Take Me Away

Chapter 16

"We just killed someone." I said, staring at the woman, unblinking.

"Well, she wasn't even right about you not shooting her. You shot and poisoned her." Cain sounded shocked.

"She was trying to stab you." I sounded calm. Had I thought that I was in shock when Timber had told me that he had killed this woman? I couldn't even feel my heart beating now. "Where did you come from anyway? I didn't see you following me."

"I tracked the car, and then did a satellite image of the area." He shrugged like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Other than the house on the other side of the valley, this was the only building around."

"I just killed someone." I said turning back to look at the dead woman on the floor.

"Yeah," He nodded. "I'm kind of surprised too. I didn't think that you had it in you."

"I almost shot you." I said. "I thought that you were working with her, until you tackled her, and she pulled off your hood."

"I figured as much by your comment." He sounded flustered. "What did you give her?" He was watching me; my eyes never left the dead woman. I didn't even know her name.

"Dried hydrangea flowers. They're full of natural cyanide. I wasn't sure how much it would take to incapacitate her, and I didn't really have time to measure. She was going to stab you again."

He gave me a look. "Why do you keep dried hydrangeas?"

"I keep a lot of dried poisonous plants. They make great candles." I shrugged. "I do the drying up here for my candles and teas because my mom doesn't like the smells."

"You just happened to know what is poisonous?" He seemed to be okay. I was watching the dead body, waiting for her to take a breath and tell me it was all a joke, and I somehow hadn't just committed murder.

I shook my head. "When I started drying out plants for teas, my mother warned me to stay away from some of the local flowers, like water hemlock. She told me not to brew a tea out of anything that I didn't know the chemical compounds of."

"I didn't think you drank tea the way you were going at that coffee this morning." Was he joking? I finally looked at him. He was smiling, but there was another emotion in his eyes. Worry?

"I started drinking tea when I learned that it could work like birth control." I said, looking back at the dead woman. "We should call the cops." I said.

"No." he sounded like Grim in that moment. I just looked at him.

"No?"

"No. I'll handle this."

"It was self-defense."

"You happened to have a handful of a poisonous plant on hand when someone came to you. You had a gun, she had knives. There were two of us and one of her. That we know of."

I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it he was right. This would look like I was murdering one of my boyfriend's exes out of jealousy. "Besides," Cain continued. "She is supposed to already be dead. If she shows up dead by your hand now, then that raises more question."

"She can't stay here." I said. This was my space. I couldn't leave a dead body in the middle of it.

Cain shook his head. "I'll take care of it." He said. I shook my head.

"No, I" I took a deep breath. "I killed her. I need to be the one to handle this."

"What do you plan on doing?" He asked. "How do you plan on getting rid of the body?" Body. That helped. It was the body. She wasn't there anymore. Just a body.