Any of it.
I’ve only done what I had to in order to get me and Harper free.
Just like she did for me.
The only true thing my momma ever told me before she took off and left me with Frank is thatlife’s a bitch and then you die.
That bitch was a real whore. Not much nicer than Frank, except her right hook didn’t have as much strength behind it.
I never had nothin’ gentle or nice my whole life.
Not ’til I met Harp.
Name like a song. Body so soft and warm when she’d climb in my window and huddle with me under the cover at night. Arms wrapped around me tight like I was the best thing in her world. The only thing she ever cared about.
And she’s my world. She kept me going when there was nothing else in my shithole life to keep goin’ for.
These people here? They got lots of things to keep going for. Money, least wise.
It’s real sad about what’s happened to Miss Helen, sure. That lady made a mean chocolate chip cookie. And sure, she was always nice to me.
But she’s dead now.
No reason to tell Harp about it, far as I can see. It’ll just make her sad, and I don’t like it when Harper’s sad. Well, except when she holds me like she is now. I wrap my arms tighter around her as she sobs into my chest.
It’s been so long since I had her this close.
I’m just setting things right.
And there’s no need for Harper to know Helen fell over dead on her way to get the mail this afternoon, a little while after that bastard son of hers got back from school.
It was a neighbor who saw her and called the ambulance. She was dead before they got here. Embolism or some shit to do with the cancer. Caleb was screaming at them to keep doing CPR and pumping away at the corpse all the way to the hospital. He threw a shit fit when they wouldn’t let him in the ambulance, then toreout of the driveway after them in that fancy ass car of his.
Couldn’t have been better timing, frankly.
I mean, I’m one smart fucker, but even I couldn’t have predicted that.
“Shhh,” I whisper, over and over as I hold Harper tighter.
I was so used to having her all to myself. It was bullshit to get free of Frank, only to get here and find not just one buttwobarriers between her and me still.
Silas and the little rat bastard.Caleb. Fuck, I hate that little bitch. Knowing he was fucking her, right under my nose? I wanted to smash his face in, then cut his dick off.
But I was patient instead.
If there’s one fucking thing I can do, it’s wait.
And plan.
I’ve been planning today for months. How could I take out both of my obstacles but have plausible deniability so none of it could ever blow back on me?
After all, there was no point if I didn’t get to ride off into the sunset with the girl.
I didn’t see a clear path until that New Year’s party. And the beautiful McKenzie. A mean girl with a grudge, who was used to lackeys doing her dirty work.
And there I was, a willing lackey, ready to offer all sorts of solutions to her problems. A video that could not only destroy both Caleb and Harper’s reputation but also make Harper feel like her best friend had betrayed her.
And Marie wouldn’t contradict it, thanks to a little extra dirt I provided on the girl. She was sweet, sure, but the collateral damage was necessary to throw Harperoff from realizing it wasmewho’d actually snapped that video of them on the stairs.