Chapter 16

Stars glimmer and waltz overhead as dirt flies off our shovels into two piles surrounding the massive grave we stand inside.

I wipe sweat off my brow and blow a fallen lock of hair off my face as I meet Neo's eyes.

"I'm surprised you wanted to do this with me."

Usually, I don't.

I help make the messes, and Neo cleans them up. It was an acceptable arrangement until I met Kage.

A man so dark he makes the night sky seem brilliant.

"I need to close this chapter," I state simply.

Looking down and gripping my shovel, I get back to work.

"This wasn't your fault," he says, and I continue tossing dirt over my shoulder.

I'm not ready to talk openly about any of this, and his saying it'll be buried after tonight had me a little giddy. I'm ready to get back to being Neo's stupid girl and living our life together now that Kage is dead.

My eyes travel up to where Kage's body is, rolled up in a rug, stiff and lifeless.

"I couldn't fight back," I say, not looking toward Neo. "It was the complete opposite of how I usually feel. I was powerless."

My admittance sits between us. The only thing stirring around us is the wind as it rustles leaves on the old oak in the backyard.

Neo strides over to me, lifting my chin, his thumb brushing my bottom lip. "I hate he made you feel that way. Even when I tell you to kneel, to crawl, I want you to feel like the fucking powerful goddess that you are, stupid girl. Even when I bent you over the couch in my bedroom at the asylum, you had all the power, Lyla. I was then, and will always be, a weak man when it comes to you. Though, this might be the only fucking time I'll admit it."

A smirk lifts my lips, and I hold his wrist.

His thumb continues blinding passes over my lip, lulling me back to calm.

"We're burying it tonight," I whisper.

He nods. "But if we don't bury all of it, that's alright. You have me, stupid girl. I'll fucking slay anything that seeks to harm you. Even the nightmares."

I lick my lips, blowing out a breath. "Even the nightmares?"

He nods again.

"You're every woman's dream, Neo Wade."

He scoffs, rolling his eyes. "If I am every woman's dream, maybe I don't need to fight nightmares for you, stupid girl. You're already desensitized to them."

I laugh, preening, when he presses his lips to mine.

"Come on," he says, "this is deep enough."

He motions to the ladder he'd dropped in once we'd gotten further than a few feet. I climb up it.

Neo looks at me before shoving Kage into the hole, almost as if he wants to know if I want to do the honors.

I shake my head, crossing my arms over my chest. I'm done with Kage Davis. The fucking worms can have him.

Neo pushes him in, and with a big thud, we turn a new page in our life.

After we fill this fucking grave back in, that is.

After buryingKage and planting an exquisite garden over him that his body will maintain and feed, Neo and I washed and slept.

Hard.

Killing will do that to you. It's emotionally draining sometimes. Other times, it's exhilarating and releases dopamine throughout your gray matter.

I stretch as morning light spreads through the room from the open blinds. Turning over, I find Neo's spot empty.

Something clambers in the living room, and I sit up to glimpse Neo walking through the space with a box in his hands. He was headed for the front door.

I tug my brows together.

Throwing my legs off the side of the bed and the covers back, I make my way into the living room.

Neo smirks at me, something wicked living in his eyes as he looks his fill up and down my body.

I'd slept in one of his shirts.

Only one of his shirts.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"We're leaving. Our work here is done, stupid girl. It's time to get back to our lives. Back to work." He pins me with a pensive stare.

Looking around, I nod a few times in agreement.

"Well, the basement needs to be cleaned…"

He drops the box and tugs his hands to his hips. His sinful hips. He's wearing gray sweatpants that sit below the v-cut of his abs.

Killing sure keeps him in shape.

"Do you think I'm brand new to this, stupid girl?"

"Well, I?—"

"The basement is clean, the car is packed, and this place is on the market. We'll come back when it sells, hm? For old times' sake. See the sights."

I nearly laugh, but he's serious.

Crows Hollow has no sights besides the asylum we both broke out of, which looms over the town.

The doorbell rings, and my heart pounds like a drum. Nerves inch up my spine, and my stomach coils.

"Relax. It's Detective Clark. I called her to come over and get her prize," Neo says with an off-kilter smile that I haven't seen in a while.

It has me curious.

I step into the room and tug on some pants, forgoing a bra. Women don't judge other women for letting the girls breathe. If they do, those women should be beaten. Thoroughly.

I stride back into the living room, eyeing the good detective with a sidelong glance that rakes up her person.

She inclines her head at me.

Her eyes are calculating. She's nervous.

I'd be worried if she weren't.

"What did you need me to pick up?" she asks me instead of Neo.

Smart move, assessing the genuine threat in the room.

And just like that, the lunacy Neo unlocked in me, which got shaded when Kage threw me off-balance, is back with a vengeance.

"Here," Neo says as Julieanne and I size one another up.

She turns to him and nearly gags when he hands her a small mason jar with ten fingernails inside.

"Is that…?"

Neo nods proudly. "All ten of them. I also removed his toenails, but I figured you wouldn't want those."

She scoffs with a laugh. "And you thought I'd want those?"

Now I'm laughing, which puts Julieanne more on edge.

"It's the proof you need that he's handled," Neo says, questioning her with the look in his eyes and the furrow of his brows.

She shakes her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Neo, I never doubted for one second you'd kill him. I do not want his fingernails."

Neo stands straighter, offended completely. "Well, what the fuck am I going to do with them?"

I laugh harder, walk to the detective, and take the jar. "We will dispose of them." I look at Neo. "I swear, sometimes you're just the right degree of obtuse."

He narrows his eyes at me but says nothing. It"s almost like he doesn't know what I mean by it, so he's confused about whether he should be angry.

Detective Clark considers the topic change the perfect time to look around the room.

"Going somewhere?" she asks.

I eye Neo. He said they had an agreement, but I don't know how far that agreement extends. Will Detective Clark keep her end of the bargain, or will she track us and let the local PDs of wherever we land know we're a threat to their city's safety?

"Our work here is done," Neo says to her. But you have my phone number in case you ever need us."

Julieanne now laughs. "And when will I find myself in need of two killers?"

Neo blinks, glaring at her as if the answer is obvious.

She clears her throat. "Right. I'll keep that in mind."

"How much of this situation does your partner know about?" I ask.

Her gaze bounces back over toward me. "He knows as much as anyone else. The killings have stopped, and he thinks Kage has moved on. Though, he doesn't know it was Kage. This will never close. It'll be on the books as a cold case."

She walks toward the sliding glass doors leading out back, her eyes dancing over the vast yard beyond, her hands on her hips.

"That's a nice garden," she says before turning and heading for the door.

Neo smirks.

I cover a laugh with a cough.

"I hope I never see either of you again," she tells us, stepping back outside and closing the door behind her.

Neo and I finish packing the car, shutting the house up for the next owner to take over whenever it sells.

When we're pulling out of the driveway, I don't look back.

Neo was right; it's better this way.

He and I are wayfarers, wanderers in a world that doesn't accept all our rough, dark parts. Even if they see the bigger picture, the good we do, they'll only ever see the bloodshed: the crimson staining our souls.

Neo turns the radio up, blasting The Hand That Feeds by Nine Inch Nails, and I settle back into the seat, lifting my feet to the dash as my hand dances over the wind, ripping through the window.

Our next chapter together might be our last. One never knows, especially in our line of work, but looking back at how I met Neo, I saw none of this coming.

He showed me there's more to life than just living day to day. There is more to living than just going through the motions, robotically transitioning from work to sleep and back again.

From the moment I crawled across the floor to him, pills on my tongue for him to swallow, I was a goner. I am destined to be his stupid girl for the rest of my days on this spinning rock we live on.

"Where to, stupid girl?" he asks, tugging me back to reality.

"I get to choose?" I sit up in my seat, feet pulling off the dashboard.

He smiles, his hand coming across the console between us to entwine with mine. "Your choice."

Luckily for him, I've been watching the news lately, which I never do. I've been following a case in Angel Oak, South Carolina. A rapist is on the loose, terrorizing the small town. Three teens have already fallen victim, forcing the city to enact a curfew inside city limits.

"Angel Oak, South Carolina," I say simply.

He squeezes my hand knowingly. "Now, stupid girl. You're not going vigilante on me, are you?"

I shrug. "Do you have anything better to do?"

He turns toward me, keeping the wheel straight as my insides wobble.

"Stupid love, I'll follow wherever you lead me."

I nod. "Then, we have a heading."

He turns back to the road but gives my hand another squeeze. One that says more than his words ever could.

This journey has been painful, but I feel I've come out of it differently. Where Neo had awoken something dangerous and tempting to me, it had also turned me frantic and reckless. Now, I feel balanced, whole, and more secure in who I am in this world beside him.

If I had a choice to do it all over again, I would have crawled to him sooner.