Carnal need pulsated between us, one that neither of us could totally satisfy.

Dawn came peeking through the windows as Raize brought us to another climax. Only then did we rest.

I shivered. What would happen if we ever fully satisfied that need?

I didn’t want to find out.

“It’s a canary.”

“Yeah? So?”

“So,” Brooke held it up and let it go. It flew away. “It’ll come back if it’s not safe out there.”

It never came back.

The neighbor’s cat killed it.

48

Raize

We stayed in West Virginia for four more months.

I hated it. Mostly.

I wanted to be traveling, working. I’d gotten used to the constant go, but this staying, waiting, it had its benefits, too.

Ash laughed more.

She relaxed.

She ate more.

Cavers took Gus on daily walks. Sometimes Ash went with him. Sometimes she played with Gus in the backyard. She liked to spend time watching the creek. A lot of time.

I think she’d started meditating down there, but I never asked.

Jake was in charge of going into town, getting food for us.

He’d also started seeing a local woman, though he thought no one knew. We all knew. He giggled when he was getting laid. We learned that.

Every time Jake came back after seeing his woman, Ash and Cavers watched me. I knew Ash was concerned that I would kill the woman. She was a liability because eventually she’d get curious about Jake, want to see where he lived, what he did for a living. Cavers just watched me to see if he needed to help in any way.

But I’d followed Jake.

I’d bugged the woman’s house, put a tracker on her vehicle, and was listening on her phone. So far she believed Jake was a traveling salesperson, and she hoped he’d marry her one day—or that’s what she told her sister about him. So far, “Brian” was satisfying her in bed.

I’d have to have a conversation with Jake soon.

I was getting restless.

I wasn’t the only one.

We were all on edge, feeling the end of our time was coming soon.

War was inevitable.

The killing would start again, but Ash, she was changing.

She had changed.

I just wasn’t quite sure how she’d changed. Not yet.

I caught her twisting a lock between her fingers a lot.

She was missing her blonde hair. It had started to return to her dark coloring again.

Then one day my phone rang.

Downer was on the other end. “You need to come back.”

49

Ash

Something was wrong.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and when Raize stepped inside, I knew I was right. He was locked down. Completely. His face was blank, and that was not good.

Seeing him now, as he looked at me, we both knew.

It was done.

I gave him a small nod, because it was time. I had no clue what was going to happen, but we all knew our time here was a momentary break.

Jake was on the floor with Gus, who was tearing apart a couple of squeaky toys as if his life depended on it. Cavers was in the kitchen, cooking dinner, but it was like everyone felt Raize’s chill. All heads lifted and all eyes went to him. He stood just inside the door, his phone in hand, and he looked right at Jake.

“You have two options.”

A chill went down my spine. He was using his ‘motherfucker’ tone, and it was directed at Jake, and Jake knew what that meant. Raize was not messing around here.

Jake stood, slowly, and his eyes got guarded. “You want to watch how you talk to me?”

Raize wasn’t deterred. He shot right back, “You want to watch how you’ve been lying to our group here?”

Jake straightened, his head shooting up and his shoulders falling back. “Excuse me?”

“You’re not just fucking her.”

Wait—what?

Cavers came into the room, a slow step until he was beside me.

A whole new level of tension filled the room, and Jake’s head fell a little. So did his voice. “You want to say that again?”

“You’re not just fucking the hair stylist in town. You’re having a relationship with her.”

Oh… No.

That was bad.

We’d kept to ourselves, or tried. I never left the property except for a walk with Cavers and even that, we kept to the woods. Ultimate privacy. Jake was sent to pick up food. He wasn’t even supposed to go in and get it. He was supposed to order it since the local grocery store had that option, pull up and they’d bring it out to the car.

A relationship?

“You’re doing that?”

Jake swung his head Cavers’ way, a bit jerky. He glared at both of us, his jaw tightening, before he lifted up a shoulder. “Yeah, man. I did that.”

“She talks to her sister about you.”

Jake’s head whipped back to Raize. “You got her phone tapped?”

I held my breath.

Raize’s voice came out cold. “Of course I tapped her phone. She knows you. She knows how you feel, taste. She’s got feelings involved and she’s going to remember you.”

“So—what? What do you want me to do about it? I ain’t killing her.”

“We’re leaving.”

That was the ball I was waiting to get dropped. I knew it now, knew why Raize was bringing up Jake’s girl. If we left, she’d remember. She might start looking, talking more, and what then? Where would that lead to?

“Damn,” a quiet word from Cavers.

Jake didn’t say a word. His jaw clamped shut and a vein stuck out from the side.

Raize’s eyes were back to being hooded. No. That wasn’t right. He was back to looking dead.

A second shiver passed through me because I’d started to hate that look. It went away at times, mostly with me, mostly in bed, but it’d been less and less the last two weeks.

I detested that it was back.

He said, staring at Jake, “You leave her behind and what’s she going to start saying to that sister of hers? Her sister is married to a probation officer.”

Jake winced. He ran a hand over his face. “I didn’t know that.”

“Because you didn’t vet who you wanted to stick your dick into.”

I closed my eyes.

Cavers grunted at hearing Raize’s words, but he didn’t say anything.

“I thought, I don’t know. She’s pretty. She’s nice. She’s kinda funny.”

“She’s in love with you, hoping you’re going to ask her to move in with you.”

Cavers murmured, “She doesn’t seem the smartest bulb.”

I opened my eyes and Jake was shaking his head, his eyes downcast, and his shoulders slumped in a whole defeated way. “I can’t kill her.”

“Then what are you going to do? You can’t bring her along.”

I knew where Raize was going because Jake couldn’t kill her and in Raize’s mind, in this world, that meant he’d have to kill her. But damn. No. She was innocent. She didn’t—I stepped forward. All eyes came to me, but I was looking at my man.