Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“Dante, I was there with the body. I know what I saw.”
Right?
I mean, it had been dark. I just had my headlamp. And I had been completely freaked out and panicked. But I’d seen his open eyes, his parted mouth, the moisture still gathered there. That said, could that have just been… glue or nail polish, or something else meant to make the area look wet?
The squishy feel of him—surely there were ways for a designer to make a mannequin feel that way.
Something in me still rejected the idea.
But if both Dante and Domenico said it was just a prop, who was I to say otherwise? I mean, they’d been the ones to move the thing. Surely they would know better than me that it was fake.
“I’m sorry you were so scared, Hazel,” he said, hand massaging again. “My cousin got a talking-to.”
“I’m… I’m sorry I overreacted.” Feeling suddenly incredibly embarrassed, I got to my feet, ignoring the way my body objected to the distance between the two of us.
“Hey, don’t be sorry,” Dante said, stepping in front of me, surprising me enough to make me glance up. This time, he was looking right at me. “It was a valid response.”
To a real body, sure.
I should have investigated harder.
I should have been more logical.
“Haze, got a minute?” Ant called, making me jerk away from Dante.
“Yeah, coming,” I said. “Again, sorry about the overreaction.” I rushed past Dante before he could contradict me, making my way over to Ant, who had his whole face painted midnight black with two white diamonds up and down from his eyes.
I could practically see the thirst trap videos of him being posted online.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing. Just looked like you wanted an excuse to get away from the boss man,” he said, shrugging as I fell into step with him.
“I, uh, yeah. I need to get to work.”
“Family night,” he agreed.
“Yeah. Everything has to be perfect.”
“You got this,” Ant said as I glanced around, frowning a bit at the men still meandering around.
I wanted to ask who they were, but Dante and Domenico were here. They clearly knew them. It was probably none of my business. Maybe they were just family too, showing up early to hang out with the guys.
I threw myself into setting everything up over the next few hours—spreading pumpkins across the field, adding more straw for the build-your-own scarecrow, walking through the corn maze to make sure the walls were all in place and the trash was all picked up, and setting up the craft areas.
When all that was done, I had to do what I was dreading. I needed to walk the path through the woods.
Sucking in a deep breath, I reminded myself that there were people all around now, that there hadn’t been a body anyway.
So I grabbed a bucket and pincher tool for trash (because there was always something leftover from previous tours) and made my way into the woods.
My body’s response was instantaneous. My hairs stood up, goosebumps pricked, and a cold sweat started on the back of my neck and down my spine.
Despite the sun still dappling in through the canopy above me, the familiar woods felt eerie, almost ominous.
I found myself side-eyeing all the decorations: the fake blood, the missing limbs, the pretend bodies in trash bags.
But there was nothing unexpected. Except someone’s lost ugly animal keychain that, apparently, was expensive and highly sought after.
I took that back with me to the office in case someone came looking for it, then greeted the rest of the staff, reminding them to be on their best behavior with not only the boss but his whole family in attendance.
As the night drew down around the garden center, anxiety started to ratchet up through my system, making me feel antsy and tense. Each sound had me jumping; each shadow demanded investigation.
But then the headlights were turning into the lot, and I had to get my head in the game.
The Grassi family was here.
CHAPTER NINE
Dante
Lying was a part of being a member of organized crime. No one really liked it, but we accepted the necessity of it.
That said, lying to Hazel had been unexpectedly hard. Especially when I caught the wide eyes and quivering lower lip on her pretty face as I fed her the lies.
She hadn’t been wrong.
There had been a body in the woods.
One that warranted half the family coming out to discuss it.
Because it was one of our own.
Big Ed had been an associate of my older brother Massimo and a fixture in the Family for a solid six years. Mostly, he did protection work around the docks, since the guy was a giant. But he did odd jobs for most of us when we needed an extra hand.
Most recently, he’d done an odd job for me.
And now he was dead.