Crazy In Love (Secrets of Suburbia #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,94

through with my original plan anymore. Not now that I knew him.

He continued to pace, back and forth, back and forth.

I cleared my throat. I only had one back up idea. “I was thinking we could set the house on fire…”

“And torch Detective Torres along with everything else? Ensley, that would just make everything worse. We need to get the hell out of here before he wakes up.”

“What about Noah’s body? I really feel like we should get rid of that. I looked up all sorts of stuff about lye, but I already went to the hardware store a couple times and thought buying the ingredients would look a little suspicious. And the lake out back is frozen, so we can’t sink him. I really think a fire is the best bet.”

“Show it to me.”

“The kerosene for the fire?”

“No. The body.” He finally stopped pacing. “Where have you been keeping it? I don’t smell anything. Has he been on ice or something?”

“Well, kind of. I haven’t checked on him in the last few days because…well…because of you. But his body is in the little attic above the garage. It’s really cold out there.” I think. I think he’s there. “You should probably just see for yourself.” Mostly I wanted him to see because having the two of them next to each other would finally put my mind at ease. I’d finally know the truth for sure.

Snuggle Muffins woke up when I opened the door to the garage. He came running over. Part of me didn’t want him to see what I had done. But holding him brought me comfort. And he was my main accomplice. We were in this together. I lifted Snuggle Muffins into my arms as we all made our way out into the garage. He sighed when my arms started shaking.

Please let it have all been a nightmare. Please don’t let this be real.

Aiden stopped and stared at me, waiting for me to point him in the right direction.

“You have to get a ladder in order to reach it. The entrance is right there,” I said and looked up.

Aiden grabbed the ladder, climbed up, and pushed the trap door open. I took a deep breath and followed him into the garage attic.

“Fuck.” Aiden covered his mouth. It looked like he was going to hurl.

I stepped around him to see what he was looking at. There was a clear Sterilite storage container in the center of the attic. It was the same kind I stored my Christmas decorations in. But this one wasn’t filled with lights and wreaths. It was filled with Dr. Noah Collins. My dearly departed husband. Well, it was filled with pieces of him. I remembered he didn’t quite fit. I had no choice but to remove some of his limbs to try to wedge him inside properly. There were a pair of bloody hedge shears lying next to the container.

And the blood. It was everywhere. Seeping into the wooden floor beams. I’d been too tired to clean it after scrubbing the basement so thoroughly. I’d always meant to come back and clean up the stains. But then…Aiden fell into my lap, along with a new plan to get out of this. The blood didn’t matter for that. Actually, it kind of helped. I hugged Snuggle Muffins tighter. But now I kind of wished I’d cleaned it up. Because I didn’t want to follow through with my plan. I didn’t want to frame Aiden. I wanted us to be able to run away together.

My eyes lifted from the blood stains to the plastic container. Even after removing my husband’s arms, hands, a few fingers…he still hadn’t quite fit. I was usually so good at packing things. It was quite a failure on the part of a housewife.

“You cut him up?” Aiden turned away and started gagging. This time he did throw up, heaving in the corner.

And all I could think about was how perfect that was. Now his DNA was up here. And mine wasn’t, because even though I hadn’t cleaned up the blood, I had wiped my prints off the hedge shears. Stop.

I kneeled down to let Snuggle Muffins out of my arms so he could explore the new space. “He wouldn’t fit,” I said. I studied the decapitated head resting on top of the container. And then looked back at Aiden. The resemblance was uncanny. But it was definitely my husband that was dead. I waited for that guilt to set in like