Page 21 of York

“I’m moving them out of there. As soon as possible.”

“You might not want to step on Runa’s toes here. Especially if she has a lot of pride.”

I was sure she had pride. But she would swallow it for Denali. Everything about her said she would do anything for that girl. And I didn’t think she would even pause to think about it if I offered her somewhere nicer to stay.

I turned the laptop back toward me, closing out the hotel search, and looking instead for apartments.

It was short notice, but I wanted some place ready by our next meet-up. In my experience, money talked. If the usual turnaround was two-to-five days to move in, I figured paying the full year up-front would make things move as fast as I wanted them to. Because I didn’t just need to get the keys. I needed to get some furniture for it. Pots, pans, plates, and bowls in the kitchen. A fridge and pantry full of food.

I had a lot to get in motion and was pretty damn clueless about where to even get shit like same-day furniture around this area. The last time I had my own place, ordering a damn couch took six fucking weeks.

“Either of you know where I can get furniture around here?” I asked. “Shit I don’t have to wait weeks for.”

“What you looking for?” Eddie asked.

“Couch, beds, mattresses, dining table, nightstands, lamps…”

“You can get just about all that the same day without an issue. The only thing you might run into trouble with is the couch, but I can ask one of the girls. They would know better than us.”

“While you’re at it, maybe ask what a five-year-old girl might want in her bedroom.”

“You might be overstepping a line here,” Velle warned.

“I don’t care. I’m not demanding they stay there indefinitely. But while they’re in the area, I want them to have somewhere nice to be.”

“You’re gonna rent an apartment for possibly just a week or two of them staying in it?”

“Well, I’m hoping Runa might decide to stay close. I get the feeling that she’s not only here to let me meet my daughter.”

“You think she’s in some kind of trouble? Is that just suspicion talking, or did she say something to give you reason to think that?”

“It’s a few things she said or how she reacted. But also something Denali asked.”

“What’d she ask?”

“If I was going to be nice to her mom too.”

“Hm,” Velle said. “I mean, kids say weird shit. It could be nothing. But it could also mean she’s seen someone not be nice to her mother.”

“Exactly. I’m hoping to get more information on that. But I don’t want Denali overhearing it.”

“Yeah, that’s smart. So, how are you handling all this?” he asked as he walked over to the coffee machine and made us both a cup.

He wasn’t going to give up until I confessed something. “I’m probably still a little in shock about it. But I’m in. I want to know her. Runa seems happy to have that happen.”

“Does she know you’re her father?”

”Not yet. Unless Runa told her now. She asked if she could if Denali asked.”

“She’s approaching this well. Runa,” he clarified.

“It wasn’t like she was trying to keep Denali from me. She just didn’t know who the fuck I was. Or where I was. I was only in that town for the weekend.”

It had been a pretty high-profile murder of a mob boss. And the rival boss who took him out wanted me to hide the body as far away as possible, so he could never be implicated, even if the body surfaced.

That little town just happened to be nestled in thousands of acres of dense wooded land. And had the benefit of a really corrupt local police force in case a body did get uncovered one day. So palms could be greased and files lost and nothing would ever come back on my client.

I’d just finished the back-breaking work of digging a ridiculously deep grave, shoving the body in, covering it, then rolling boulders and tree limbs around the space before replanting an oak sapling over it, hoping it would grow deep and wrap its roots around the bones of the body.