Page 125 of Corrupting Ivy

I exhaled with exhaustion. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“Good luck.” He turned and walked towards the other team, stripping their gear and getting into the other SUV.

“There’s not enough room for you, guys.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Alek said, stripping off his vest and pulling it over his head as he walked by me.

I slid into the truck, then pulled onto the road, and made our way to the first decent hotel in Helena.

My body ached from the punches he landed against my ribs, not to mention exhausted.

Parking in the pull-through for the hotel, I reached over and touched her shoulder. “Wait here, I’ll be back.”

Ivy tore her gaze from the window, where she’d been looking for the last three hours, and nodded, then stared back out the window. She hadn’t said a word, and I was beginning to wonder if, this time, I really broke her just like Remy said I would.

I walked inside to the smell of breakfast and the dozen simultaneous conversations, creating chaos in the air.

The older woman with crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes, graying braided hair pulled to the side, and lipstick smeared on her teeth checked me in.

I took my keycard she’d handed me then walked back to my truck.

“I’m coming for you, sweet girl,” she said as I slipped into my seat. “I didn’t get this until just now.”

She sat with her phone in her hands, staring at the message I’d written right after I’d gotten hers.

“And I did.”

“And you did,” she whispered, repeating my words.

She rolled her lips and kept them tight as I found a space close to the doors. I had asked for a room on the first floor, closest to the back door. The last thing we needed was for someone to comment on her abused cheeks, making her relive it all.

I slid the keycard into place and opened the hotel room for her. She walked into the bathroom without a word and shut the door. The water hitting the bottom of the tub created a blanket of white noise in a relatively quiet room. I put her key card on the counter and then knocked on the bathroom door.

When she didn’t respond, I knocked again. “I’m going out. I’ll be right back.”

Still no response.

I sighed, then left.

Death was a normal part of my life like it is to a mortician or doctor. The difference being I’m the one doing the taking.

I expected her to be upset, but for her to shut down all together wasn’t something I could’ve predicted.

Driving to the local Target, I picked out a set of clothes for both her and me, then went to the fast-food diner around the corner, even though they served breakfast right now at the hotel. The idea of fast food sounded more appealing than the crap they put out for everyone to touch.

I pulled into the hotel parking lot and parked.

My phone buzzed, and I answered it on the second ring.

“Yeah?”

“They dropped him off at the hospital. Diego told me Talon claimed it was a hunting accident, and they didn’t even bat an eye,” Jake said.

That was one loose end we didn’t need to clean up.

“Good to hear. Keep tabs on him. Just to make sure he doesn’t develop loose lips.”

“Okay.”

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