Page 48 of Hellbound

Marian glanced at the unconscious spotter. His face was pasty white, and the uneven rise and fall of his chest made her nervous. The hands that had once tried to choke the life out of her were now limp and cold.

Tori was right. But getting Lloyd to a doctor meant calling an ambulance. And when they discovered the bullet hole in him, police would soon follow. Marian swore under her breath.

Her conscience was on a roll today.

She stiffly got to her feet. The plastic bandage wrapper crinkled in her grip as she thought through the next steps. She’d shadowed crime reporters before as a journalist, and she’d read enough cold cases to know how to muddle a crime scene.

“Wipe down everything you touched, especially the gun. I’ll deal with the bandages. When we’re done, call 9-1-1. Then we’re going to get gone really fucking fast.”

Her voice sounded so alien in her ears—cold and steady. She shouldn’t be so calm given what they were doing. It wasn’t her first crime scene, but it was the first one she’d created. If what happened here could even be called a crime.

“Do we hide the gun or what?” Tori said as she stripped off her sweatshirt and reached for Lloyd’s Glock.

“We’re going to put it back in his pants and hope it looks like he shot himself in the ass.”

Tori pursed her lips as she scrubbed at the gun with her pink sweatshirt. “They’re going to know someone was here, bandaging him.”

“Then take his gauze off.”

Tori looked at her, horrified. “We can’t leave him bleeding.”

“Then what do you want to do?” Marian snapped back.

Tori grimaced and looked away. “Where’s your knife?”

Marian’s stomach lurched.

“Gone.”

And she had no idea what she was going to do about it.

It was freezing out, and Marian was still really fucking wet. The weather app on her phone said it was only sixty degrees, but it may as well have been snowing. In her earlier fugue, she’d forgotten to pack a change of dry clothes. She should have at least thought to bring a towel. Why did she never remember to bring a damn towel?

She’d gathered up her effects, shoved her hat on her head, and raced out of Lloyd’s garage with Tori at her side well before the blare of sirens sounded in the distance.

Guilt gnawed at her as she thought of how they’d stripped the spotter of his bandages before they left. They’d delayed as long as they could, and while the bleeding had mostly stopped, it was an ugly parting. But when Tori called for an ambulance, all Marian cared about was getting as far away from Lloyd Wertz and his garage as quickly as possible.

Tori lied beautifully to the dispatcher, her concern so convincing as she explained where and when she’d heard the gunshot. As soon as she hung up, they fled.

There were so many thoughts and fears Marian hadn’t processed yet, she didn’t know where to start as they hurried through the night away from that place of death. Nothing short of a pharmaceutical coma could make her forget seeing the Remnant break through the veil to Earth. And the knife was gone, dissolved before her eyes like a hallucination.

That revelation alone damn near sent her into a doom spiral. She needed to get back to North Hollywood and have a breakdown in the privacy of her gloomy apartment. But she had no idea where they were in relation to the bus stop she’d arrived at. They’d set off without a direction.

She also wasn’t sure why Tori was still here. The leaves of an old Indian laurel rustled overhead, moved by an easterly wind as Tori exhaled loudly. The first sound she’d made in minutes.

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“Then don’t say anything,” Marian grumbled.

“I’m suddenly really glad I parked so far away.” Tori stopped in her tracks and looked around. “Where did you park?”

Marian stuffed a stray clump of damp hair under her hat. “I took the train.”

Tori’s brows lofted in surprise. “You took the Metro? From where?”

“NoHo.”

“And you’re going to take public transit back? At this time of night?” Tori replied, incredulous. “After what we just did? Is that a good idea?”