Page 52 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

“You look exhausted, Aaron. You need to take care of yourself.”

“I’m fine. You worry about keeping the zoo under control.”

Sage smiles faintly. “I’m going to need your help.”

“You’ll be fine without me.”

Sage closes his eyes, and he looks like he’s in so much pain that it hurts me. “When are you leaving?”

“In the morning. I’m going to get those agents out of here. As soon as we’re gone, go somewhere else for a while. I won’t tell anyone. I’ll just disappear.”

“Eat your food, Aaron,” Sage says wearily.

I stab the tortellini and look up at him, assessing his skill. He’s more capable than anyone I know. I might not trust his motives with me, but in this, I know there’s no one else I’d trust more to keep her safe.

Them safe.

I eat my food and go back to my room without another word. I need to pack.

It’s only just dawn when I get to their campsite.

“Shit!” I hiss.

The camp is destroyed; the tent is in shreds, but it’s clear as day to see the bodies that have been mutilated inside.

I take in all the details, looking for anything that could give away who did this.

I take a step back, then whirl and run back to the cabin. We don’t have long to fix this. Thirty minutes later, I stand in the exact same spot with Blaze, Sage, Rolly, and Pix.

“Not my style,” Blaze says. “I don’t blitz.”

“Me either,” Sage murmurs.

My eyes bulge as they just openly admit to what they are. It’s one thing to know it; it’s another thing to hear it.

“It’s not my MO either,” Pix says.

Rolly creeps through the wreckage. “It has a beautiful savagery to it. Like, really stunning. The anger in this person…they are a hunter. They had to have laid in wait to kill the male, over here.”

Rolly’s absolute infatuation with the scene only proves it’s not his handiwork either.

“I have three questions,” I say out loud. Blaze and Sage turn to look at me, not at all interested in the kill site.

“Yes?”

“Who did it? What were they after? Is she safe?”

The last question hits Blaze hard. He stops being so smugly amused and starts looking at the murders with the eyes of a predator.

“There’s no scent,” Pix murmurs as he crouches in front of the remains of the fire. “Someone using patches? How is there no scent?”

“Another interesting thing is the overkill,” Rolly whispers. “It’s so pretty.”

“Was it personal?” Sage asks me.

“No, there are no trophies taken; the bodies weren’t staged. I think this is just an outlet,” Blaze murmurs.

“A really, really aggressive outlet,” Pix says as he pulls the tent apart, letting us see the massacre that has happened inside.