Page 76 of Montana Falls
“I shot her in the shoulder. A through and through that would hurt like a motherfucker and bleed a lot. I never shot her in the heart.”She’d dropped his shirt and offered him her phone, showing the screen to him.“You need to go here. Now.”
“I know this place. We’ve been before.”He’d the read the page as we’d all stood around, waiting for a translation.“Why the fuck do I need to go to a funeral home?”
“I don’t know, I’m just the messenger – now get lost and do it. I’ve been awake far too long and I’m tired.”She’d glared athim a little.“I’m borrowing your bed. Don’t wake me up if you come back unless the house is on fire.”
“If you were in a burning building, I’d let you fucking choke because you just said you shot my fucking girlfriend.”Kody had snapped back before Rika had left, heading into his bedroom with her middle finger pointed at him.
He’d roughly translated their conversation, as he’d ordered us all to hurry the fuck up and leave. And now we were driving to a fucking funeral home at three in the morning because Rika had told Kody we needed to go.
Miguel’s place specifically. Where we’d burned some bodies not so long ago in some ways, an eternity in others.
The gravel crunched under the tires as we pulled into the parking lot; the building sitting eerily still at the end of it. The faint porch light cast long shadows across the ground, making everything look even more sinister, more wrong.
I killed the engine and just sat there, staring at the place. No one moved. No one spoke. None of us knew why we were here or what we were supposed to do.
In the back seat, Lincoln let out a quiet groan, rubbing his face like he was waking up from a nightmare. He had drunk more than the rest of us combined, something I’d never seen him do before. Lincoln never lost control. He was the one who held it together, who picked up the pieces when the rest of us fell apart. But tonight? He had shattered, just like the rest of us.
Kody sat next to me, his fists clenched so tightly in his lap I thought he might break his own fingers. His eyes were hollow, his face pale, but his jaw was set. He wasn’t letting the grief take him under—at least, not yet. But he also knew more of what Rika had told him, so I guessed he had something to make him less… less dead, I guessed.
I felt dead.
“Let’s go.” I ordered, my voice rough.
Misha and Price climbed out of the car silently, their faces grim, eyes glazed with a mixture of alcohol and exhaustion. Lincoln almost fell out, Kody following him and helping him stand upright. I got out last, the night air cold against my skin, sobering me just enough to feel the ache in my chest more acutely as we moved up the path, past the rows of gravestones scattered across the lot for people to look at.
Sapphire was going to need one. Beau wouldn’t be able to buy it.
Beau wasn’t alive either. He was gone.
Off with his matches, guns and knives, slaughtering his way through the darker sides of Diamond Grove and all the cities nearby, taking out anyone he deemed unworthy of another moment of life.
Off playing judge, jury and executioner in the way only a Montana could.
“Are we supposed to go inside?” I asked Kody. “Or just be here in general?”
“Dunno.” He shrugged as he looked around for signs of life. “Rika didn’t say shit other than come here.”
The front door loomed in front of us, dark wood polished to a sickening shine under the porch light. The last time we were here, it had been to get rid of a problem, and the memories of that night sat uneasily in my gut now. Not because of the murder or the fact it signified us going on the start of our adventure.
I’d kissed Sapphire. For real. Not just a thing we both pretended was a mistake. Not just a thing we lied about and said never happened.
My girl had admitted she liked me. I’d done the same. We’d started something that we would never get to finish.
“I guess I’ll knock.” I stopped in front of the door and tapped it three times, my hand trembling slightly as we waited.
The door creaked open. An inch or two, as the person checked who was there. Then all the way when they realized it was us.
I froze. My breath caught in my throat. Every single thing in the world lost all meaning, and I almost collapsed again, my knees going weaker than before.
“Mi sol,you look like you see a ghost.” Sapphire stood there in the doorway,alive. Breathing. Her short silver locks, messy and freshly washed, and her icy blue eyes—the eyes I thought I’d never see again—burned into mine with a soft, apologetic smile tugging at her lips. She looked tired, but she looked alive. Shewasalive.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t fucking breathe. The world tilted, and I grabbed hold of the door for support. She was supposed to be dead. I’d held her in my arms, covered in blood, felt her go cold. The doctors had said she was gone. That there was no coming back.
But there she was.
“Hi,” she said louder, for the other guys who were just as shellshocked as me, her voice soft, like this was all normal, like she hadn’t just torn our world apart. “I guess I should explain.”
I couldn’t think. Couldn’t process what she was saying, or why she was here, standing in front of us like she hadn’t been declared dead hours ago. All I knew was that she was here, and that was all that mattered.
