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Unlocking the front door, he pushed it open At first, there was nothing, only the slightly musty smell of a house that had been shut up for a while Then he caught a whiff of theflesh
Honor went un s enough to have decomposed” Which uards and left a grueso ago that the others who ca the direction of Honor’s raised ar at a flat-screen television on the wall The power indicator was dead And when Honor flicked on a light switch, nothing happened “The electricity’s down Blown fusethe fetid scent “Such things happen”
The rank smell took thee roo to differentiate the door fro the corridor
“God” Honor put a hand up over her mouth and nose as he pushed open that door—the odor was vile here, so concentrated it felt akin to soup
The room itself was barren but for a wooden shelf that held a nule armchair that looked as if it had been banished here because it was too ratty for theareas Beside it sat a small burn-scarred table set with a crystal tu on the floor was threadbare
It was the kind of shabby, coet a little peace and quietexcept if you looked carefully, it becaled toward a particular section of the wall Nor to differentiate it from the rest of the rooht noater seeped froe,” Honor whispered “There’s a fridge behind there”
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“I’ll do this,” he said, because though she’d deut deep
An intense look froht” She positioned her body in a way that gave her a sight line to the door, but allowed her to keep an eye on hiain and he knew that nothing he said would send her froh to force her co he couldn’t use with this woman
It would’ve been easy to explain his reluctance as part of the cold calculation necessary to get her into bed, but the lie would serve no purpose—not when she saw hi, strong Ingrede, wouldn’t have understood the darkness that lived within him now Honor did It felt a betrayal to his wife’sbut that made it no less true “Are you sure?”
No hesitation “Yes”
Shifting his gaze to the wall, he ran his fingers along it until he found a sle push and a section of the wall opened to expose a large, squat refrigeration unit, the water pooled below itnot to smell the odor that spoke of putrid decay, he lifted the lid to brace it against the wall