Page 73 of Good and Gone

“Three—we need to lie low where the authorities are concerned. No need to have them do any unnecessary digging, not when my dad has human remains on his property and the DA is still deciding on which charges to file against me.”

She nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t sure. I could tell she was likely going to wait until morning and call Barry, anyway. We argued about it and then I went to bed. Hailey tossed and turned all night.

“I want to see Reese,” Lily says, bringing me back to the present moment. “NOW. I want to see Reese. NOW!”

"Reese is going to stay with her grandparents."

"I hate this!" Lily starts screaming then, and she doesn't stop until she finally tires and passes out in our bed.

Once it's quiet again, I catch Hailey staring at me for a second before turning back to her task. “I can’t help feeling like this is all my fault.”

“It’s not.”

“I don’t think Kenneth was selling babies, Ty. I just don’t.” She walks over to the closet and flings the door open. “And I can’t help but think he died for nothing.”

“Who knows,” I reply, thinking,how can you ever really know anyone?“But either way—this isn’t your fault. You didn’t kill him.”

“Maybe I kind of did.”

“I was there. He said he’d ask around. Kenny wasn’t stupid. If they killed him, they had a reason.”

“I don’t know…”

“We may never know.”

“Yeah, and now that little girl is without two parents.”

“This is not your fault,” I say again, this time through gritted teeth.

“I sent him into a trap, Ty.”

“You don’t know that.”

I walk toward her and put my hands on her hips and pull her toward me. "Everything's going to be okay. We'll get through this."

I feel her body relax into mine, and I kiss her. "I love you," I say, and I know what she's thinking. She's thinking about all the things she should and shouldn’t have done. “Barry Coburn is right,” she sighs. “I shouldn’t have tried to play amateur detective.”

“That’s not what he said.”

“It’s what he meant.”

“Well, maybe if he would have done his job—”

“Can we trust him, though? I mean, is the witness protection program really necessary?” she huffs. “It’s not like people won’t recognize me. The internet is everywhere, Tyler. It’s not like my face isn’t out there…”

“What elsecanhe offer us?” I say. “He sucks at his job. He can’t tell us who’s behind this. No one’s going to jail, and everyone’s dying.”

“I don’t think it’s that hecan’ttell us,” she says. “I think it's that hewon’t.”

“You’re not suggesting that there’s corruption involved?” I say trying to lighten the mood.

“I get that I’m not supposed to think too hard about any of it,” she answers sarcastically. “But once you see it, it’s not like you can unsee it.”

“I know. But you also can’t get yourself killed over it, either. And you’ve seen that happen. We all have.”

She looks at me with sadness in her eyes and then glances around the room. She’s thinking about everything that went into making this place a home and what it will mean to leave it all behind.

"It doesn't have to be forever," I tell her. "We can just get away for a while. See how this all shakes out..."

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