Page 5 of Villains Series

LAST NIGHT

MERIT CEMETERY

THUD.

Thud.

Thud.

“How long were you in prison?”

asked Sydney, trying to fill the quiet. The sound of digging, when combined with ictor’s absent humming, wasn’t helping her nerves.

“Too long,”

answered ictor.

Thud.

Thud.

Her fingers hurt dully from gripping the shovel.

“And that’s where you met Mitch?”

Mitch—Mitchell Turner—was the massive man waiting for them back in the hotel room.

Not because he didn’t like graveyards, he told them emphatically.

No, it was just that someone had to stay behind with Dol, and besides, there was work to do.

Lots of work.

It had nothing to do with the bodies.

Sydney smiled when she thought of him scrounging for excuses.

It made her feel a fraction better to think of Mitch, who was roughly the size of the car—and could probably lift one with ease—being squeamish about death.

“We were cellmates,”

he said.

“There are a lot of very bad people in jail, Syd, and only a few decent ones. Mitch was one of them.”

Thud.

Thud.

“Are you one of the bad ones?”

asked Sydney. Her watery blue eyes stared straight at him, unblinking. She wasn’t sure if the answer mattered, really, but she felt like she should know.

“Some would say so,” he said.

Thud.

She kept staring.

“I don’t think you’re a bad person, ictor.”

ictor kept digging.

“It’s all a matter of perspective.”

Thud.

“About the prison. Did they … did they let you out?”

she asked quietly.

Thud.

ictor left the shovel planted in the ground, and looked up at her. And then he smiled, which she noticed he seemed to do a lot before he lied, and said.

“Of course.”