Page 68 of Capitol Matters

Shrugging him off, I stood and tipped my head to meet him at eye level. “I asked you for acid, not to wipe my ass for me. If you think I need that, then you’ve forgotten who I am.” I waggled my fingers, brandishing black lines ringing every digit.

The quiet between us grew tense. I kept the defiant tilt to my chin and hard edge to my eyes as I stared him down. Rather than concede or break the visual lock,Nash leaned into it.

“I know who you are, Fitch,” he said. “And it’s not what you think.”

I remained firm a fleeting moment more, then snorted a breath.

“Yeah well, I’m gonna get to it before that corpse starts to stink.” I stooped to collect the other two jugs of acid. “If the smell gets in the upholstery, it’s never coming out.”

I left the laboratory in less of a hurry than I would have liked, laden with several gallons of toxic fluid. I deposited those in Nash’s master bathroom, next to the clawfoot tub that would soon be the bowl for human soup.

Stomping down the stairs, I spotted Nash leaning over the second-floor railing, silently observing. It was a relief that Pippa wasn’t home. She preferred not to involve herself in criminal business but, when that business paraded itself through her house in the form of a dead body, she was as nosey as her brother.

Outside, the sun provided waning light as I lowered the tailgate and threw one leg up onto it to get a grip on Sleeping Beauty’s arms. I heaved backward, hauling her across the carpeted floor. She was short but must have outweighed me by almost a hundred pounds, judging by her girth.

I could have telekinetically walked her inside, but that worked differently with dead muscles. When the person wasn’t able to stabilize themselves, it became a game of micromanagement. Without a better option, I slid the woman’s bowling ball of a body off the tailgate. Shedropped onto the ground with a crunching thud that made my stomach twist.

Drawing a steeling breath, I looped my arms under hers, then waddled backward through the gravel and into the Bitters’ End.

The gears on the wall churned as I dragged Sleeping Beauty past. She slid more easily across the hardwoods, but the stairs remained ahead.

Reaching the base of the wrought iron spiral, I let the woman drop. Her disconnected head knocked hard against the floor.

When I bent back, hands on my hips as I stretched out a kink, Nash called from above, “You sure you don’t want me to do that?”

“I’m sure,” I replied, resituating my grip.

He grunted. “Stubborn ass.”

I rolled my eyes. “Eh, fuck you, too.”

“Anytime, babe.” His voice faded as he headed back toward the lab.

I waited till I heard the door close before turning my back to the lowest step and beginning the tedious ascent.

By the time I reached the top, my sides ached from straining, and I was panting. The tight, continuous turn had left no opportunity to take breaks without risking a comedic backslide with Sleeping Beauty bouncing off every step the whole way down. I laid her out then sank to sitting on the upper floor, casting a wary glance at the woman’s bulging eyes.

The emotional tumult of earlier returned, sweeping over me like a crashing wave. Rather than let it drag me into a dangerous undertow, I fought my way up, standingand grabbing the cadaver for the final leg of the journey into Nash’s bathroom.

I had to practically get beneath her to hoist her over the edge of the clawfoot tub, where she slid to the bottom and flopped onto her back, gaping up at me vacantly.

Pushing her head to one side, I shoved the rubber plug into the tub’s drain hole, then grabbed the first jug of acid.

I uncorked the bottle then paused, standing over her.

“I can’t just turn myself off like you can. It’s psychotic.”Donovan’s voice, and the disgusted look on his face, bobbed to the surface of my memory.

A sob surged up from my gut, and I clamped a hand over my mouth, doing what I could to keep it from escaping.

“If I can learn from my mistakes, I expect you to do the same.”Grimm’s disparaging words joined in the chorus that seemed to echo off the bathroom’s cold, tile walls.

Tears burned my eyes as I closed them, frozen in place while weakly clutching the open jug.

“They ruined something beautiful. Something I loved.”Holland’s nostalgic confession piled atop the others because why the hell not?

I forced my eyes open, freeing tears to run down my cheeks as I poured the bottle’s contents over Sleeping Beauty’s prone form.

Smoke rose, bringing a foul odor that choked me.

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