Page 87 of Crawl
“You don’t have to be with me,” he says, tossing his head to the side. “You can still go. I’ll take the blame. All of it.”
He thinks I don’t want to be with him?
“Are you lying?” I ask. I’m not sure if I’m teasing him, or if I’m serious. It just seems like a strange thing for him to say. I literally just killed for him, and he’s questioning me?
His eyes meet mine. “Not about this,” he says.
I look down at my lap. “It’s pretty safe to assume that we’re in this together.”
Cash takes my hand and holds it. It’s such a small sign of affection, and completely unlike him, but I like it. He’s being vulnerable with me. My heart swells, and I know this is right for us.
“He has the surveillance footage?” he asks.
I nod. “He hacked my computer or something.”
Cash laughs. “That’s not legal without the proper warrants.”
“He didn’t seem to care.”
Cash bows his head, thinking it through. “I’ll get rid of the evidence. After that, we run wherever you want.”
It seems surreal. Getting rid of the evidence. Going on the run. The fact that I’m even considering all of this is strange, like I’m settling into a new life. It’s crazy. Just like Cash and me.
“I know someone in Central Florida who can get rid of these cars for us, but we still gotta clean them up before we can take them there,” he says.
“And the bodies?”
“You let me worry about that.”
I open my mouth to question him, but he shakes his head.
“Don’t worry, little cure,” he says. “You don’t have to worry about any of that anymore.” He elbows me in my shoulder. “Trust me.”
I swallow hard and Cash squeezes my hand. So much in my life has been about never trusting anyone. But somehow, I trust Cash.
Those dark freckles beam down at me, holding me up, and it’s like I’m crawling toward him all over again.
“We’re going to go somewhere else where we can forget that this ever happened.”
Tears well up in my eyes, but I blink, holding them back. I’m scared. I don’t know what the world is like when you’re a fugitive, and no matter how hard I try, I know I’ll never forget everything that happened here.And I don’t want to.I want to remember every moment here. When Cash choked me with a noose. When he made me crawl until my knees bled. When he fucked me with a knife, so desperate to make me come that he cut his own hand. The same place where I chose Cash over everything right in the world. Just like he chose me.
Cash kisses me on the lips, a softness lingering in his touch, and for once, I don’t feel dread. I feel relief. And that holds me up.
***
Cash
Back at the estate, we shower, then I hold her in Winstone’s giant bed. I don’t close my eyes until I hear her heavy breaths. The only way I can let myself relax is by making sure she’s relaxed first. She calms me.
In the morning, I leave a note on the side table:Unfinished business. Back soon. —C.I kiss her forehead, and I’m gone.
In the parking lot, I shoot the detective’s guns a few times, debating whether to make it look like a shootout occurred between him and the hostages. But the detective’s body is bruised to shit, and that won’t pass with the other cops. Luckily, most of the blood washed away with the storm. I chop them all up, throwing them into garbage bags. I’ll get rid of them on the way out of the Keys. I clean the rest of the detective’s blood off of his car. Winstone owns the property, so there’s no reason for anyone to know that this spot is here.
I pick the lock at the detective’s house, then access his computer. His software connects to Remedy’s laptop, giving him remote access, and it looks like he recorded some clips too. I smile to myself; Remedy must have watched our footage together, then. Next, I wipe his computer clean. I doubt what he did is legal, but as long as he didn’t send the footage to anyone else, we’ll be okay.Remedywill be okay.
Booting up his computer again, I access the dark web, paying for evidence that will link the detective to a human trafficking ring, then order a victim for rape and kill, using my own untraceable cryptocurrency. To everyone else, he’ll look like he’s a piece of shit who disappeared once he knew he was going to get caught. The police will never touch Remedy, and she’ll believe that he deserved to die. I don’t have any guilt, but for now, she still feels things. She doesn’t like what she did to the detective, so this is the least I can do for her.
I dial the police on a burner phone, tilting my head as I wait for them to answer.
