ANDREW
Troy and Gabe were stuck on the side of the road. Of course they were. The bike they were testing broke down and they didn’t want to leave it when they couldn’t get it started again.
Andrew groaned, leaving the diner under Phoebe’s control. He liked that girl. She didn’t give a damn about the rumors or the fall out with Haley, who quit the diner weeks ago over it.
He jumped into truck and got moving. He found them an hour out of town.
“What the fuck, you two?” He stormed out the truck, snarling. “You had to bring it all the way the fuck out here?”
They had the decency to look ashamed, both trying to offer explanations at the same time.
“Get it in the back,” he growled. “Also, did Riley know you left?”
He watched them pale.
“You didn’t fucking tell her you would be out here? You left her alone at the house and didn’t fucking tell her?”
“We left a note in the workshop,” Gabe mumbled. Troy nodded slowly.
“Hurry up. There’s no way I’m going back to the diner now. Brenton and Zachary are gone until tomorrow, so you two both answer to me.”
He hated pulling rank. He was technically the third but never really needed to use it. Gabe and Troy were at the bottom since they were younger and acted like. Andrew was the oldest in the group but no one was going to say Brenton or Zachary were immature. And he liked those two in charge. Leadership of a pride didn’t suit Andrew and he definitely wasn’t born an Alpha.
It took them ten minutes to load both bikes into the back of truck and haul their own asses in to his truck. Gabe forced Troy into the middle and they argued about it.
“Both of you, just shut the fuck up,” Andrew groaned. He wanted to get home and cuddle with Riley. She always made him smile and maybe after this, she’d be willing to.
It was a silent drive after that, Andrew cranking the music up loud enough to not even hear himself think.
It took the entire hour no matter how much Andrew tried to speed. There was fucking afternoon traffic going through town. When they eventually made it home, Andrew looked at the brothers.
“You will get those fucking bikes off my truck before you do fucking anything else.”
Then he slid out and left them in the garage, bitching about his mood.
He smelled the blood before he saw it. The male that he only met in person once before, Cameron Slater. And he smelled death. He turned into the kitchen and saw Riley looking up at him. She had a gun in one hand, and both of her hands were covered in blood. A bloody knife sat on the floor in front of her.
Cameron was face done in a pool of his own blood and he couldn’t make out what killed him, there was too much blood on his suit. He was dirty, like he had hiked through the forest before he got here.
“Good afternoon, Andrew,” Riley sounded a little hysterical. “You wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had!”
He looked back at her and nodded slowly.
“I can imagine by the looks of it. Why don’t you put the gun down?”
She looked at it in her hand and sighed. She laid it softly on the floor but didn’t make an attempt to stand.
“I was holding on to it in case he got back up. Because that’s my luck, right?”
“Yeah, darling, you do have some wild luck, both good and bad,” Andrew tried to smile as he walked to her slowly. He avoided stepping in the blood and bent down to grab her elbows. He lifted her and she wobbled, unsteady.
“You’re home early,” she smiled more at him and he didn’t like the slightly glazed look she had.
“Troy and Gabe needed a ride home. Their new bike broke about an hour out of town and they didn’t want to leave it.” He grabbed her hips and lifted her to the counter. “Don’t move.” She nodded.
He walked back to the kitchen’s entrance and screamed.
“Troy! Gabe! Kitchen, right fucking now!”
He didn’t wait for their response. He grab a box of freezer bags and used them to pick up the gun and knife without leaving finger prints. He sealed both weapons in their own bags and placed them on the counter top farthest away from Riley.
“Holy shit!” Troy stood in the door way and Gabe ran into the back of him.
“Troy, call Brenton or Zachary. We need them back tonight,” Andrew looked to the brothers. “Gabe, pull up all our securities tapes since you left.”
“Hi guys!” Riley grinned at them and waved. “Maybe next time you should let me know when you leave. I promise not murder any one next time if you do!”
Andrew winced and watched both of the brothers pale to the color of death.
“Go on, you two,” Andrew waved them away and they both took off. Gabe didn’t come back until he had his laptop and he sat at the bar.
“Uh Andrew, come here and smell this.”
“Oh yeah!” Riley laughed. “My sociopath mother was here too! You’ll see and hear that over security right?”
“Yeah babe, we will,” Gabe tried to sound as bright as her and Andrew couldn’t stop another wince. Sure enough, where Gabe was, a faint scent to a serval female in her middle ages. Jesus fucking Christ, what had fucking happened?
“Pull up those tapes and do it quickly. Make copies physically, then destroy the digital versions,” Andrew growled softly to Gabe who was nodding. “After that, make sure to kill all the cameras in this area so they don’t catch the clean up.”
“On it.”
Andrew turned back to Riley, who was smiling a more ruefully now.
“How was your day, Andrew?” She had lost some of her pep. He knew she was just trying to cope with it. She had killed a man while they left her alone at home. They kept fucking up when they tried to protect her from everything.
“It was fine, darling. Now I’m going to take you upstairs and clean you off okay?” He swallowed and lifted her into his arms. “We’re going to take care of this.”
“He wanted to kill me.” she whispered, her tough shell finally cracking open. He saw her eyes fill with tears, making them even more glazed. “He called me a ‘completely worthless whore’ and I stabbed him in the back after he tried to shoot me. Then I took the gun and shoot him twice in the back while he was on the floor. Just to make sure. And I would do it again, Andrew. Does that make me a bad person?”
“Oh darling, no. No, it doesn’t make you a bad person.” He hugged her tight against in as they entered his bathroom. He turned the water on and got it to the right temperature before he undressed both of them.
The shower was fast. He needed to her the blood off of her. He even checked her finger nails. He was lucky that it was really on her hands and feet. She must accidentally stepped in it. He couldn’t change that now but he could clean her up.
They all met back in the kitchen, Troy still on the phone with Brenton. Troy saw him and Riley and turned on speaker phone.
“They’re here now, Brenton.” Troy placed the phone on the top of the bar for all of them.
“Riley, how are you?” Brenton’s voice echoed out of the phone. “We’re driving back right now but it’ll be at least another two hours.”
“I’ve been better. But I’ve also been worse.” Riley was still curled into Andrew and wrapped his arms around her.
“Injuries?” Zachary’s voice came through, sounding a bit far away.
“Not on me,” Riley laughed darkly.
“Good girl,” Brenton growled in appreciation. Andrew had to admit, she fucking took Cameron down. He only found a couple small bruises, the biggest on her back. “Gabe, do you have physical copies of the security tapes?”
“Yup, tested and working fine. Volume is perfect and the picture is clear. We get the entire scene. Also deleted the digital files from our system.”
“Perfect. When we get home, we’re going to go over what happened. I want all three of you finding a spot on the property and burying Cameron at least six feet deep. Burn his clothing. Throw him in the hole without it so he degrades faster.”
Andrew felt Riley stiffen.
“We’re not letting you go to prison, Riley. You killed him in self defense and he fucking deserved it,” He whispered in her ear. She nodded slowly.
“Yeah, I thought we would call Sheriff… I’m just…”
“Yeah, I know,” Andrew kissed the top of her head. “But we aren’t involving Sheriff in any of this.”
“Moving on,” Brenton spoke hoarsely. “Have him buried by the time we get back if you can. Riley, I want you to stay with them the entire time.”
“Can do,” Riley nodded. “Shit, can I help them dig?”
“If you’re feeling up to it…” Brenton let that trail off. “I’m going to hang up now, you have your orders and Riley?”
“Yes?”
“Good work on protecting yourself. I’m sorry it happened.”
“He was crazy, Brenton. He had lost his mind and everything else. It would have happened eventually.” Riley shrugged in Andrew’s arm.
“If you want to talk to anyone, we’ll all listen.” Zachary again.
They all said their good byes at that point. Troy brought in four shovels. They jumped on ATVs they never used since they normally were in the woods at felines. Cameron’s body was tossed into trailer hooked to Troy’s ATV. Riley rode with Andrew, her arms curled around him. They all trekked into the woods behind the house. They needed a spot where erosion wouldn’t uncover the body.
It took them thirty minutes to find the spot they wanted. And then they started digging. Riley helped on and off and between them, they moved quickly. They didn’t try to give him a proper burial. They got the hole to over six feet deep, only two people allowed in at a time so they could all get out. They didn’t make it long enough to him to lay perfectly lined out. Andrew stripped the corpse and let the brothers drop it in. He had to detach himself from calling it Cameron and he told Riley the same thing. Cameron was gone, that was just an it.
Filling the hole was easier. Riley didn’t even bother with a shovel. She got on her knees and shoved it in.
Brenton and Zachary showed up, Zachary pulling her out of the dirt.
“Didn’t Andrew already bathe you?” He looked down at her and she just shrugged.
Another hour and they were done. They made sure to even out the ground so it didn’t look unnatural, so that it didn’t look like a burial mound. Andrew wished they weren’t good at this. This had to be the third body they’ve buried on the property in the last fifteen years. The first since they came back to Wild Junction. It wasn’t uncommon for shifters to have bodies buried on their properties, it was just something no one enjoyed doing.
Doing this after having to do all the clean up from the raid on the kidnappers’ hide away… Andrew was very tired of doing clean up for dead bodies.
“Let’s get inside and review the security tapes.” Brenton whispered.
Riley rode back with him and he kept her in his arms as they sat down in the den, stopping only for everyone to wash the dirt off their hands.
“Riley, you don’t need to watch this,” Brenton told her as he sat with her and Andrew.
“I want to,” Riley sounded stubborn and Andrew raised his eyebrows at Brenton.
“Why?” Andrew asked quietly. She turned to him and smiled darkly.
“Because I know the outcome,” her eyes held a malicious glint he had never seen in her before. She had always been fiery but this was new.
Gabe hit play and they watched,
They didn’t laughed at the sight of her dancing around the kitchen, cleaning up from lunch. If this were any other day, they might have. Andrew’s anger flared as Cameron walked in the kitchen, gun already pointed at her.
They heard the entire conversation and Andrew heard Riley gasp when her mother walked in. Her mother had watched the entire thing from out of Riley and Cameron’s view, smiling to herself over it. She didn’t move forward until after Cameron tried to shoot Riley.
Andrew felt a wave of pride at Riley’s side of the fight. She had saved her own life and fucking handled it. He and every guy in the room, watched her bury the large kitchen knife in Cameron’s back before he could recover from the toss.
What shocked him was her reaction to her mother.
She was furious and once the conversation progressed a little, he was too. Isabella Gordon was a bit of a sociopath. They all looked to Brenton when Isabella confessed to kill him mother but Andrew couldn’t read his face.
Finally, the screen went dark.
“Holy hell in a hand basket,” Troy whispered in awe, turning to Riley. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“No,” Riley sighed, leaning into Andrew again. “But I will be.”
“Why didn’t you shoot her?” Brenton asked, looking to Riley.
“I didn’t want to kill her in cold blood. She wasn’t a threat to me in any real way.” Riley murmured.
“Good,” Brenton nodded. “Well, that solves one mystery.”
“You aren’t mad?” Riley spun to look at Brenton and Andrew got whacked in the face with her ponytail. “She killed your mother!”
“No,” Brenton shook his head. “If anything, I’m proud of you. You aren’t her.”
Riley’s smile at that brightened the room and broke Andrew’s heart a little. She was happy that she wasn’t her mother.
“Zachary and I will clean the kitchen and get rid of the weapons. Gabe and Troy, burn those clothes. Riley, go to bed. Andrew, help her. She’s your priority right now.” Brenton smiled at two of them.
Andrew stood and took Riley with him, carrying her to her own room. He stripped them and pulled her in his arms. She was asleep in minutes and he followed her after an hour, purring at the feeling of her pressed against him.