Page 76 of Good and Gone

“Then you shouldn’t have come,” Tyler tells him.

“I’m sorry,” he says. His voice shakes when he speaks. “I didn’t have a choice. They’ll kill me.”

My eyes narrow. “Whowill kill you?”

“The others. The men I work for—they’re looking for you.”

“And what?” My breath catches. I trip on my words. “They sent you?”

“Not exactly,” he tells me, but before he can say more, Tyler pulls the trigger.

“What the fu—”

He shrugs. “You were asking too many questions.”

I look down at Dr. Robert Moore, who is lying in a pool of blood. “You just shot him!”

“Yes, honey. That was the plan.”

“He was in the middle of a story. He wastalking!

“He was a liar like the rest of them,” Tyler says. “And frankly, talk is cheap.”

I stand there for a moment looking at the crimson wading pool our driveway is becoming. Tyler is standing over Robert Moore with his hands on his hips, hopefully plotting his next move better than he did the last one. We never discussed killing anyone in our driveway.

“These things never go as planned,” he says.

“I thought we’d at least get answers before you pulled the trigger.”

“He worked for a human trafficking ring, Hailey. What more do you need to know?”

“Names, for one.”

“He wasn’t going to give them up. They never do.”

I sigh, long and heavy. “So what now?”

“Now we get the shovel.”

“What about his car?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Then what?”

“Thenwe keep our mouths shut,” he says. “Robert Moore was never here. We never saw him. We don’t know him from Adam.”

“If he can find us, Ty,anyonecan.”

“So let them.”

“You can’t just shoot everyone.”

“I won’t have to,” he says. “Eventually, they’ll take the hint and they’ll stop coming.”

“God, I hope you’re right.”

“Tell the kids to stay in their rooms.”

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