59. Hayden

Romeo chuckleson the other end of the line while I pace the hallway outside the room where I just killed my teammate. "You don"t ask for much, do you? Did you kill them, or are they just dead?"

"Does it matter?" My voice is rough as fuck.

"Maybe." He sighs and mutters, "I don"t know why I"m the go-to guy for body disposal for all of you assholes." I don"t know what he"s talking about, so I don"t say anything. "How dirty do you want to get your hands in all of this?"

"They"re already stained fucking red."

"Fair enough. Have you ever been to Emerald Hills?"

"Why the fuck are you asking me that?"

"Calm down, Killer. It"s relevant."

I shake my head before I realize he can"t see me. "No, never."

"The woods are beautiful up here. Dense. Private. I"ll text coordinates for one of my favorite hikes. You"ll want to bring a shovel, unless you want my guy to go hiking for you. Which will cost you extra."

His speaking in code is obnoxious considering we"ve already talked all about the dead body in the other room, but I get the impression that he just likes fucking with me.

"I don"t have the time for a hike tonight, so hook me up with your guy." The last thing I need tonight is to spend hours digging a hole deep in the woods to toss Roman"s corpse into. No fucking thank you. It"s already killing me not to be at the hospital with Cassidy right now, making sure she and our baby are okay after everything Roman and Saylor put her through.

"You got it. Text me when you get to the address. I"ll have him meet you there."

Romeo ends the call and I walk back into the room to find Kingston"s already found a tarp from somewhere and he"s spreading it out onto the ground. "Smart. We"ve got a plan. We need to get him into the car."

"What car? Didn"t your brother take yours?" he asks as he kneels down by Roman.

I sink down beside him, and we shove Roman"s body onto the tarp before wrapping him up. There"s some rope King must"ve grabbed, too, so we tie everything securely so the blood and other things don"t leak out while we move him. It"s already a big enough mess in here. "Yes, but Cassidy"s is outside. We"ll take that. We just need to find the keys."

The two of us scour the house and eventually come up with my wife"s keys hidden in a drawer in the kitchen, which just makes the fury I"ve managed to wrangle under control flare up again. I wish I could resurrect Roman and kill him again for even thinking of taking Cassidy from me, let alone hurting her.

Kingston props open the back door and we haul Roman"s body outside before loading it into the back of Cassidy"s SUV. It"s the middle of the day, so the worst possible timing to move a body, but we can"t leave it here. I don"t bother looking around to see if anyone"s watching. At this point it won"t matter, they"ve already seen us and checking our surroundings is only going to make us look more suspicious.

Kingston jumps into the passenger seat, and I slide behind the wheel. "Hope you don"t mind, but we"ve got a stop to make on the way."

He glances back into the back briefly, and I can only imagine what he"s thinking. We"re in a car with a dead body. The longer we"re in the city with Roman"s corpse in the car with us, the more at risk we are of being caught.

But I don"t have a choice. I"m compelled by my insane protective instinct to do this. "It"ll only take a minute."

Finally, King nods. "I trust you." He looks back at Roman again before adding, "And I owe you one for saving me having to spend one more second breathing the same air as that douchebag."

I know what he means, but there"s really nothing to say. We"ve got shit to do, and time is of the essence. I pull out of Saylor"s driveway and head toward The Sin Bin.

Saylor needs to suffer for her part in this. She might not have physically hurt Cassidy, but she sure as fuck helped Roman do it.

I park down the street from the bar and Kingston eyes me warily. "What are we doing here?"

"Tying up loose ends. Wait here." I don"t have to tell him that he needs to be ready to move in case anyone comes sniffing around the car.

I tuck my hands in my pockets as I walk down the sidewalk toward my wife"s bar, getting ready to put on the performance of my life. Saylor needs to believe I think Cassidy blew me off and that I"m here looking to tell her off for it. Then I need to act like I"m open to her flirtation, even if it"ll make me want to puke, to get her out of the bar so she can take a little trip into the woods with us.

I push open the door to The Sin Bin and step inside. It"s early afternoon, so the place isn"t technically open yet. The girl I assume is Saylor is behind the bar and she looks up as I approach, a smug smile curling her lips. "Hayden, what a surprise. What can I do for you?"

She seems awfully fucking familiar with me, considering I barely know who she is. I don't like that shit at all.

"Is Cassidy here?" I ask, not even having to act to sound pissed off. Looking at this bitch and thinking about what she did is making my tone authentic.

She shakes her head, her eyes glittering with something that prompts violence to flood my veins. "No, I haven't seen her."

"She was supposed to come home last night and didn"t show. I thought maybe she"d be here." I look around like I expect to see her hiding in the corner or something.

"I"m sorry she stood you up," Saylor says, leaning forward on the bar so her cleavage is practically spilling out of her shirt. "Can I get you a drink while you wait?"

I let my gaze drift down her body, holding back the sneer I want to unleash on her. The words I want to use to cut her down before I do it for real. I"m still undecided on if I want to kill her for what she"s done, and if I don"t, I need something that"s equally horrible to punish her with. "No, I"m good." I tuck my hands in my pockets again when her eyes find my wedding ring. "You want to get out of here?"

She grins at me like she thinks she"s won. "Yeah, let"s go."

I add the fact that she"s so willing to abandon my wife"s bar and her responsibility to it to her list of crimes. "After you lock up," I say, gesturing toward the door.

Saylor rolls her eyes but walks around the bar and grabs a set of keys off a hook before heading toward the front door and locking up behind us. She turns to me with a flirty smile on her lips. "What are we doing?"

I don"t answer as I lead her down the sidewalk back toward Cassidy"s SUV. Kingston"s got his phone in his hand, pretending to be scrolling social media, but I know he"s keeping an eye out. When we get close, he glances up and nods once before climbing out of the car and walking around to the back seat and climbing in.

We"re on the same page. No way in hell can we stick Saylor in the back seat and risk her asking questions about the body-shaped cargo in the back. I open the passenger door for Saylor and she slides into the car, brushing her body against mine while she does it. I lean in and she sucks in a breath while her pupils blow wide. "I didn"t realize you were bringing a friend."

I just give her my meanest smile while I pluck her phone off of her lap. She doesn"t even notice. She also must not notice that I'm driving Cassidy's car, the same one that took her home last night and was likely parked in her driveway this morning when she left to come here.

What an idiot.

When I straighten, I close the door before she can say anything else and power her phone off while I walk around the front of the car. Then I tuck it into my pocket and start the drive east to Emerald Hills. Now that I"ve got Saylor in my grasp, my thoughts spin out about my wife. It"s been more than an hour since my brother took her to the hospital. Why the fuck haven"t I heard anything about how she is?

I"m so up in my head, I don't realize how hard I'm gripping the wheel and my fingers ache.

Saylor"s too busy trying to seduce both Kingston and me, so she doesn"t even realize or care where I"m taking her.

"Where are we going?" she finally asks when we hit the on-ramp for I-90.

"Emerald Hills," I answer, glancing over at her as I weave through traffic. "I want to show you something."

She smiles and reaches over to run her hand up my arm. "I bet you do."

I shake off her touch, trying not to be as much of an asshole as I want to. She pouts but pulls back, leaning into Kingston instead. He looks like he"s about to lose his shit with her, but he holds it together while we make our way out of the city.

The drive takes us nearly an hour, and by the time we reach the hiking trail Romeo sent me coordinates for, Saylor"s getting antsy. She keeps asking what we"re doing here and where we are. I"ve distracted her every time she starts to look for her phone, but I"m on edge like a motherfucker because I still haven"t heard from Sawyer.

Just as I"m about to get out of the car, my phone buzzes and I grab it so fast, I fumble it into the backseat. Kingston chuckles but hands it back, getting out of the car with Saylor on his heels. I owe him so fucking big for all of this.

Sawyer: She"s okay

Sawyer: They"re okay

Two simple words that mean the whole fucking world.

My head falls back and my eyes close for a second while I let myself bask in the relief of knowing my wife is safe and she"s alive. Our baby survived.

Fuck.

I glance outside, knowing now I need to focus. The rest of the world needs to fall away because there"s one last thing to take care of before I can go be with them.

And with that in mind, I send the text that"s going to wrap this all up, grab a bag of supplies from the back seat, and climb out of the car.