Page 108 of Roses Are Dead
I bugged my eyes out at him. He was letting him off too easy. That little bastard knew things. I could feel it.
KC crowded me down the steps. I caught myself on the railing and stomped on the plywood someone laid at the bottom. “Don’t fucking push me, I’ll?—”
The door cracked open slightly. Through the screen, the kid eyeballed me, then KC. “Did you find any bodies inside the house?” he asked with a tentative finger toward Carl’s house.
That took KC by surprise. But I’d searched the basement for that very thing. It was too fucking clean if you ask me. “Nope. Bet he bleached the place before we got there.”
The kid’s eyes went wide. “I think he did. He kills people, you know?”
KC sent me a warning with a finger raised behind his back. “People?” he asked more nicely than I ever could.
“Yeah. He had a girl there. She’s gone. And he killed our dog.”
Figured as much. “The girl’s fine. She’s with me.”
He breathed a visible sigh of relief. His little shoulders slumped with it. “Good. She was nice to me. I thought for sure he was going to slit her throat or something.”
That wasn’t Carl’s style.
“Who else did he kill?”
KC shushed me, but the kid answered anyway. “The mail lady. She used to bring mom’s checks to the door. But one day she talked to Carl and he got angry. Then the next day? Gone.” He ran a finger across his throat.
“She could have retired or something,” KC said.
“No man, you don’t know. He makes people disappear.” The kid looked around nervously, then slammed the door shut. The click of a deadbolt sounded first, then the snick of the handle lock.
“That was enlightening.” Not.
KC wasn’t as convinced. “Maybe we should go back in?” He did not want to. The hesitant way his eyes scanned the top windows of the house was a sure sign of fear.
A part of me had to admit there was a reason to be afraid. We’d scanned the neighborhood. Most of the houses had meager Halloween decorations planted randomly. Like a Jack-o-lantern on a front step, paper decorations taped inside of windows, some fake spiderwebs, but Carl’s house was pristine. It stood apart. Almost as if just the house itself was spooky enough to creep anyone out so it didn’t need decorating.
“I don’t like this,” he muttered.
Neither did I. He’d broken into my house, so I broke into his. Just for payback. An eye for an eye, break in for break in. Even though we’d met no resistance, my spine was crawling with warnings.
I put on a brave front and motioned at KC. “We did what we came to do. Let’s go.”
Once we got back to the clubhouse, Hammer caught me at the bar. “Fin’s looking for you.”
“He’s here?”
The prospect nodded. “Out back. He’s shooting the shit with Jackson.”
The man hated being trapped indoors. Strange as hell, but since he’d done his years, we put up with the quirks. I slipped out the back door by the kitchen.
Jackson’s wicked laughter flitted from the shadows. I followed it to find them sharing a joint. I wiggled my fingers for a hit. Once I had it between my fingertips, I inhaled deeply.
“Save some for the rest of us.” I lifted my middle finger to tell them to wait their turn.
I sucked in a bite of air before handing it back. My lungs protested, but I stifled the coughing fit until I caught that first rush of tingling at the tip of my nose which meant the weed was working. I let go of the breath, blowing a light trail of smoke into the sky. “There you go, Odin.” I coughed. “Is that dirt weed?” It was harsher than our shit.
Fin shrugged. “It came from Snake’s old patch.”
Jackson coughed his hit out. “I thought you burned that shit down.”
“I did. It grew back. Kid saw it and started messing with the tops. That got his woman all pissy, and she took over. It ain’t all bad now.”
