Burying Water (Burying Water #1)(103)

With a heavy sigh, he drops his hand to his side and then begins a slow walk around, his gaze roaming the ground, as if he’s searching for something. Finally, he stoops over to pick up the remnants of a cigarette butt, studying it for a moment before flicking it away. “Because this is where I found you.”

“You found me?” My heart skips a beat as I take in the surroundings again. “Why did you lie?”

“It’s a long story.” Jesse’s jaw tenses. “But you got your wish. You got to start over.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Jesse

then

Lifting her limp body up in my arms as delicately as possible, I start plodding through the snow toward my car, trying to hold her steady, my muscles straining against her dead weight. “It’s okay . . . You’re going to be fine . . . It’s me, Jesse . . . I won’t let him hurt you anymore . . .” I ramble. I doubt she can hear me but I talk anyway. I need to hear these words as much as she does. I need to believe them.

How the hell did Viktor find out? And exactly what does he know?

As carefully as possible, I slide her onto the backseat, thankful for the car’s wide frame. I’m afraid to let her go but I have to, if she has any hope of survival at all. Wrapping the wool blanket around her broken body, I rush to the driver’s seat to crank the engine and blast the car’s heat. If the severe beating hasn’t done her in, the winter cold certainly will.

My hands . . . I hold them up in the dim interior light. Like two slick red gloves, they’re coated in Alex’s blood. The front of my light gray hoodie—because I bolted out of my apartment too fast to grab a coat—is also covered. A quick glance in the rearview mirror confirms the crimson streaks smeared across my cheeks, where I wiped away my tears.

And I’ve got a badly beaten girl with ties to Viktor in my backseat.

Shit.

I can’t just show up at the ER with her, can I? There’ll be too many questions that I can’t answer. What if she dies? I just . . . My brain is a jumbled mess. I know she needs helps, but . . . I just . . . I can’t think straight. My hands tremble as I reach into my coat pocket for my phone, to do the only thing I can think of, because I’m in way over my head this time.

He answers on the second ring. “Jesse?”

“Dad?” My voice cracks over that one syllable. “I really f**ked up this time.”

“What do you mean?” His tone immediately takes on that authoritative edge. Normally, I clam right up when I hear it. Not this time, though. “It’s Alex. She’s . . . hurt. Bad.”

“What? Where are you?”

“Near Black Butte. I have her in my car and I’m heading toward Bend.” I throw the car into gear and, pinning my cell to my ear with my shoulder, I maneuver out of the dead end and head back, struggling not to speed too much for her sake. “I don’t think she’s going to make it.”

“You shouldn’t have moved her. Exactly where are you? Pull over. I’m calling an ambulance.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“What the hell do you mean?” he snaps.

“It’s not that simple.” Fuck. Alex used those exact same words with me once. “Alex’s husband did this.”

He exhales loudly. “Well then, we’ll have him arrested. But first we need to get her to a hospital.”

“He’s Russian mob.”

“What?” My dad seems winded, like he’s walking fast. “Jesus, Jesse. How the hell did you get mixed up with that!”

“I’ll explain everything later. Right now I just need her safe.”

“Did this happen because of you?”

I shake my head.

“Jesse!”

“I don’t know! Just, please, Dad. Please help me.” I don’t know if he even hears that last plea, my voice is so hoarse, this engine so damn loud.

“The old tannery. How far away are you?”

“Maybe ten minutes.”

Those ten minutes feel like an hour. I half-expect the entire Deschutes County police force and handcuffs when I get to the run-down building on an isolated side road, abandoned for years. A single set of tracks leads me around back, to where the white cruiser sits with a prominent green star emblem on the door. My dad’s marching toward me.

“Holy . . .” He winces as he looks in the backseat.

“I know.”

“Shut your car off and pull her out. Lay her down here.” He points to the ground on his way back to his car.

I’m not going to argue with him, so I push my seat forward and scoop her up.

Another light, gurgling sound slips through her lips and I have to grit my teeth to keep the sob from tearing out of me as my dad calls our location in over the radio. “Just hang in there, Alex. Stay with me.”

As much as I don’t want to, I lay her down in the fresh bed of snow.

“Get out of here, now. Take this.” He pulls the blanket away from her body.

“But it’s cold out here. She needs it.”

“Does it have your DNA on it?”

Both of ours. All over it.

My hesitation answers him. He thrusts it into my hand. “Take it. Drive this car right into the garage. Bag everything on you, bag the rags, the blanket. Everything. And stay there. Don’t give anyone a reason to pull you over, Jesse. Go! Now!”