Page 104 of Kylo
“Too?” my grandmother said, tone sharp. “What do you mean ‘too?’ Did someone come for you?”
“Yes. The house is completely wrecked. But Ernest and I managed to hide in the crawl space.”
“I once hid in there when my mother-in-law came to visit,” my grandmother admitted. “Your grandfather assumed he missed me heading out to the store.”
“What happened when you came out?”
“Oh, she was long gone. And your grandfather was snoring on the davenport. I got cleaned up and put dinner on before he snorted himself awake.”
“Was she that bad?” I asked. “Your mother-in-law?”
“I named my sharpest cactus after her.”
“Is he…” I started, looking at Kylo when he came into the room once again.
“Gone,” Kylo said. “Marco is gone, Rue.”
“Marco?” I asked, shooting to my feet. “It was Marco?”
“Yeah. Guess he didn’t trust anyone else to do something so important. Look, ladies, I can deal with this body.”
He could?
“You can?” I asked.
“But I need a way to get it out of this room without arousing suspicion.”
“Oh, we had that all worked out,” Barbie said.
“Oh, yeah? What was the plan?”
“Well, there were two options,” Loretta interjected. “One involved a bath for the body and my wheelchair. People get pushed around the building all the time at all hours.”
It didn’t seem like a terrible idea to me.
“And the other one?” Kylo asked.
“We steal one of the laundry carts,” Katherine said.
“That could work,” Kylo decided. “To be fair, they both could. But I like the idea of the body being hidden more.”
“Well, I can go get a cart,” my grandmother volunteered.
“What about the cameras seeing you—no?” I asked when she shook her head.
“Oh, please. This isn’t the first time she stole a laundry cart,” Barbie said, waving off my concerns.
“What? How is this the first I’m hearing of it?”
My grandmother had a whole crazy life I knew nothing about.
“Story for another day, my dear. I have to go steal a cart.”
With that, she and Barbie went into the hall. Katherine and Loretta got back to work on the kitchen, erasing any sign that a man had died there.
“Is it really over?” I asked Kylo.
“I don’t want to promise you that until we look into it more. But having the leader gone definitely gives us at least a window to make sure everyone is safe.”
