“Oh, this is ridiculous, Thea,” Penn snapped as she surveyed the mess around her. “You could’ve handled this.”
“Maybe, but I’m not doing it anymore,” Thea said, and tossed the duffel bag down on the ground. “You think Liv is so great, then you take care of her. She’s your problem now. I’m done.”
“Thea, this isn’t so bad,” Liv tried as sweetly as she could. “I just don’t know how to get rid of a body.”
“You’ve done it enough times, you should be a goddamn expert,” Thea told her.
“I can’t get rid of a body in this crowd without being spotted. And I’m fine with that, but you told me—” Liv started the same spiel she’d given Gemma when she got there.
“Liv!” Penn shouted in frustration. “You need to stop making a mess and provoking the humans. Just calm down. We have eternity. You don’t need to get all your killing done in one day.”
Liv suggested that they leave the mess and let the animals and the rain take care of it, which immediately resulted in a squabble between Penn, Thea, and Liv about how best to deal with this, with each of them shirking the responsibility.
With the sirens otherwise occupied, Gemma edged back to where Daniel was standing. He stared down at the body lying a few feet in front of him, and she wasn’t sure how much of the carnage he was really able to take in thanks to his weaker human sight.
“Was that human?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Gemma nodded. “It was Aiden Crawford.”
“Aiden? Holy shit.”
Daniel wheeled around just in time to dry heave into the bushes. It sounded more like he was coughing than actually throwing up, but the reality of it had obviously hit him hard. When he’d finished, he wiped his mouth on the back of his arm and mumbled an apology.
“It’s a lot of blood to take in,” Gemma said when he turned back around.
“I didn’t know there was that much blood in one human body,” he admitted. “That looks like it should be five or six people. At least.”
“I think Liv was making a point of splattering him around.” Gemma kept her voice low, so the sirens would be less likely to notice her, but they were so busy arguing among themselves that she could shout their names, and they wouldn’t look.
Daniel exhaled sharply. “Dammit. He was a dick, but … He was my older brother’s best friend for years before John died. Aiden wasn’t a good guy, but he deserved better than this.”
No, Aiden probably didn’t deserve this, but it hadn’t been that long ago that she’d been about ready to do the same to him when he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Saying he wasn’t a good guy was a massive understatement.
“I know,” Gemma said anyway. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Gemma tilted her head. “Maybe it is. I brought the sirens back to Capri. The reason they’re here is—”
“Don’t do that.” Daniel was quick to cut her off, and since he obviously wasn’t in the mood to argue, she didn’t push it.
“On the subject of why people are here…” Gemma began after a pregnant pause. “Why are you here?”
He stared straight ahead, his eyes fixed on the ground, and she could see the muscles in his jaw tense. “Don’t ask me about that. Please.”
Daniel had arrived late at night with Penn, and the buttons were ripped off the front of his shirt. There was only one conclusion Gemma could draw, especially after seeing Penn fawning over him so much.
She knew why he would do it, the only reason Daniel would do something like this was to protect Harper or her. That made her heart ache, like it was being torn in two, and her stomach twist in knots. Knowing that Daniel would resort to prostituting himself because of her, and how much it would kill Harper when she found out.
“Daniel. You have to tell Harper.”
He sighed and just kept staring at the ground. “We all do what we need to do.”
“No, Daniel,” Gemma said firmly, hating that she had to do this. “If you don’t tell her, I will.”
“Fine!” Penn threw her hands up in the air, and turned her attention back toward Gemma and Daniel. “We’ll wrap him up, then Daniel can dump his body off his boat.”
“What? Why can’t you guys take him out there?” Daniel asked.
“Because they’ll be busy cleaning up this bloodbath.” Penn pointed to Thea and Liv. “And it will look less suspicious if you take a tarp on a boat than if a girl drags a tarp into the ocean.”
“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.”