Fear Games

2. Dead as a Doornail

EDEN

As soon as the scream escaped me, I planted my hand over my mouth, knowing that wasn't the smartest idea. If any of my neighbors heard me, they would likely call the police, and the last thing I wanted was to explain why my husband was dead on my floor, and why his biological son was standing above him with a bloody knife in his hand.

But boy, did I have a lot of questions.

Jax, still holding the knife, looked me in the eyes, and once again said, "I am telling you, Eden, I didn't do this."

I wasn't entirely sure that I believed him, but if he did kill my husband—his father—then I needed to get him to drop the weapon before anything else. So I said, "Jax, I need you to tell me exactly what happened. How did this..." I wasn't even sure what to say, so I just stopped.

He walked over to the counter and put down the knife, then stared down at the blood on his hands. I saw tears forming behind his eyes, as if the shock was starting to wear off. "I was in the guest bedroom. I was just sitting on the bed texting with someone when I heard a noise down here in the kitchen. It was like a loud bang, then I heard Dad yell. I didn't think anything of it. Just thought that maybe he dropped something and was pissed. A couple minutes later, I heard another bang, so I got confused, and decided to check on him." Jax couldn't seem to take his eyes off the blood that was smeared all over his hands. "When I got down here, I found Dad with this knife lodged in his gut. He'd been stabbed...over and over. But the knife was still inside of him, so I pulled it out, and...that's when you came in."

As hesitant as I was to believe anything that was coming out of his mouth, I did sense a bit of sincerity in his voice. And the story did add up. It just seemed odd to me that someone would come in here and kill Jacob. It wasn't like he had a ton of enemies, at least that I knew of. Especially in such a horrible way.

I stepped further into the room, my shoes leaving imprints in the blood on the floor. "I believe you," I said, realizing it was true. "I don't know why I do. After all of this, most people probably wouldn't. But I am choosing to believe you anyway." I just hoped that didn't make me the biggest dumbass in the world. In the meantime, I was trying my hardest to hold back my tears, but I was too stunned to cry. Also was too busy trying to wrap my mind around what the fuck I was going to do next.

Jax must have been reading my mind because he said, "What are we going to do? Should we call the police?"

I shook my head. "No, we would immediately become suspects. Especially you. The police system hasn't exactly been great the last twenty years since they were defunded. We need to figure out what we're going to do with him."

"We?" Jax said. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm not sure," I said truthfully. "But we can't just leave his body here on the floor. We have to do something about him."

"And you don't have any ideas?"

I wasn't exactly being honest; I did have an idea, but it was pretty morbid, and it was going to make us look bad if the police were to ever figure out what we did. But if we did it right, no one would ever know what happened here tonight. If we did it right, we could make it look like he just left the kids and me like he always talked about doing. No one would ever have to know he was murdered. Sure, his family might wonder where he is, but he was never close with them anyway. They might eventually ask questions, but we could worry about that later.

"I'm thinking of something," I said, "but it's going to require the both of us. And we're going to have to swear to never tell a soul."

RACHEL