“Guess it’s a gift,” I joke with a half-smile. “And it comes in handy at work. Well, it did…”
“You’re a paralegal right?”
“You remembered,” I say in surprise.
“Of course I remembered,” Verek tells me with a grin. “You think I just came to visit you to talk about myself?”
“I thought you were just being nice,” I admit. “Since you sort of disappeared after I left the facility.”
“I told you – that was all Roman. You’re living in his house, and he’s my president. At least for the moment…”
“You think he’ll kick you out of the Kings for coming here with me?”
“I’m hoping he’ll see that we did him and the other guys a favor by keeping them out of it.”
“I hope so too. I’ll need to call Charlotte when we get back to the hotel so she won’t worry,” I say.
“You can’t call on the hotel phone, but I’ve got a burner you can use. It won’t be traced.”
“Okay, good,” I say, wondering if she’s found my bed empty and my note yet. It’s still early. “I want to hurry up and get this done so we can get out of here.”
“Me too,” Verek agrees. “Maybe you should hide in one of the rooms upstairs until he gets here?”
“No, not unless there’s a lock on the door,” I object.
“How about the ladies’ room? There’s no reason for him to ever go in there, and I can come get you when he’s down.”
“That may work,” I reply. “Walk me up?”
“Sure,” he says. “I’ll lead the way.”
I follow Verek up the stairs to the main floor, and we quickly find the women’s restroom. He even goes inside and looks in all three of the stalls before he starts to leave. “Stay here until I come and get you, okay?”
“Okay,” I agree since I don’t want to see Leroy, whichever one he was, again while he’s still breathing.
“Lock up behind me,” he adds on his way out the door, as if that wasn’t a given.
Chapter Seven
Verek
* * *
After I hear the lock click on the other side of the bathroom door, I go take a quick peek out in the parking lot to see if our next target has arrived yet.
He hasn’t. And luckily there are no other cars in the lot yet either. Guess Tessa was right. It’s a small town that doesn’t use the funeral home enough to need more than one full-time employee. If there are others, they probably only show up for events.
Dammit. I should’ve checked the local paper to see if there were any morning funerals today. In the summer, it would make sense that they would want to do them early, before it gets too hot at the graveside for the grieving friends and family.
But if Leroy, the cemetery worker, said he’s on his way without bringing any appointments up, I doubt they have anything this early.
I head on back downstairs before he shows up and gets a glimpse of me in the door. There’s a great hiding spot underneath the stairs that’s dark and deeply recessed. That’s where I wait not-so-patiently for the next man to appear. It hits me that this one I’ll be taking out before Tessa even gets a good look at him to confirm he was there that night. But Joey gave up Leroy’s name, and he’s obviously a close friend to ole Donnie. He has to be one of the four men. And if he’s not…he’s collateral damage.
In the silent building, I finally hear the door upstairs open and then close, sending my heartbeat into overdrive, sounding so loud in my head, I hope he doesn’t hear it.
“Donnie? You down here?” the man calls out before his footsteps are hurrying down the steps. “What’s going on, man? Are we in trouble?”
That right there is all I need to alleviate any guilt I had about him not being the right guy. Who thinks they’re in trouble unless they’ve done some horrible shit?
I wait until he comes around the corner of the stairs and walks past me before I lunge. Unlike Donnie, Leroy didn’t see me coming, so he doesn’t even put up a fight when I lock my right forearm over his neck and pull back on it with my left hand, compressing his throat.
“What the –” it sounds like he tries to yell, but his body is already starting to relax. The hands that tried to reach up and pry my arm from his neck suddenly drop.
“This is for Tessa,” I hiss in his ear. “Rot in hell, you sick bastard.”
The rest of his body goes slack, and that’s all she wrote as I lower him to the floor. At least I thought so before I check his neck for a pulse. There’s still one there, but it’s faint. Fuck! We need to move fast.
“All clear! Get down here!” I yell as loud as I can upstairs, rather than waste time going to get her since he may only be out for a few more seconds.
Thankfully, Tessa hears me. She jogs down the steps and comes right over to the crumpled body on the floor.
“This one of them?” I ask in a rush.
She reaches up to cover her mouth and then nods once. “Yes. He was…I think he was the driver, but he still got a few turns later, at the storage facility. After he left…teeth marks on my breasts and made me bleed, he helped them…put me in the…stocks.”
“Shh. It’s okay,” I say, taking her hand as she starts to cry. “That’s over, and I’m sorry I made you think about that again. I just wanted to be sure before…”
She nods again, unable to speak. Letting my hand go, she uses her T-shirt to dry her face. “Go ahead and do what you need to do.”
“He’s, um, he’s not quite dead yet,” I admit. “You may want to turn around for this next part.”
“What?”
“I did choke him out, just not long enough. Give me a minute.”
“Oh,” she mutters in understanding as I look around the room and find a towel. Taking it over to Leroy, I kneel down beside his head and then place the towel over his mouth while pinching his nose with my gloved fingers.
When the man’s arms suddenly shoot up, Tessa screams at the top of her lungs, which is so painful to hear, I would rather be stabbed.
“I’ve got this.” I tell her as I lean my face back as far as I can while keeping my hands on the guy’s face. “You can wait upstairs if you want.” I suggest over the man’s muffled protests. A few seconds later, all the fight goes out of the struggling asshole. I don’t let up on suffocating him, not until a few more minutes pass to be sure this time.
Finally, when I’m certain enough time has passed, I remove my fingers from his nose and place them on the side of his neck. Finding nothing there, I exhale in relief, still panting as I hang my head in exhaustion. We really should’ve got some sleep last night. Now the fatigue is catching up with me. “It’s over. He’s dead.”
“Thank you,” Tessa say with her own sigh.
I have no clue how she’s feeling, if she’s happy or second-guessing our plan. But I for one am glad that these two men I killed for her today won’t ever be able to hurt anyone else. Of course there’s a twinge of guilt for taking their lives, but I’m too relieved at the moment, knowing that they will never be able to touch Tessa again.