Page 50 of Darkest Retribution

When he lies on the bed next to her, I can’t take it anymore. I slam the window shut and walk away, running my hand over my mouth. As I move through my bedroom, I don’t let myself think. Not when I grab my gun, not when I attach the silencer, and not when I head out into the dark night.

Her front door is unlocked, so I let myself in quietly. As I move up the stairs, I listen for their conversation, but all I hear is silence.

The door to Jade’s bedroom is slightly ajar. I nudge it open with my foot, peering inside.

Jade is sitting on the bed by herself, wrapped up in a white sheet. When she sees me, she doesn’t even bother to pretend to be surprised. Instead, her gaze lands on the gun in my hand, and then she nods to the bathroom.

It makes me wonder what type of person she is that seeing an angry man with a gun doesn’t even phase her.

“You’d better be willing to deal with the body,” is all she says.

“What was that?” the guy calls from the bathroom.

Before the words are even out of his mouth, I shove open the bathroom door and step inside. He barely even has a chance to look at me before I’m pulling the trigger, aiming directly for his head.

He falls back into the claw foot tub as blood sprays the wall behind him. His body sags into the tub, his legs hanging over the edge as blood flows toward the drain.

At least cleanup will be easy.

I set my weapon on the counter, stepping up to the tub. I grab the bottle of body wash sitting on the shelf, rinsing it in the sink to get the blood off. When I move back into the bedroom, Jade is still sitting on the bed, looking completely unbothered.

I’d expect a normal woman to yell and cry, to claim they thought my threat was empty. But Jade doesn’t. No, she just sits there, examining her freshly-painted black fingernails, and it plays into my theory that she’s far from normal.

She looks up when I come to stand in front of her. “Unless you want more blood on your hands, I suggest you start fucking me regularly, grumpy.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Not even going to deny you did this on purpose, huh?”

“Don’t see the point. I’ll repeat this as many times as necessary.”

That should probably be a red flag. But instead, it’s a relief. Jade’s date isn’t the first person I’ve killed, and he probably won’t be the last. At least Jade won’t be horrified by me when the truth comes out.

If we ever get that far.

“Get up.”

She narrows her eyes at me, but after a second, she stands. I grab her hand, pulling her out of the room and down the hallway. In Rosie’s bathroom, I flip on the light, dropping Jade’s hand so I can reach in and turn on the shower.

“What are you doing?”

“Washing him off of you. Get in.” I set the body wash on the ledge of the shower before undoing my pants and shoving them down.

To my surprise, she doesn’t fight me. The sheet drops to the floor, and she pulls the shower curtain back before stepping in. I follow shortly, throwing my shirt and boxers to the floor.

She turns to face me, and I expect her gaze to travel south, but her eyes stay locked with mine. Even as I start scrubbing her body with the soap and a cloth I found on the shelf above the toilet, she continues watching my face.

When I push her under the water, rinsing the suds off her body, she finally speaks.

“I’m not dealing with the body.”

“Not expecting you to.”

I turn her around so her back is pressed to my front, water streaming down her torso. Gently, I reach in between her legs, parting her. She jumps.

“Relax, Jade. I’m not fingering you in your niece’s shower. Just getting you clean.”

“Didn’t want to strip down in front of a corpse?” She turns her head to look at me, our faces infuriatingly close. “Wimp.”

“He’sinyour tub, Jade.”

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