Page 116 of Such a Good Girl

“He’s dead.”

“Fuck,” Kaylee whispered. “Fuck…”

I held her tighter against my chest. How the fuck had all of this happened? My head was spinning.

“What the fuck do we do now?” Rian hissed. “The cops will be all over us — we’re in the fucking temple, man. Nobody can know about this place.”

“It’s too late. Kaylee’s a cop,” Theo said.

“Not anymore, she isn’t,” I replied.

They looked at me with disbelief. I had no clue what to do, either.

“We gotta move him upstairs, at the very least,” Rian said. “Otherwise, we’re gonna have a whole lot of questions thrown our way.”

Kaylee lifted her head and nodded.

“He’s right,” she said, staring up at me.

“Let’s move him to Profane,” Theo suggested.

I looked at Kaylee and she nodded again. “That’s a good idea. I’ll help you stage the scene and then we’ll call the police.”

“Oh, thank fucking god,” Rian said, running a hand through his hair and heading upstairs. “I’ll go get a tarp.”

“Rian?” Kaylee called out.

“Yeah?”

“Turn off the fucking cameras first,” she said.

He nodded and disappeared.

An hour later, the three of us closed the heavy door to Profane and made one more quick trip to the door of the temple, pulling the heavy outer door closed to make it look like it never opened at all.

ChapterForty-Five

KAYLEE

Another hour later, and the place was crawling with cops.

Our story was that we’d found Joey inside Profane, his face smeared with white paint and a confession typed up on the notes app on his phone.

Everything was neatly tied up. With the killer off the streets, the case was now over. Hoskins and the Lieutenant were patting me on the back like I’d never left the force.

I wasn’t about to go back though. I had no interest in that.

“Good job,” Hoskins said, reluctantly. I knew he was only giving me credit because our boss was standing there. “You’ll surely get promoted now.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head. “I quit. I’m done. I’m going into private practice. This job isn’t for me, I’m sorry — I thought it was, but I was wrong.”

They looked at me in surprise.

“You’re a damned good cop, Kaylee. You sure about this? Anything I can say to change your mind?”

“No,” I said, as West walked up and put his arm around me. “You can send my last paycheck to my house.”

And with that, I lifted my chin and looked up at West, smiling up at him, his face a comforting beacon of safety.

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