Page 11 of Seduce & Destroy

“I don’t know, Laney.”

She had no part in this operation, she chose to be a homemaker, a mother and wife. A soft home for her family to grow, a haven from the taint of bloodshed. Wasn’t it inscribed in the mafia oath that women and innocents wouldn’t be harmed? She was meant to be safe.

“Let me,” I stood taller, confident. “Let me, at least, say goodbye…please.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t let you do that.” Grant said, and with a weak smile on his lips stepped backward in the direction he came from.

“Please.” I halfway whined, tears dripping on the concrete.

He simply shook his head and left me there.

My tightened posture deflated, and I bent through my knees to fall to the floor. But before I hit the floor, a hand grabbed my arm. The grip was softer than I would expect from either man. I turned sharply to look at who was holding me, and I paused. Suddenly, the hand on my arm felt warm, and I felt myself relax a little, a kind reprieve from the tension of this week.

“Laney,” she said softly, herself appearing shaken as her voice cracked. “I heard she was your friend.”

God swallow me whole.

Without warning, I folded my arms around Kenna’s shoulders, seeking comfort. I nestled in further, placing my face neatly into the curve where her neck and shoulder met. The smell of old fruit juice clung to her. She might not remember me, but I know her, and I took advantage of it. I’m not strong enough to jog her memory—not even strong enough to correct her.

Tilly Morden was not only my dearest family, but also my closest family outside Grandfather. My world was devoid of colour without them.

My heartbeat erratically and for a moment, I didn't even feel Kenna’s arms circle around my waist, but when it finally registered, I shivered and cried harder.

“I’m sorry,” I retracted, dropped my arms and faced in the direction of my bedroom. Leading a sheltered life meant that I didn’t know intimacy like most my age, and while Kenna didn’t feel foreign to me, her touch did. Isolation was the only thing I knew to be safe.

I sniffled and started on the path back to solitude. Everyone was leaving me. I couldn’t help but feel like it was personal.

“Please don’t,” she said, and I paused. “I don’t want to be alone.”

She came to stand beside me, and we walked back into the main house together. Words were hard to find. There was so much to be said in moments like these but also nothing at all. For now, I wanted to just feel. I wasn’t sure there was a guidebook on losing your cousin and grandfather within a week anyway.

It wasn’t okay. It wasn’t right. It just was, and I had no control over any of it. What if tomorrow another body shows up? This couldn’t become a routine. But there were holes in the story that were yet to be filled that I needed to reclaim even an inch of sanity. “You found her, right?”

“Yeah,” Kenna slowly nodded. “I can’t unsee it. She was perfectly still, laying among the leaves. Beautiful even.”

“Vibrant hair, piercing blue eyes.” I smiled.

When we got to my bedroom door, she opened it for me. “But she was pale and…” Her face soured, “...leaking.”

A shudder racked my body.

“It was horrific.” I wanted her to stop and go on at the same time. My poor friend. I need you.

“You shouldn’t have seen that through the gates, whoever brought her here to display is sickening.”

Her eyebrows scrunched. “Through the gates? No, Laney, she was inside the estate.”

“Inside?”

“About five feet from the fencing beyond the treeline, it was loo-”

Tears ceased as I processed this confusing information. It made no sense. I had motion capture-triggered alerts set up to notify me any time there was activity by the fencing. “Inside the gates.” Oh my god. I ran from my room to the office upstairs.

Kenna walked into the office moments after I did and sat to watch my every move, seemingly transfixed and curious. She said nothing.

“No one used those gates for days; we’re on lockdown.” I explained, turning on the PC. In moments, I disabled the locks on the computer and decrypted the files that hold the security footage.

Neenan came to the door after I found the correct tapes. He didn’t seem to bat an eye at the fact that Kenna was sitting there, and I pleaded with him to come right up to me to look at the screen. Reaching over my shoulder, he changed the playback speed to double time. And as I thought, the gates didn’t move.

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