“Fine.” Daniel shrugged, like he really didn’t care what he got dragged into anymore. “I’ll do it. As long as I don’t have to touch the body.”
“Great.” Penn smiled at him. “You all can wrap up the body, then Daniel takes it out to sea, and Thea and Liv clean up all this blood.”
“No, Penn. I’m not kidding. I’m not doing this.” Thea smacked her hands together and rubbed them, gesturing that she was washing her hands of all this. “This is your problem now.”
Penn rolled her eyes, then looked to Daniel. “See? I told you she’s bossy and obnoxious.”
“But Thea’s not the reason you’re in this mess,” he said reasonably, then nodded to Liv. “She is.”
Liv smiled at him, and in her sweetest, silkiest voice, she said, “One day, Penn is gonna get tired of you. And when she does, she’s gonna tear you apart, and I’ll be there to watch.”
“I’m out of here,” Thea said, and started heading back toward the trees to make her escape. “Sorry, guys. Best of luck.”
With Penn overseeing, Gemma and Liv broke up Aiden’s body so it would be easier to transfer. Daniel had edged closer to the side of the band shell, keeping a lookout, but it also kept him from having to witness their dismembering a guy he’d known most of his life.
When they were finished, the tarps containing Aiden’s body fit neatly inside the duffel bag. It would still be too heavy for Daniel to carry comfortably, so Gemma offered to carry it down to his boat for him.
Penn wanted to take that job for herself, but Gemma had no idea how to get the blood out of the trees. She wiped the blood off herself as best she could, using one of the towels that Thea had tucked in the duffel bag, then she and Daniel headed down to the trail to his boat.
“I got it from here,” Daniel said when they’d stopped on the docks in front of The Dirty Gull.
“You sure? I can help you get rid of it,” Gemma offered.
“No. I got it.” He took the bag from her and gave it a swing so he could throw it up over the railing and onto his boat. “I just wanna take a nice, long boat ride out past the island, then go home and take the longest shower of my life.”
Some blood had gotten on his hands and arms, and he even had a few droplets on his bare chest, which had probably dripped down from the branches. But by the way he avoided looking Gemma in the eyes, she had a feeling that wasn’t the only reason he felt so dirty.
“What happened between you and Penn—” Gemma began carefully, but Daniel held up his hand, stopping her.
“I know that you mean well, and I know that you think you understand, but…” He trailed off. “I can’t talk about this with you.” He swallowed. “And Harper will know what she needs to know soon enough.”
“I know that whatever you’ve done or will do, you’ve done it to protect Harper and me.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek and stared out at the ocean. Impulsively, Gemma threw her arms around Daniel and hugged him tightly, pressing her face against his chest. Tears stung her eyes, and she barely held them back.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said, her words muffled against his chest. “For everything you’ve done and everything you’ve given up.”
He put his hand on her head, stroking her hair for a moment and letting her hug him. Then, abruptly, he pushed her away.
“I gotta go,” he said thickly. Daniel turned and got on his boat, without looking back at her.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Devastation
The clock above the fireplace said it was after eleven o’clock, but Harper assumed that Daniel had gone out with his friends. After all, he was twenty-one, so hitting a few bars would seem logical, especially since he had no idea that she was coming down to surprise him.
Several times throughout the evening, as she’d been waiting for him, she had considered texting or calling to find out where he was or when he might be home. But that would ruin the surprise.
It had already been weeks in the planning. When she arrived at college, she’d gone down to the campus clinic and gotten herself birth control. At the time, she didn’t know it was for tonight, but she knew that things were getting serious, so she thought it wouldn’t hurt to be on it.
The little blue number she was wearing, that was for tonight. In between trying to break ancient curses and cramming for school, Harper had snuck off to a small lingerie boutique in Sundham. She’d gotten the cute matching bra and lace panties for a birthday surprise.
She hadn’t decided for sure that tonight would be the night until Sunday, when they’d gotten close to taking their relationship farther. Daniel said he’d wanted to wait until the moment was perfect, but Harper had realized that she didn’t know when there ever would be a “perfect” moment.
All the troubles with Gemma and the sirens might never end. More and more, she feared that might be the case, and even when or if it ever did end, it might not be for a very long time.
And right now, Harper knew that she loved Daniel more than she’d ever loved anyone, and she wanted to be with him. Not just for today but for the rest of her life. She’d thought about it, she’d talked about it with him, and she was ready.
It would’ve been nice if Daniel had come home sooner, but she’d actually needed the time. After the visit with her mom earlier today, Harper needed a break to decompress. She parked her car away from the docks so Daniel wouldn’t see it, and she took Bernie’s old speedboat out to the island in hopes of getting there first to surprise him.
But now she’d had plenty of time to get ready, reapply her makeup, and change her pose on the couch fifty times. She didn’t want Daniel to know she was here, so she’d only left one lamp on in the corner, leaving her in near darkness.
To make the house seem less creepy, she’d hooked her iPod up to the stereo and put it on shuffle, so her music played softly in the room.
When she finally heard the door handle, her stomach flipped. Harper hurriedly paused the music, so he’d see her before he heard anything, and then posed in the most seductive way possible. She didn’t really know what that meant, so she ended up kind of leaning back, with her long, dark hair falling around her.
Daniel came inside the house, but he didn’t notice her until after he’d turned on the kitchen light. Then he froze and stared at her with a look that could only be described as abject horror.
That was the first chance for Harper to get a really good look at him, and he looked like hell. Droplets of blood were on his chest, and he had dried blood on his hands and smeared across his forehead. His flannel shirt appeared to have been torn since it hung open haphazardly. He had his usual facial scruff, but his face appeared even more ragged. And his hazel eyes had a bleak emptiness in them, something Harper had never seen there before.
“Daniel. Oh, my god.” She got up and hurried over to him. “What happened to you?”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he said flatly. “This is one of the worst days of my entire life, and now this.”
“Now this?” Harper took a step back, but she tried to smile and play it off as a joke. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize seeing me would make your day worse.”
“No, it doesn’t. Not normally, but…” He trailed off and lowered his eyes.
“Daniel. What’s going on?” She reached out, touching his arm gently. “You’re scaring me.”
He rubbed his temple. “I just want to take a shower, but this can’t wait, can it?”
“What can’t? We can do whatever you want to do.”
“Just give me one second.”