Page 36 of Final Girl

“You and Talia killed three people.” I stop and force him to look at me. “I need you to be honest with me. Horace said some stuff earlier about you.”

“Do you really want to know?”

I gulp and shake my head. “No, but I’m not sure I can handle you keeping secrets from me.”

“Anything I’ve done was to protect you. To keep you safe. Same goes for my sister. We’d never fuck up someone who didn’t deserve it, except…” he trails off, shaking his head.

I glance behind him at the house as flames shoot out one of the upstairs windows. Jared and Talia run toward his cruiser.

“The kid at the movies,” I finish for him.

“I don’t know what came over me. I swear.”

I nod, wanting to believe him. Needing to more than anything.

“Just promise me that this is the end. No more killing.”

“Only thing I’ll be murdering from here on out is your pussy when I fuck you.” He grins and I slap his chest.

“Take me home, Pike.”

Chapter Thirty

One month later

Fuck, that was a mess of a night. But it’s finally over. Though having to explain to Delaney what I’ve been doing for years was hard, and for a while I thought she was gonna make me leave. Instead, all she did was nod and told me no more. I vowed to her I was done, but of course, if some motherfucker comes at her again, that promise goes out the window.

Talia and Jared cleaned up the farmhouse, burning that motherfucking building to the ground, all evidence gone. Since the place was so far outside of town, no one was notified about the fire or the deaths until the bodies were so charred they were pure ash. Thank fuck. At least I know none of that shit will come back on us.

It will be some time before the remains are identified.

When Sam didn’t show up for work after three days, I volunteered to go looking for him, knowing I was never going to find him, but I had to keep it cool and attention off me.

Jared, though, surprised the fuck outta me. Always thought he would be a real dick, but he came through when Sam didn’t. Apparently, Jared was working fucking undercover in the department because he knew there was a fucking traitor on the force. Someone leaking info and covering crimes up.

He’s had a thing for my sister for a while, too. Didn’t want to see her go down for that shit at the farmhouse.

Now I’m in Sam’s house, with Jared, tearing it the fuck apart, searching for the answers I need. Ones I couldn’t get from Sam himself, since Talia went and killed him too damn soon.

“Found something.” Jared calls out and I find him in the kitchen, at the table, going through a laptop. He discovered a computer hidden under the mattress in one of the bedrooms.

“Whatcha got?” I ask, coming in behind him, looking over his shoulder.

“He’s been planning this shit for years. Fucker was even helping Hope by destroying evidence against her in the murders she did.”

Motherfucker. Every time we got a DNA sample, it would disappear or come back inconclusive or contaminated.

Now we know.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, his mother, not his mother. It’s a woman that adopted him. Turns out, his birth mother was Delaney’s. It’s true, man. Horace was his fucking father.”

Fucking hell. That makes sense. No wonder why he was helping out Hope and Horace.

“Well, more than that, the asshole had a stupid ass lame as shit diary. No joke. A diary, like a little girl.” Jared snort laughs. “Anyway, it’s filled with shit. From the first moment he found out about his birth father, to then finding out Loretta was his birth mother. Loretta exposed the secret. Guess they met up before her death and she revealed to him that Horace had raped her at sixteen. Back then, it was easier for her to hide the pregnancy from everyone. She gave him up as soon as she gave birth. Never even held him.”

I rub my face. “This shit just gets worse and worse. Why the fuck did Loretta get back with Horace, then? That makes no fucking sense.”