Carter Reed(47)

“I don’t want to stay away,” I mumbled. I felt ridiculous.

“Yeah, well, I don’t care.” She glared at me before she took the tray into the back room.

I followed. I heard a groan come from the bathroom hallway, but I didn’t look to see if it was the guard or not. I didn’t care.

When Amanda saw that I had followed her, more curses fell from her lips. She took the tray to the sink and wiped all of the cookies into the garbage beside it. “I know you texted on Monday, but I tossed my phone. Things don’t feel right to me.”

“You said that Mallory and Ben are gone?”

She jerked her head in a tight nod before she turned the water on. “Yeah. I packed all your stuff at the apartment and took a few things to Ben’s on Sunday, things that I thought Mallory would want, but his place was empty.”

“Empty?”

“They were gone. His clothes looked packed. He had boxes out in the kitchen with dishes. I went back Monday and everything was locked up. I tried the extra key, but they changed the locks. From what I could see, even his furniture was gone. They took off, Emma.” The pan was in the sink and the water was on, but she didn’t move to clean it. She studied me instead. “You look good. I’m glad someone’s doing okay with this whole ordeal.”

I stepped back, as if slapped, but she didn’t know. She hadn’t pulled the trigger, that’d been me. “I’m sorry that you got dragged into this.”

“Into what?” she snapped. “Doesn’t seem like anything happened. The body’s been missing, who the hell did that? Then you left, now those two. It’s just me. I didn’t even know what to do with your stuff so I put it all into storage.”

“You need me to pay for that?”

She shrugged, putting the pan underneath the water now. “It doesn’t matter. Ben gave me enough money so it’s paid for a year.”

“Wait.” I grabbed her arm. “Ben gave you money?”

“Yeah. Why?”

He wasn’t the type to give money, much less have money. “Where’d it come from?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say, just tossed me a big envelope and told me to take care of Mallory’s stuff. I didn’t question it. After you took off, I learned that maybe it’s better if I don’t ask any questions.”

My eyes narrowed. “How’d Ben look?”

“What do you mean?” She grew weary now, more than she had been at the beginning.

“Was he his normal grouchy self?”

“When’s he not his normal grouchy self?” She paused with the pan in her hand. “Actually, now that you mention it, he looked happy last week.” She shuddered. “I don’t even want to know what that means. I took the money and did what he said. I told you before that I would take care of your apartment. Two of my co-workers helped me clean and I left your keys on the counter. Your landlord seemed fine with that.”

I nodded. I tried to tell myself that things were fine. I was safe. Amanda seemed fine, pissy, but fine. However, I couldn’t shake what she told me. Mallory and Ben were gone. What’d that mean? That had to mean something. And Ben had money. Ben never had money. Something was off, well, considering the situation, something was really off.

She bit her lip, eyeballing me. “You don’t look too good now. What’s wrong, Emma?”

I jerked my head up. “Nothing. It’s fine. Thanks for taking care of the apartment.”

“Look,” her shoulders dropped and her voice softened. “I’m sorry that I didn’t text you or call you. You gave me that new number and I know you were never one to really call, but I was mad after you took off. I know you did something to keep us all safe and I know that I’m not supposed to ask what that was, but Mallory went off the deep end a few days after you left. She got real bad again. Ben wouldn’t let me call you. He said that you deserted us so we would make do without you.” She blew out a deep breath. “Anyways, so I was mad at you for a bit. And I missed you. I miss making fun of Ben with you. He’s so weird sometimes.”

I grinned, despite myself. This wasn’t a funny situation, but I missed those moments too. “You said he was happy? What’s Ben like when he’s happy?”

“Oh, you know.” She chuckled. The pan had been cleaned and put on the drying section. “He was walking around, strutting like some peacock that got laid by a swan. I dunno. He had some weird new walk, thrusting his hips around.” More chuckles poured from her. “I know he thought he was hot stuff, but he looked ridiculous. Like a plump turkey that got stuffed and liked it.”

My grin widened, and I relaxed. I had missed this. I missed our camaraderie. “He thought he was hot stuff?”

“I caught him checking himself out in the mirror. I think he’d been jerking it, but I wasn’t sure. He was all sweaty and his pants were undone.”

“Gross.”

Her nose wrinkled up. “Tell me about it. By then Mallory was starting to come around again. She thought he was stupid too, but it’s not the same. She doesn’t…” Her voice trailed off and a glimmer of sadness appeared before she looked away. Mallory wasn’t me. She didn’t laugh at Ben like we did.

“So,” my voice hitched on a note. “Mallory was doing better before…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, that Mallory and Ben were gone. Oh god. I swallowed a knot in my throat. What did that mean? They had left. No one had taken them? My chest tightened. Had Franco found Mallory? But Carter hadn’t said anything, he would’ve told me, wouldn’t he? But then I knew—he wouldn’t. And he’d been gone all week.