Page 78 of Mine

Leo Cape?

Was this his name?

His real name?

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe.

I was sitting in a room with a corpse who moments before was going to kill my boyfriend before doing unthinkable things to me.

Cal didn’t have a choice. Well,Leodidn’t.

My head spun as I realized I had zero grip on reality.

I listened as Cal explained to Verno that Andre is dead, and that he needed someone to remove him.

Remove him?

A fresh wave of nausea swept over me as the room spun; was I now an accessory to murder?

Cal hung up as he crawled over to me, my hands in his blood-stained ones. “I will tell you everything. Just please listen to me.”

My hands shook uncontrollably, but I nodded, desperate for him to shed some light on what the hell has just happened.

“Okay,” Cal took a deep breath. “First, we need to get out of here. Let me clean myself up.”

He stood, grimacing as he did. I helped him to the shower as he washed away the blood. Deep black bruises appeared on his ribs and chest, and my heart ached. He winced as he washed, but he was soon out drying himself. He dressed with my help, and as we stepped over the body of Andre, Cal drew me close to him. We made our way downstairs and outside to his car.

Chapter Twenty-nine

GRETCHEN

“You’re leaving him there?!” I stared at him aghast.

He nodded and reversed down the drive and onto the road before speeding away.

“Text your parents. We have to talk without interruptions,” he commanded, and I shot off a text to my Mom.

I had texted her last night to gush about my evening before falling to sleep. I realized my hands were still shaking as we pulled into a diner close by.

We walked in and it relieved me to see it was empty, so we chose a booth towards the back as a server came over and took our orders.

I stared at Cal, waiting for him to speak.

He met my gaze and nodded.

“What the fuck just happened?” I whispered.

“So, New York. The house we broke into. It belonged to my then-girlfriend,” he had the grace to look down then, before he continued. “Lucia. No one knew we were seeing each other. She wasn’t supposed to be there.” He closed his eyes, clearly remembering that night. “We were almost done. She came in and saw us all.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just remained quiet.

The server came over, placing our milkshakes in front of us, which we both left untouched.

“You could do with the sugar, for shock.” Cal nodded at mine. I folded my arms and stared at him.

“Carry on.”

He looked at me through those beautiful dark eyelashes.