Page 250 of What We Bury

I laugh, wet and ugly, and wipe my eyes with my sleeve. “I have never felt more like a sugar baby in my life.”

“You’re not a sugar baby. You’re just my Fury. And I want to take care of you.” He bends and kisses me, as if the matter is settled, and the kiss is soft, almost chaste, but it fizzes all through my body.

“Thank you,” I whisper when he pulls away. “Really. Thank you.”

He looks like he wants to say more, but the hallway light flickers and a dull slam from an apartment upstairs makes us both turn. He tucks the card into my pocket like a parent slipping lunch money into a jacket. Then he unlocks the door and ushers me inside, always two steps ahead, always checking.

I follow, already anticipating the comfort of my tiny apartment, the thought of collapsing on the couch together, maybe making out until the sun goes down. But the living room stops us cold. There’s a length of rope hanging from the ceiling light fixture. A perfect seven-coil noose, swinging gently.

For a moment, neither of us moves.

“Please tell me this is one of Milo’s jokes,” I whisper, voice shaking.

Knox shakes his head slowly. “He’d never joke about this.”

“Then where did it come from?” Pressure stings in the backs of my eyes, my brain doing something strange, the way it did the night under the jetty—going very quiet and very fast at the same time, stripping everything down to the essential facts. Someone was in here. Someone was in here, and they left this. For me. Us.

“There’s a note.” Knox moves in front of me, crossing to the rope and reading the note where it hangs.

When he turns back, his face is flat and controlled in the way that means the opposite of calm.

“What does it say?”

Knox looks at me.

“You’re next.”

SIXTY-EIGHT

HOLDEN

Knox calls me. He doesn’t say hello.

“Get to the apartment.Now.Bring everyone.”

I’m at the station, halfway through a shift report. Something in his voice tells me this is deadly serious.

“What happened?”

“Just get here.”

He hangs up. I stare at my phone for two seconds, then I’m moving. Badge clipped, jacket grabbed, out the door before anyone can ask where I’m going. I text the group chat from the car.

Me:

Knox called. Something’s wrong. Sage’s place. Now!

Milo:

On my way. I’ll tell my boss I have diarrhea.

Eli:

Ten minutes out.

Micah:

I’m close. Be there in five.