Page 28 of Hard Game

Taron shakes his head at me and leans forward. “Why would I help him, huh?” He nods at Elijah, but I swallow my hatred and place my hand on Taron’s shoulder, forcing myself to look needy. Think Damsel in Distress.

“Help me, Taron. Please. For me.” My voice is kinder than ever, and something softens in Taron’s eyes as he gazes at me.

“Alright. I’ll tell you, but not here. Not with him.”

Elijah scoffs, and I shoot him a look before turning back to Taron.

“Where?”

Taron gives me a smile that makes me want to vomit. “Your place? Tonight?”

My stomach churns, but I need this information at any cost. I smile as sweetly as I can. “Sure, what time?”

Fuck!

14

LAUREN

“Tell me again why you dated that prick,” Elijah mutters as we watch forensics cover the cleaner’s body from beside the car.

It means rain soaks us both like a second skin, but neither of us moves. We share the guilt of her death and countless others in the past. We always try to do the right thing, but then this happens. She was silenced.

Ellie approaches us and gives Elijah a wide berth, focusing on me instead. Wise girl.

“Hey,” I say, offering her a small smile. “What do you know?”

Ellie’s glasses are steamed up and wet, but I can see the sadness in her eyes. The anger, the fury at someone choosing to act as God and ending lives at their will. It’s sickening.

I can only empathize.

“She was in her twenties, and she put up a damn good fight,” Ellie says, her voice cracking slightly. “I’m hoping she got some DNA under her fingernails or shit, I don’t know.”

I glance around us, hopefully. “Did they leave anything behind?”

Ellie shakes her head. “No. Of course not; this scene is almost a replica of the other girl.”

The three of us share an uncomfortable moment of silence, and then Elijah speaks.

“Cause of death?”

Ellie takes a moment before clearing her throat. Poor girl, it never gets easier. “She bled out. Multiple stab wounds.”

“Her tongue?” I ask, praying she tells me what I want to hear. That it’s intact, that they didn’t?—

“Cut out while she was alive.” Ellie grimaces, and I close my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Motherfuckers,” Elijah snaps, pacing in the rain. He moves away from us, and Ellie watches him, her eyes wide.

“Is he okay?”

I watch Elijah tear at his hair, muttering before kicking a tree stump and cursing. I smile if only to make Ellie feel better. “We spoke to her at the mall the other day,” I admit, feeling my shoulders sag. “I guess we feel guilty.”

Ellie shakes her head and places her hand on my arm. “No, you’re the good guys, remember?”

I want to scoff and tell her I don’t fucking feel like a good guy when the corpse of someone I spoke to days ago lies at my feet. I move to get in the car but freeze when I see someone standing in front of it, a cigarette burning in the darkness, the only thing illuminating his face.

His face.

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