Page 104 of Chaotic Curse
I slap his shoulder.“Why are you looking at me like that?I didn’t kill this asshole.”
“That’s rich coming from the guy who’s got another man tied up in our barn right now.”
“Yeah?That one’s not dead.And I haveactualevidence that he did terrible things to Daniela.”I look down.“Just…not the things I thought he was doing.”
“Yeah, exactly.You’ve got to stop going off all halfcocked, Hawk.”
“You’ve got a fucking lot of nerve, Fal.You did worse than me in prison.You and Leif did worse when you rescued Savannah.”
“Did I say I didn’t?”Falcon shakes his head.“But this isn’tyou, Hawk.You’re the good son.The one who’s obsessed with what’s right and what’s wrong.”
“Where the fuck has that gotten me?”I demand.“It’s time for me to save my woman the way you saved yours.”
“Your woman?”He raises his eyebrows.“Is it that serious between you two?”
I nod.“You bet your ass it is.”
He pinches at the bridge of his nose.“Fine.I’ll help you.”He rakes his gaze over Haynes’s corpse.“We could leave him.Pretend we never saw it.”
“And when the cops run prints and find yours in the house?”I say.“Back to prison you go, brother.And mine are on file too from when I got my concealed carry.”
He swipes a hand down his face.“What then?”
“We move him.”
He stares at me like I’ve grown another head.“You really want to haul a dead man through Oak County in broad daylight?”
“You got a better idea?”
Falcon pauses.“Yeah.Take him to Peter Loren.Tell him we stumbled on it.Let him handle it.”
I think about it.Loren’s an old contact.He was the county coroner for fifteen years, and he and our father are tight.Dad always says Peter was as trustworthy as they come.
Of course, Dad has proved to me again and again thathe’snot a good person, so should I really trust someone he was tight with?
But we’re running out of options.It won’t be long before cops are descending on this house.
“Fine,” I say.“We’ll do it your way.”
It’s grunt work, getting Haynes off the bed.Dead weight isn’t a figure of speech.Sweat runs into my eyes as we wrestle him into a black trash bag Falcon pulled from the garage.
We lift him and carry him through the garage.The best thing to do would be to drive my truck into the garage and load him there, where no one can see.One problem.Haynes’s truck—presumably his, anyway—is parked at an angle and we can’t get in.
“I’ve got it,” I say.“Put him in a bin, and we’ll put that in my truck, as if we’re being paid to haul some shit away.”
“Remind me again,” Falcon says.“Why the hell are we mixed up in this?”
“Because the DNA on Daniela’s card matched Haynes,” I say.
“And now?”
“Now he’s a red herring.”
“You’re sure?”
I meet his gaze.“Pretty sure.”
“Pretty sure isn’t enough.”
