, and slammed the front door behind him. I sighed, already amped up for a fight, but gave up, heading down the hall myself. I needed to wash away all evidence of our night. I needed to sink into the darkness again.

Chapter Sixteen

PETER

It was my worst nightmare, living with what we’d done. I tossed and turned the entire night, replaying the evening’s events over and over in my head.

The day had started out so normal; how had things gone so wrong? How would I ever sleep again knowing the evidence that I was a murderer was buried just outside? That anyone could find it at any time? Every night for the rest of my life, every single day, I’d be reminded that I was a killer. That I’d killed a man. That I’d killed a cop. That I’d killed a cop in front of my wife.

She’d never forget it. She’d never unsee what I’d done. She must’ve hated me. How had I let us get here? Why had I ever let her go out with that monster? How would I ever be able to breathe again? How would we survive this?

There was a time when I was sure my secret about the other women would destroy me, but this was so much worse. That was an eyelash stuck in the corner of my eye, mildly painful and obtrusive, annoying as all hell, but I could live with it. And I had. This…the fact that Ainsley had watched me become a monster before her very eyes, the fact that there was a dead body buried just outside our front door…it was a scalding hot poker to my insides, the scraping and pulling of all my muscles in opposite directions. It burned and stung and made it impossible to breathe, impossible to think of anything else.

How would I continue living? The idea of going to work on Monday, of facing coworkers, facing my children, while I had no control over who might come snooping around, what wild animal might catch the scent on the wind and dig up the body… It was too much to bear. I couldn’t go to prison. I needed to be here for my kids. I needed to be here for my wife.

I rolled over for the eightieth time, pulling the covers out from under my side. When I looked to Ainsley’s side of the bed, I jumped, sucking in a breath. She was lying there, awake, eyes open and staring straight at me. She had a determined look in her eyes I knew well.

“You need to calm down,” she said softly, her tone firm.

“How am I supposed to be calm right now?” I asked. “How are you calm?”

“I’m not calm,” she said, “but I know that if we don’t at least seem calm, we’re going to get caught.”

“What did you do with the…er, the bat?”

“I bleached it. Tomorrow, I’ll take it with me on my way to work and drop it in a dumpster downtown.”

“Do you think it’s okay to leave…him…where he is? Will he start to…stink or—”

“We don’t have a choice right now,” she cut me off. “He’s there, and for all we know, that’s okay. You think he’s down deep enough, right? To hide the smell?”

“How should I know?” I asked, my hands shaking again. “It’s not like I have any experience digging graves to know how deep the bodies should be buried.”

“Did you bury him deeper than you buried Scout?”

The kids' beloved German Shepard that had died two years ago. I swallowed at the thought. That day was painful. This day was unbearable.

“I think so. Maybe. At least as deep. A few feet.”

She sighed, displeased with my answer.

“It’ll have to do for now.”

“What will we tell the police if they come asking questions? What am I supposed to tell Gina about why I left the…er…the meeting?”

Her eyes narrowed at me slightly. “Tell Gina, or Beckman, or anyone else that I got sick and needed you to come home. And why would the police come around asking questions here?”

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