Page 25 of The Woman in the Hollow
Or… maybe not.
I heard something crunch. But it was the woods. There could have been an animal.
“I… I thought there was. But maybe not. I panicked.”
“Okay. It’s okay,” Dante said, way too calm considering I just told him there was a murdered body in his woods.
“We need to call the police.”
“Okay. We will handle all that,” Dante said, tone reassuring. “We need to get you cleaned up.”
“But…”
“Yours is the Jeep, right?” he asked, his arm already sliding around my lower back, guiding me away from Domenico.
I saw him reach into his pocket, saw something flash. A phone, maybe? But Dante was pulling me forward before I could see for sure.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home, babe,” he said.
“But… but the police will need my statement.”
“It’s alright. We need to get you cleaned up.”
He opened the passenger door of my car and gently coaxed me in.
The door slammed on my objections.
Then he was in my driver’s seat and asking me for my keys and address.
Maybe I should have put up a harder fight.
But it felt so good to have someone take charge, to take the responsibility off my shoulders.
With the fear removed and the adrenaline quickly draining, I felt a strange detachment settling in. One moment, we were in the garden center parking lot. The next, we were sitting in my apartment building parking lot. I hadn’t even noticed Navesink Bank passing us by.
“Come on. Let me get you cleaned up.”
Then he was around the car and his arm was around me.
I went ahead and let myself be led away from my troubles and taken care of.
I could worry about bodies and police reports later.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Dante
I’d seen countless women come running out of those woods full of terror.
It never really bothered me.
Not until it was Hazel.
And there was blood on her face and hands.
I could tell from the look that Dom sent me as I said I would take Hazel home that he was questioning my choices. And later, when I made it back, I would insist it was simply a way to distract her, to prevent her from calling the cops and having them swarm all around an actual mob front.
