This Would Be Paradise (Book 2) (17 page)

“What if I’d said no?”

Darren scoffed. “After one day of either gardening or glorified babysitting with Zoe, you’d be begging me to take you along. We’re kind of alike, you and I, and I couldn’t deal with whiny kids all day.”

That was a slightly disturbing thought, him and I being alike.

“Did you forget that I was on my own with Chloe?” I pointed out.

Darren looked at Chloe, who’d emerged from the bedroom in her pajamas.

“She’s a little different from most kids though.”

“Fair point.”

I stayed until almost everyone had decided to call it a night. Ethan and I walked back to the clinic in silence. We’d never had to force conversation before. The vigil had dispersed, and we no longer had to worm our way inside. Grant was just leaving as we entered.

“She’s awake. You can go and see her if you’d like,” Grant said.

We headed to the converted bedrooms, where Sheri was propped up on multiple pillows in a single bed, resting.

“Hey.” She smiled weakly as we entered.

A tall man in scrubs stood beside her. He was very tan with black hair and dark eyes. It took me a few seconds to remember that he was Oscar, the surgeon.

“I’m glad to hear you’re okay.” Ethan walked over to her bedside and gave her a light hug.

“It’s all thanks to Dr. Perez here.”

Oscar waved off her comment. “I couldn’t have had a better patient. Your body handled the operation better than I could have hoped. I wish all my patients did so well.”

He laid a hand on Sheri’s shoulder in a friendly gesture. Oscar had really good bedside manners for a surgeon.

“You get some rest,” he said, and I had a feeling the comment was meant more for us.

“Will do, and you get some rest too,” Sheri said sternly.

Oscar laughed. “You don’t have to tell me twice. If you need anything, Annie will be right outside.”

He walked out, giving Ethan and I a nod.

“Wait, doc, I got a question for you,” Ethan said as he followed Oscar out of the room, leaving Sheri and I alone.

We awkwardly stared at each other. I hadn’t expected to be alone with her.

Sheri broke the silence first. “So I think I know why you haven’t been too warm toward me.”

Instead of playing aloof, I answered her directly. “Yeah, and why would that be?”

Sheri grinned. “Ethan.”

Her smile wasn’t malicious, more like she had a private joke she wasn’t letting me in on.

“And what would Ethan have to do with anything?”

Before she could answer, Crystal burst into the room.

“I step out for a minute to use the washroom and you decide to entertain more people,” she scolded as she ran over to Sheri.

“Of course. Anything to screw with you.” Sheri took her hand and they kissed.

On the lips.

Her joking smile made more sense now. They pulled apart and Sheri looked at me, her face splitting into a big grin at the dumbfounded look on my face.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I’m not into guys.” Sheri laughed. “And I believe Ethan falls under that category. If not, he had one hell of a plastic surgeon.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle in response. The brown-haired woman turned to me with a raised eyebrow, her silver piercing glinting.

“You thought Sheri was after Ethan?” She snorted. “All he talked about was Chloe and you, and when he wasn’t here, he was heading back to that gun shop to see if you guys had found the map. I’m Crystal, remember? We met when you first arrived.”

“Of course,” I said.

I took Crystal’s outstretched hand. Her fingernails were painted deep red, making me think of the bloody claws of a tiger.

“Well, I feel like a jackass,” I said, scratching at the back of my head.

“How about we start over?” Sheri offered.

“Deal.”

Ethan chose that moment to reappear.

“Did I miss somthin’?” At the confused look on his face, we all burst into fits of laughter.

“Not a thing,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed like that.

“Sounds like the doc thinks you’re gonna make an almost full recovery,” Ethan said, ignoring our hysterics.

“I guess Mark owes you a kidney,” I joked.

“Poor kid was here the entire time. Crystal had to shove him out twenty minutes ago,” Sheri said.

It was pretty big of Sheri to not hold a grudge against Mark for shooting her. If it were me, I’d be demanding his kidney as my due.

“Speaking of which, thanks for the visit, guys, but Sheri needs her rest,” Crystal said, placing a hand on her hip.

Ethan and I said our goodbyes and headed out.

“So you gonna tell me what that was all about?” Ethan asked as soon as we hit the last front step.

“Girl stuff.”

“Right … girl stuff.” Ethan didn’t sound the least bit convinced.

I bit my lip. Did I really want to have this conversation with him?

“I haven’t been too nice to Sheri because—” The words weren’t coming out easily. “Well, I thought there was something between you two.”

Ethan stumbled. “You know she’s …” He searched for the right word.

“Gay?”

He nodded.

“I do now.”

“So”—Ethan raised a finger—“you were jealous then.”

I knew this was how this conversation would go: me having to cop to my feelings. Instead of teasing me, Ethan’s lips curled upwards.

“Guess we haven’t really talked ‘bout it, have we?”

“Not like the normal dating rules apply here. We can’t just go out to a dinner and movie, you know.” I shrugged, still uncomfortable with this conversation.

Ethan stopped and grabbed my arm, swinging me around to face him. We were standing in the middle of the road under the starlit sky. A few solar-powered lampposts shone along the sidewalk but didn’t cast enough light for us to see each other properly.

“Bailey, would you like to go steady with me, whatever that means now?” His words sounded casual, but he stood ramrod straight.

I smiled at him. “Can’t say I’ve ever been asked that way before.”

“Is that a yes?” he asked hopefully.

I put my arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. For a millisecond, he stayed still, and then he must have clued in that I was saying yes. His arms encased me, and he kissed me back excitedly. I pulled away but his lips stayed on mine until it was either part or fall over together.

In a very unlike-me manner, I steered him toward my condo.

“How about we finish what we started at the cabin?” I shot him a sly look.

He stumbled but allowed me to pull him to the other side of the road. A goofy grin spread across his face.

“You sure?”

I laughed. “I’m even sober this time.”

We quietly walked into the house and tiptoed to my room like a couple of teens out after curfew. Luckily Roy and Amanda were already in bed. As soon as I shut the door behind us, Ethan pushed me up against the wall and kissed me like he was on death row. The tingling that had started in the pit of my stomach began to spread. With each deep kiss, warmth pumped through my veins.

We stumbled to the bed, which was only three steps from the door. Ethan fell back, taking me with him. Using my dominant position, I kissed him languidly, my hands running along his muscular chest. His hands roamed down my back, giving my butt a squeeze and pushing my body closer to his.

Our breathing was almost embarrassingly labored from the heavy make-out session. Ethan grabbed me tight and flipped us over so he was now on top. His lips moved from my mouth to my neck in a sloppy trail of kisses. His lips roamed lower, between my breasts, as his hands worked to unbutton my jean shorts.

He reared up and pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a toned torso. I ran my hands over his bare skin, which twitched under my touch.

“Do all country boys look like that with their shirts off?”

“Too bad you’ll never find out.”

I liked his possessive tone.

“You have protection this time?”

“Oh yeah. I’m not lettin’ you get away twice.”

Ethan stopped the laugh that was threatening to escape my lips by lowering himself down and kissing me gently. He ran his hands up and down my bare legs as he helped me tug my shorts off. I resisted the urge to shiver. My bottoms fell to the floor, next to his shirt. I wrapped my legs around him, drawing him closer to me, and our lips met again.

Sometime later, a noise like a tree branch scraping against a window woke me. Weird, considering there were no trees by my bedroom window. I lifted my head. Ethan was breathing deeply behind me. I could have sworn I’d seen a shadow cross my window, but a wave of drowsiness drew my head back to the pillow, and I fell back asleep without giving it another thought.

I poked my head out of my bedroom to see if the coast was clear. From the sunlight glaring through my window, I could tell it was pretty early in the morning. I was starting to prefer mornings, because the sun hadn’t had the chance to warm up the condo; we didn’t have air conditioning to stave off the heat. Long before we arrived, Wyatt and his crew had disconnected most of the power in the units, saving the electricity for the hot water tanks and pumps. A smart idea, but it meant the units became saunas every now and then.

During the summers back home in
British Columbia, I’d sometimes blow up the air mattress and sleep in the basement instead of my room upstairs. Canada may have cold winters, but the summers could be scorching. A familiar flood of homesickness hit me, so I turned to Ethan to stop my thoughts of home in their tracks. I’d shaken him awake, and he was putting his rumpled clothes from last night back on, readying himself for “the walk of shame.” I was glad it wasn’t me who had to do it.

“I don’t hear or see anyone,” I whispered.

Ethan finished pulling up his jeans and said, “Why am I sneakin’ out like this again?”

“Is this how you want people to find out we’re together?”

His lips curled up, and he yanked me too him, placing a giant kiss on my mouth.

“Whatever you say,
darlin’
,” he said, exaggerating the last word with his southern drawl.

“That accent is starting to grow on me,” I said, our lips a millimeter apart.

“But only mine, right?”

I smiled and placed a finger on my chin. “I dunno. Byron’s Cajun accent is in close second.”

Ethan scoffed. “Even I have a hard time understandin’ him sometimes.”

I kissed him back and then shoved him out the bedroom.

“Jeez, woman. You’re not even goin’ to let me put my shoes on?”

“I could’ve tossed you out in your underwear.” I grinned evilly.

“Next time, you’re comin’ to my place and I’m kickin’
you
out in your underwear.”

“That’ll leave quite the impression on our neighbors, plus what about Chloe?”

Ethan’s goofy smile, which had been permanently etched on his face since he woke up, faltered. He put down the shoe he’d been slipping on as realization sunk in.

“How should we tell her?”

I ran my hands up and down my arms. “Well I’ve never dated a guy with a kid before, so I have no idea.”

Ethan raised a brow. “She’s not my daughter.”

“She might as well be,” I said without thinking.

Ethan stilled his hands again. A scared pair of eyes bore into my own. I’d just put my foot in my mouth in a very spectacular way. I opened my mouth to apologize, but Ethan held up his hand.

“You’re right.” He flopped down on one of the island stools. “I guess I just didn’t want to believe it until now.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

He looked so lost, so unlike himself. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him. It took a second, but he hugged me back.

“So you’ll tell her then?”

I gently smacked him upside the head.

“Kiddin’!” He put his hands up in surrender.

“Chloe’s not just your responsibility, you know. She has all of us too,” I said. “Especially me.”

In the weeks we had spent together where it was just the two of us, it felt like I had adopted Chloe in way.
Huh, I guess I just gained a little sister.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pay you back for keepin’ her safe,” Ethan said once again, all flirting gone.

“Well, I’m not a diamond kind of girl, so how about you share some of the dirt on this place?”

“Bailey, there’s nothin’ wrong with this place, so stop lookin’ for somethin’,” he said like a dad scolding a child.

The front door flew open, and Roy rushed in, almost face planting when he saw us in the kitchen.

“Roy!” I said louder than I should have, sounding guilty. “I can—”

“You two need to come outside. Now!” He ran back outside, leaving Ethan and I to chase after him.

“I guess we should go after him then,” I said.

We walked outside, squinting in the early morning sun. A small crowd of people had gathered by the far side of the cul-de-sac. Together, we ran toward them, only to halt at the sight of red smeared on the road like a bloody chalk drawing. Roy was one of the few people standing around. He waved us over and moved out of our way so we could see more clearly.

Something that had once been a human was spread all over the pavement like road kill. The body cavity had been viciously hollowed out. Tendons and flesh were scattered around the crime scene, and I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or the result of the attack.

From the long strands of hair matted to the ground in blood, I assumed the body belonged to a woman. All her clothes had been torn away, and the torso was too mangled to identify the gender at first glance. It was like she’d been laid out as a sacrificial offering to some heathen god, though the scene lacked any ritualistic symbols or items.

“What the hell?” I looked to Roy for answers.

“Chris found the body about ten minutes ago. Wyatt isn’t even here yet,” Roy said.

This Chris guy looked like he was about to puke.

“Did anyone see an infected?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Roy said. “I got here not long before I came and got you guys. Amanda’s still asleep, thank God. I don’t want her to see this.”

I turned to Ethan. “Quite the safe place here, eh?”

He didn’t look at me as he took a deep breath. “I gotta go get Wyatt.”

He took off, sparing one last look at the crime scene.

Other curious people were coming out of their condos to see what all the commotion was about. They were in for a surprise.

“Chris.” I put my hand on the shocked man’s shoulder. “Can you go get a large white sheet to cover the body?”

He nodded at me dumbly, his legs walking ahead of his body as he left.

“Quick thinking,” Roy said.

I moved around the scene, looking for footprints. With this much blood and carnage, there should be some tracks to follow. I couldn’t spot anything that indicated what direction the killer had gone. If it had been an infected, it would have left us a trail of breadcrumbs—or in this case, a trail of innards—to follow. They weren’t known for their brainpower.

It was hard, but I forced myself to kneel down and examine the body more closely. If someone had told me six months ago that I’d be inspecting a mutilated corpse, I would have broken down in laughter—then thrown up.

It didn’t look like the flesh had been gnawed on. I couldn’t see any visible bite marks along the extremities. The arms and legs, while sliced and covered in blood, were still attached to the torso with no evidence that the killer had attempted to sever the body parts—except for the neck. The killer must have tried to decapitate the poor girl. Her neck was cut so deep the spine peeked out from the gash.

“What are you doing?” Wyatt’s authoritative voice bellowed; he was talking to me.

“Trying to see what”—I looked him dead in the eyes—“or
who
did this.”

“We have people who will do that. Now please step away,” he commanded me, still wearing his pajamas.

Ethan was at his side, jerking his head, telling me to step away. I glared at him but stood. Chris chose this moment to reappear with the sheet and handed it to me, still in a daze.

“What’s that for?” Wyatt demanded.

“You really want a mutilated body on display?” I asked, fanning the folded sheet out.

Roy grabbed one end and we gently lowered the sheet over the body. For a brief moment, I was reminded of the time we buried Taylor. I shook my head to dispel the unpleasant memory. I remembered how sad I’d been back then, but now, all I felt was anger.

Wyatt had a duty to keep these people safe, and by not catching the killer, he’d allowed this to happen again. He’d exposed my friends and me to this menace.

I walked around the covered body to Wyatt and got right up in his face. “What are you going to do about this? I heard this wasn’t the first time someone was murdered in the streets.”

“I’ll chalk this up to the stress of finding the body, but you need to back away,” Wyatt practically growled at me.

“Bailey?” Chloe asked, wide-eyed. The rest of our group had decided to join the spectacle of onlookers.

“Hey, let’s go back to the condo.” Ethan grabbed her hand and towed her back down the street as she complained about us always leaving her out.

“Ho-ly shit,” John said.

Zoe’s face paled at the sight and Darren stood defiantly beside her. No doubt these stupid people would suspect him again, because they were looking for a scapegoat.

John’s hand curled around my arm and yanked me to the side.

“Now’s not the time.” His look told me not to do anything rash.

The rest of Wyatt’s entourage finally arrived, the sergeant among them. I watched his reaction, or lack thereof, as he took in the sheet-clad body.

“Everyone needs to head to the clubhouse for breakfast and let us handle this,” Wyatt said over the murmuring that was breaking out, essentially shooing the crowd away. “The cooks have already been informed that breakfast will be earlier than normal, so please head there now.”

He looked directly at me as he finished his sentence. Most people listened and were walking away, but a few had to be prodded to migrate toward the clubhouse. I was among those few.

“Come on, Bailey. Wyatt can take it from here,” John said as he dragged me with him.

I whispered to John, “That wasn’t the work of an infected.”

“Keep walkin’,” John said as he glanced back at the body.

I kept my head facing forward, knowing that Wyatt and his groupies would be watching. I was going to get a reputation as a shit-starter soon.

People eyed Darren as we walked and gave us a wide berth.

Once we were far enough away, John leaned in. “What happened to the body?”

“Looks like someone tried to cut her head off and hollow her out.”

John tugged at the collar of his shirt. Unlike Wyatt, he was dressed and ready for the day.

“Sounds like what we found with the previous murder.”

I looked back one last time. They were all standing around the body. Sergeant Grant peeked under the sheet as if he didn’t already know what was under there.

“I don’t trust them,” I mumbled.

“It shows,” John said. “You gotta be more discreet.”

“Our lives are at stake,” I pointed out.

John held up his hands. “I just mean you gotta be less obvious about it.”

That gave me an idea.

“Oh no. You got that look on your face.”

“Well, if they won’t investigate these crimes properly, then there’s no reason why I can’t do some digging of my own.”

John leaned in closer. “What’d you have in mind?”

I smiled. I’d half expected him to berate me.

“A little breaking and entering. I’ll have to wait until the timing is right so I can make sure Wyatt will be out of his condo for an uninterrupted amount of time. Then I can poke around without worrying he’ll be coming back at any second.”

“You’ll be needin’ someone to watch your back.”

“I assume you mean you?”

“Unless you know another Marine who did recon for a couple of tours.” He readjusted his cowboy hat.

“Can’t say I do.”

“But we’re not doin’ this halfcocked. We gotta plan it out right.”

“Naturally,” I said as I pushed open the clubhouse door.

People were already sitting down, eating breakfast. Many people were still in their pajamas, not caring if anyone saw them in their ancient, holey sweats. I guess they got a pass today because of the shitty morning so far.

Zoe came up to me. “Did you see who it was?”

I shook my head. “It was really hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure it was a woman.”

“Someone will report a person missin’ soon.” John sucked in a breath. “Then we’ll have that to deal with.”

“Does anyone live alone?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” Zoe answered. “Most people arrived in groups, so they stuck together, and Wyatt doesn’t want anyone left out, so he assigns people a roommate if they don’t have one.”

“Except for him and his goons, I bet,” I muttered.

John shot me another warning look, and I clamped my mouth shut. Darren looked at me and nodded. He must have picked up on my accusatory tone. People were giving Darren—and us, by proxy—the stink eye as we walked to the serving line.

“How about we take our food back to the condo?” Zoe suggested and we all agreed.

Turns out Chloe and Ethan had already gotten their breakfast and were waiting for us back at their place.

“Will you tell me what happened?” Chloe asked me, exasperated.