Page 25 of Hard Ruck

I startled as the door opened, the music louder for a few moments before it closed again. Chelsea’s brother came to stand beside me and looked down at Ivy.

“Seems like you need some help,” he remarked.

I let my gaze slowly rise, all the way up to his face. I expected him to look horrified, but he looked calm, even curious.

“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered. “I swear I…” I didn’t know what else to say. If she hadn’t followed me… If she hadn’t been so insistent… If I hadn’t wrapped my hands around her throat…

If I hadn’t enjoyed it.

Ice shrugged. “These things happen. I assume you had your reasons. Either way, we should get her out of here before people start asking too many questions.”

I stared at him, my mouth open slightly. “You’re not calling the police?”

“It’s a bit late for that,” he said. “She’s already dead. Besides, I don’t feel like answering questions tonight. I’m sure you don’t either. And Chelsea would be pissed off with me if I didn’t help you. The last thing I need is a pissed off sister.” He seemed more concerned with that than the dead woman lying on the tiled floor.

“I don’t even know what to do,” I said.

“Don’t panic,” he said. “She followed you in and passed out drunk. We’ll carry her out of here and deal with her.” He pulled out his phone and shot off a couple of texts. “Just letting Kennedy and Chelsea know where we are.” He crouched beside Ivy, scooping her up in his arms like she weighed nothing.

“Why are you acting like this isn’t a big deal?” I asked.

“Because this is Dusk Bay. This is an average Sunday night. You’ll need to open the door.” He nodded towards it.

I couldn’t decide if he was out of his mind or if I was. Maybe this was some kind of bizarre dream.

I opened the door and let him step out first, carrying a dead woman in his arms. He headed for the door at the back of the bar and pushed out into the alley.

“What are you going to do with her?” I asked.

“I’m going to pin this on someone who’s been causing trouble for my boss,” Ice said easily. “We’ll make sure her family knows. And her employer.”

“She worked at—” I started.

“Flirts, I know,” he said. “I saw her there once. She was a talented dancer. Her family and her boss are going to miss her.”

I slumped against the brick wall beside the door. “I swear, I didn’t mean to do this.”

“Did it feel good?” he asked. He didn’t seem to be passing judgement. Again, he seemed curious.

“It felt incredible,” I whispered.

He smiled. “I knew we’d get along. Next time, don’t be a cliché and kill a sex worker. If you want to feel that rush again, there are much more deserving people than this.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. I wanted to feel that rush again, but I couldn’t go around killing people.

“What do you mean by deserving?” I followed him to his car and helped him to place her in the back of it. The way we had with Chelsea, but not bound, or with her head covered.

“If you weren’t seeing my sister, I’d say people like you.” He closed the back of the car with a thud. “People who kill innocent women. I mean people who do it on purpose though. People who hunt them down. You didn’t take her in there to kill her, did you?”

“No!” I said immediately. “She followed me. I was trying to get away from her. I don’t know why it was me she thought she wanted.” Whatever she drank or took must have impeded her judgement. There would have been a ton of guys happy to gohome with her if she’d asked them to. With them, she wouldn’t have had to get pushy.

He put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re adorable. It’s a cross some of us have to bear.” He sighed as though it was such a burden. “She came onto you and wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “I told her I was with Chelsea and she got angry. Called her a bitch.”

“Huh.” He glanced at the back of the car. “Lucky she’s dead then, I might have killed her for calling my sister that. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

I half-expected to be followed out of the bar, or to meet a contingent of police vehicles, but there was no one. We’d walked out of a busy club with the dead woman and no one blinked. They probably thought we were gentlemen for helping her.

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