Page 93 of Love Sick

“What happens now?”

Alanna peers over her shoulder at a very dead Noah. “We clean up our mess first.”

She gently removes the needle from my arm, placing a bandage over it. She does the same to Luna before disposing of the medical waste like she would in a hospital.

I’m still a little dizzy, but when I walk over to Noah, I snap the fuck into action. “We bury him?”

She nods.

I grip the back of the chair and drag his ass through the house toward the greenhouse. Alanna unlocks the door and we trek through the torrential rain and winds toward the wooded area.

Dragging a corpse tied to a chair in the pitch black and through mud is as fun as it sounds, but when we get far enough, I drop the chair onto the ground.

Alanna turned back around while I was walking and I see why when she returns with a shovel in hand. She offers it to me, and I begin digging a grave.

Digging a grave isn’t as quick or easy a task as they make it seem in the movies. But I continue because it’s two graves I’ll be digging.

“How did Noah know about this house? He told me he dealt to Misha. If this house has been in your family, then why did he have access to it?”

“He helped Daddy.”

“Helped him how?” I hate to think of what his help entailed because I remember what he did to that poor girl in the tunnels.

Everything begins to make sense.

Daddy was the one calling the shots and I wonder if maybe Bobby is somehow connected to him.

“This world is full of monsters, Dutch. You think I’m one of them, but I’m not.”

I don’t ask any more questions because I can join the dots. I always wondered why Alanna didn’t fire Noah’s ass, but it seems she wasn’t the one pulling the strings.

I suddenly remember the attic and the childlike drawings on the wall. “Did Daddy lock you in the attic?”

I can read her discomfort instantly.

I then wonder if that is where she still sleeps, as I’ve not seen “her” room.

“That motherfucker.” No wonder she’s so fucked up.

I continue digging two graves, and we don’t speak another word.

Daddy and Noah are buried in shallow graves out back. It should be over. But it’s far from.

Kyle is a witness and Alanna knows that if she lets him go, he’ll go to the police. So he’s upstairs, playing with Bobby.

Luna still hasn’t woken. She lies in bed, asleep. And I’ve not left her side.

Alanna has brought some medical supplies over and hooked her up to an IV. I know she’s doing this because we made a promise and I don’t intend to go back on my word.

Alanna is checking Luna’s vitals, and I hate that I don’t look at her with utter contempt.

I can’t.

She saved Luna’s life.

That doesn’t erase all the shitty things she’s done, but it’s hard to see her as a monster when she saved the life of the person I love.

I’m beyond exhausted, but I can’t sleep.

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