Page 33 of Wicked Sins

My skin goes cold, then hot. Pressure builds in my head, as if my skull’s about to explode.

“I love you so much,” she says.

But I heard her wrong. She hates me, just like I hate her.

Right?

Pain slices through my head. “You don’t love me,” I say.

“I do. I love you so much.” She presses her face into my chest. “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t leave me, Mr. Bale. I promise I’ll be good this time.”

My rocking slows…stops.

She’s delusional. In shock.

Alex comes through the door with a bundle in his arms, and gently closes it behind him. When I look up at him, he surges away so fast that his back hits the door. He lifts both hands, the clothes he’d bundled up falling to the floor.

“I tried to stop them,” he chokes out.

I tamper down the urge to tear him limb from limb and instead slowly get to my feet. Candy makes a soft sound that turns my heart to stone.

“Get out.”

Alex nods, and disappears out the door.

I dress Candy, watching her face and her eyes as I maneuver her limbs into the clothing Alex found. But I still manage to see the damage they did.

There are marks on her body—scratches and bruises and streaks of blood.

I’ll have to clean her up before I sneak her home.

If that’s even possible. I’m sure I woke the whole house when I left.

I sit there for a moment, Candy silent and unmoving beside me. Sleeping.

A corpse.

Can’t go home. Can’t takeherhome.

My phone vibrates. “Hello?”

“Looks like the cops are coming after all,” Alex says, sounding wary, as if he’s worried I’ll be pissed at him for interrupting.

“Can you help me?”

“What do you need?”

“Bring my car around the back, close to the garage as you can.”

I’ve been in Sean’s house before. Came here to drop off notes for him when he was off sick for like three weeks. His mother invited me into the kitchen for milk and cookies like I was five years old, but I felt too bad to say no.

I was a fucking pushover back then. That was before Mom died. Before Candy arrived. When everything was still hunky-dory.

With luck on my side, I can get Candy out through the kitchen without anyone seeing, if the kids are already scattering like I’m sure they are.

---