Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Gabriel
Jesse looks near tears with relief, and I’m trying to pretend I don’t notice the thrill in Liam’s expression.
It’s probably not even enough for Jesse to pick up on, but I’ve gotten to know Liam so well that I can see when he’s latched on to a new fixation.
I’m just worried where this fixation might lead him.
“I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this,” Jesse says, looking first at Liam and then at me.
“All of my life, I feel like I’ve been a complete fuckup.
I’ve never cared what happened to me. But when I realized that Liam was assigned to this case, I knew it was all over, and for the first time in my life…
I was devastated. I finally cared about myself, only to realize it was all over. ”
“I wish it hadn’t taken so long for you to care about yourself,” I tell Jesse as I reach out and squeeze his hands.
Liam narrows his eyes at them, like I’ve made some grave mistake by comforting someone who isn’t him.
“I’m sorry life hasn’t been the best to you, but I really want you to know that we are here for you.
We’re now in this together, so we’re going to get through this and we’re not going to fuck up. ”
“Thank you. I really… thank you.”
“And if you tell anyone we were involved, I will destroy you,” Liam states, as though it’s as simple as that. “I will make you regret every decision you’ve ever made in your life if you do anything to my Gabriel.”
Jesse snorts, actually snorts when he hears Liam’s threat. “Your precious Gabriel is as safe as can be.”
Liam’s eyes narrow. “I will haunt you.”
“I said I wouldn’t say a damn thing! Why would I toss myself in prison? And even if I get caught by someone else, I will never breathe a word about this to anyone. I promise that I would never do that to two people who have promised to help me.”
“Good. Oh… and get better at hiding bodies,” Liam barks.
I give him a look since I’m pretty sure that’s not a requirement here. “No! He’s not hiding any more bodies, so he doesn’t have to get better at it!”
Liam shakes his head like he’s disappointed in Jesse. “It was a disgustingly pitiful attempt.”
“I want to see you do better,” Jesse says with a laugh.
The grin Liam wears is ridiculous. I’m positive he’s over there thinking how he could show him, or maybe how he’d have done it.
Hell, I don’t even know what he does with the bodies, but I’m not quite sure I’m interested in asking.
I just have to trust that he is careful and that no one will ever find the bodies of his victims.
And now my mind is running off without me. There’s something terrifying about knowing that the man I love has put himself in such a risky situation. I can’t fathom the idea of having to visit him every day in prison, or what if something happened to him?
Jesse looks concerned by my expression. “I was just… joking. I’m sorry. This has to be really stressful for you.”
“No, I just was getting caught up in my thoughts. What’s more concerning is that Liam’s over there thinking about how he’d have gotten away with murder,” I tease. “I promise it’s okay. We’ll get through this and we’ll hopefully never have to deal with it or talk about it ever again.”
“It’ll be fine,” Liam assures me. “Have confidence; I do.”
“I know you do,” I mutter. “You’re too confident all the time.”
“Let’s go and make the magic happen. Jesse, go get Zach’s clothes, and Gabriel and I will meet you. Got it?”
He nods. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“And it goes without saying that no one but the people in this room will know about this,” I warn. “Do not tell Lacey. Don’t ever mention it again, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Now take your pie and off with you,” Liam says as he shoos him off.
Jesse gets up, holding the pie, but continues staring at us like he’s not yet done expressing how much he appreciates us doing this for him. Liam just balls up his napkin and throws it at Jesse. It bounces off his forehead, leaving an assessing look on his face.
“It’s like… you’re so evil that I just keep assuming this is a trick,” he says.
“Good. I want you to live in a state of confusion,” Liam replies, sounding proud of himself.
“I feel almost giddy. I am giddy.” Jesse seems uncertain which emotion to focus on while he heads out to his car.
Liam takes a minute to quickly clean up the diner so it doesn’t look like we were ever there—besides the missing pie—and then walks out to my car with me.
I notice he’s taken some cleaning products with him and assume he has some plan for them.
“Would you still have done this for Jesse if it weren’t for the killer he told you about?” I ask as I get into the passenger seat since he’s claimed the driver’s. “Like… would you have decided you liked Jesse enough to do this?”
“This feels like a trick question to which I say, you look mighty fine this evening,” he responds, glancing over at me.
“Not the answer.”
Liam is quiet for a moment. “Before I met you? No. I wouldn’t have batted an eye. But I know you really like Jesse and would be very upset if he went to prison, especially over a man who deserved to die that he didn’t even kill.”
“And that’s why you would have? Because of me?” I ask, my eyes searching his.
“I think Jesse is tolerable,” he states.
I interpret that as Liam saying that he likes Jesse. I mean… he’s never actually going to admit that he’s made a friend or enjoys a person, is he? “We can’t fuck this up. So why this location for hiding the fake murder weapon and clothes? Why do you think it’s best?”
“You remember we had a job that took us there a little after we started working together?”
I raise an eyebrow. “No? We’ve gone to so many places that I feel like unless something significant happened there, I’m not going to remember.”
“It was a dead end, but there was this old guy who sat on his balcony and commented on everything. He ended up taking us on a wild goose chase because he swore he saw the killer riding by on a bike. Remember that?”
I pause as I realize with horror the exact man he’s speaking of. “I do remember that. Oh man, he had so many theories and absolutely none of them turned out to be true.”
“Right? The road is just past the zoo. There are no cameras. We know the garbage situation because we needed permission to dig through it back then. It was a whole thing, yet in the end it had nothing to do with anything.”
“Fucking hell, I remember that now.”
“No one else in the department really knows anything about it, at least not enough for them to remember. Hell, you barely remember and we were both tortured by it.”
“I only remember because it was such a waste of time and you were so fired up over it.” I grin at the memory of him trying his hardest not to snap at the older man who had all of the theories.
When he started telling us that he’d once seen a UFO, Liam just walked out without a word and slammed the door shut, leaving me inside with him.
The man didn’t even miss a beat, and I was stuck feeling like it’d be rude to interrupt him but was unable to be as brutal as Liam and just vacate the premises.
“You told me later that you almost, and I repeat, ‘slapped his cane out of his hand so he couldn’t follow us.’”
Liam smirks. “Huh. Did I say that?”
“You sure did. Don’t even pretend like you wouldn’t.”
“Strange.”
He drives for a bit before slowing down outside of an old barn.
“Do… you know this place?”
“Nope, but what I do know is that the barn is quite far from the house and that they will likely have an old rusty hammer that not a single person is ever going to notice is missing. We will chip some rust off, clean it thoroughly so no fingerprints remain, and stage it. I want to keep it simple. The more complex it is, the more threads we need to connect.”
“Okay,” I say, not loving this but trusting him. When he gets out of the car, I get out as well.
“What are you doing?” he asks, noticing me right behind him.
I shrug. “Looks like I’m illegally breaking into some person’s barn with my boyfriend. Date of the century right here.”
“Stay in the car.”
“Nah, you’ve dragged me over to the bad boy life. We’re going to crash and burn together. Do I look the part?”
Liam grins at me, his eyes running over me as if he’s actually assessing me.
We barely make it across the road before he drags me into his arms, fingers gripping my hips tightly while he draws me in, and I feel the way his cock presses against me as he kisses me.
“I happen to like how bad boy looks on you.”
My lips quirk. “Oh?”
He kisses me again before his lips move down to my neck. “How about a tussle in the hay?” he whispers in my ear.
“I think we probably shouldn’t keep Jesse waiting somewhere with a dead man’s clothes just so we can have sex in some stranger’s barn.”
Pulling back, Liam looks as though he’s weighing his options and appears to be heavily leaning toward the tussle. Of course he is because others’ suffering makes no difference. My suffering is the only thing that seems to count.
“How much do you love me?” he asks as he moves closer and sprinkles kisses down my cheek and neck. And boy does he know how to snag me, but I know that I must remain strong.
“I love you a lot, but it’s still not enough to keep Jesse waiting with some dead man’s clothes.”
“How boring,” he decides before cupping my face and kissing me again. It’s like he’s trying to tempt me by showering me in love.
“You’re on a high,” I say as I give his cheek a playful smack.
“You’re the only one I can get high off.”
“And the prospect of a serial killer.”
He shrugs slightly. “Nah, I just love my friend Jesse so much that I’m overwhelmed by my love for him after saving his life.”
I’m not sure my eyebrow can lift any higher. “Please repeat that in Liam terms.”
“I love the idea of blackmailing Jesse to do everything I want for the rest of his life,” he says with a grin.
“That makes much more sense.”