Chapter Twenty Romantic Homicide
Chapter twenty
Romantic Homicide
Kenny waited until Aaron had disappeared from view, then took the few steps to the building’s entrance. Jack looked at him with those eyes. The ones he’d faced multiple times when caught out. But he said nothing. Held it all in. Unlike the days during their relationship when he’d launched a tirade of abuse at him for being a really fucking shitty boyfriend. When he’d break down and cry and ask over and over why .
Kenny hadn’t had the answers then.
Like he didn’t now.
Jack angled his head, trundling down the steps and walking off.
Kenny couldn’t avoid it, so he followed, all the way around to the back of the building. It had them away from the CCTV, away from prying eyes, and standing by the fire exit doors, where cigarette butts littered the ground. Kenny hadn’t wanted to smoke more since he’d quit them for good.
“I’m going to ask you this just once.” Jack kept his voice low, controlled, barely masking the bitterness Kenny knew was bubbling beneath. “ On the record. Are you in a romantic relationship with my suspect?”
“No.” He was firm, but his pulse betrayed him. Jack couldn’t see that, though. And he was far enough away not to feel it.
Jack narrowed his eyes as if trying to find any crack in Kenny’s armour. “Then I’ll ask you this once, off the record, me to you. Are you fucking Aaron Jones?”
The silence stretched. Kenny knew what he was supposed to say, what Jack needed him to say. But the truth lingered in the air between them, the weight palpable.
He forced out the, “No .”
Jack arched an eyebrow. Waited.
So Kenny reiterated his stance. The truthful one. “I’m not.”
“I have his phone, Kenny. So if you’re lying…”
Kenny said nothing.
“Fuck’s sake.” Jack twisted, raking a hand through his hair. “Are you completely devoid of any fucking responsibility for your selfish fucking actions?”
“No, Jack, I’m not. I am being honest with you. I’m not fucking him.”
“Yet.”
“Do you not think I’ve learned from my mistakes?”
“Which mistakes are those, Kenny? Me ?”
“You know what I mean, and this isn’t about us, is it?”
“It is. It’s about you lying to me. Again !”
“I’m not lying.”
“But you’re being scant with the truth.” Jack took a step forward, each word quiet and seething with frustration. “Do you know who he is?”
Kenny clenched his jaw. “Do you?”
“I have a fucking good hunch.”
Kenny stood his ground.
Jack waited for him to confirm, say something. When he didn’t, Jack stepped forward, voice low. “Are you insane ?”
“Clinically? No.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Kenny.”
“I’m not.”
“But you are pissing about with Roisin and Frank’s son ?”
“Pissing about isn’t accurate.”
“What is, then? Because there is more to what I saw than a standard student teacher relationship. Don’t play me for a fool on this one, at least.”
Kenny sighed. He owed it to Jack to be honest, because he’d hurt him too many times. Kept too much from him, and it wasn’t right. He had to make things right .
“It happened before he was my student.”
Jack fluttered his eyes closed, bowing his head, and Kenny could feel the physical blow he’d just landed on him. But he had to keep going.
“In a club.”
“ Jesus …”
“I don’t know why I even went there—”
“Yes, you fucking do,” Jack snapped. “You always know. The same way you know why everyone else does the things they do. You also know why you do!”
“All right. Yes. Yes, I know. I’d just come from a training workshop with the Met. I needed a drink. It was the ten-year anniversary of us catching the Howells. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jessica. How I’d failed her. I went to switch off. To just go…get something.” Kenny removed his glasses, wiping his brow with his sleeve, then pushed them back up his nose. “I didn’t know who he was. He was just there . He could have been anybody.”
“That’s not true, is it, Kenny?”
“Which part?”
“It’s never just anybody. You have a particular type. And he hits all your buttons.” Jack counted off his fingers. “Antagonistic. Feisty. Seductive. With a don’t touch me vibe that you want to be the one to break through.”
That was all surprisingly accurate, and Kenny swallowed the unease. “It was a one off. Nothing more. To let off steam.”
“You gravitate toward the broken ones. You know you do. Because you’re desperate to be the one to fix them.”
“I didn’t expect to see him again. Certainly not for him to turn up in my class. Nor for any of this to happen. I didn’t know who he was!”
“Did he know who you were?”
“He says not.”
“Do you believe him?”
“It doesn’t matter if I do or not. What matters is, he’s in my life now. There’s more to all this. There’s more to him. Everything I feared, it’s true. He needs help. How can I walk away from that?”
“Because this could ruin you. Everything you’ve built up. This could shatter you.”
“I know what’s at stake. Understand it more than you know. And I’m fucking dealing with it.”
“Are you?”
“I’m trying.”
“He’s manipulating you.”
Kenny said nothing.
“You can’t see it. You think he’s innocent.”
“He is innocent. At least in this. Anything else, I don’t know yet.”
“Because you’re compromised.”
The truth of Jack’s words hit Kenny like a punch. But he held his ground, clinging to the belief that there was something redeemable in Aaron, something that wasn’t tainted by his parents’ legacy. “I’m not compromised,” he lied through gritted teeth and years of experience.
Jack stepped closer, remnants of his familiar aftershave clinging to the foggy air settling between them. “You’re attracted to him.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. Because you can’t see beyond that. I know you. You’ll crack. You want him so badly it’ll consume you. And what’s worse is…” Jack exhaled a weary sigh, gathering his thoughts and coming to terms with the truth of it all. “He wants you, too.” He then stepped back, veil of professional integrity descending over him as he leaned around Kenny for the fire door. “I can’t have you on the case.”
“You need me.”
“I’ve learned how not to.”
Kenny sighed, low and long. “ This case needs me. Needs someone who understands what this all is.”
“No, Kenny. What this case needs is someone who isn’t halfway to putting their dick in the lead suspect.”
Jack stepped inside the building, the fire doors clanging shut, the finality of their reunion shattering over Kenny and the grip on his own professional integrity slipping with every heartbeat.
If he hadn’t before, he now desperately needed to sort this thing with Aaron out. Before it caused irreparable damage.
* * * *
Aaron sat hunched on the doorstep, hood up, idle hands wringing.
The chill of evening clung to him, the silence heavy. The outside house lights had turned off a while ago and he’d remained still so they couldn’t pick up his movements, keeping him practically invisible in the faint glow of the distant streetlights. Until headlights turned into the driveway, flooding over him and breaking his cover.
Kenny’s Discovery pulled in. The car door clicked open, and the man himself stepped out, pausing, visibly surprised by the sight of Aaron waiting on his doorstep. Aaron stood and their eyes met, and in that instant, he felt the pull between them. A blend of charged anticipation and unresolved emotion neither could control. Kenny’s intake of breath was sharp, and with a grim look, he locked the car, stepping around to meet Aaron under the porch.
“Doc.”
“Aaron.” Kenny reached around him to unlock the front door, then shunted him inside.
Aaron entered without a word, already moving to the familiar contours of the kitchen diner where they’d shared many charged, silent moments. He slipped onto his usual stool at the counter and watched Kenny move through the kitchen with a tense, controlled energy. Aaron couldn’t tell if he was on edge or in command, but something in Kenny’s every gesture held his attention.
“A sandwich would be great,” Aaron said, tapping his hands on the counter. “It’s been a heck of a day.”
Kenny gave him a measured look, but pulled out the bread and reached for the fridge. The silence between them crackled as if it was a physical thing. Aaron could feel the intensity radiating off Kenny in spades. The battle with what he should do.
“So, the cops think I murdered Rahul.” Aaron kept his tone light, testing the waters.
Kenny paused, tightening his grip on the bread knife. “Yeah.” He then spread butter over the bread with a controlled precision, as if focusing only on the task and not all the things running around in his head.
“Do you ?”
Kenny peered up under his lashes, and Aaron held his breath in wait. “No, I don’t.”
The simplicity of his words made Aaron soften. He took the sandwich Kenny offered and bit into it, the quiet thrill of being taken care of despite his behaviour at the station a minor win, even if it was only something as simple as food. He savoured the taste, but it was Kenny’s attention on him he craved more than ham and cheese on artisan bread.
“Were you watching?”
“Yes.”
“Analysing?”
Kenny leaned back against the counter, his eyes never leaving Aaron’s. “Always.”
The words sent a shiver down Aaron’s spine, and he set the sandwich down. “What’s your assessment, doc?”
“You have a lack of respect for authority and get a rise out of antagonising those in positions of power, testing boundaries to see what’ll happen. Yet you crave discipline. But resent anyone who tries to exercise it over you.”
Aaron grinned, pulse racing as he swayed from side to side on the stool, deliberately casual. “It’s like you’re already in here.” He tapped his head, then took another bite out of the sandwich.
“Not yet.” Kenny stepped back, slumping against the counter opposite, everything pushing him down. He sighed. “Is there anything on your phone that will tie you to me? The off duty me.”
“Do you mean do I have a dear diary on there with hearts around your name? Or a calendar entry that says, ‘suck my professor’s dick’?”
Kenny waited. Then, “Yes.”
“No. Strangely, I’m a sort of private person.” Aaron could see the physical relief leaving Kenny’s shoulders. But there were still other pressing things to do with all of this. “They’ll know who I am by morning.”
“They already know who you are.”
“Cause you told them.”
“I didn’t tell them. Jack guessed. He’s a trained investigator.”
“And the one who took me from the cupboard.” Aaron ate his sandwich, lost in his thoughts, the humming tune of Dream a Little Dream echoing around and around in his head. His mother’s last lullaby sung to him.
“Yes.”
Aaron nodded, sandwich at his lips, then pointed at Kenny. “You were there too.”
Kenny said nothing. But his rising chest was enough of an affirmative.
“Remember the hair.” Aaron waved around his head. “Never seen a bloke with long hair before.” He gnawed another bite from the sandwich, thoughts coming thick and fast. He furrowed his brow. “Were you and he fucking?”
Kenny drew in a breath. “Yes.”
Aaron nodded, smiling at his own intuition. “Still?”
“No. That ended a long time ago.”
“How come?”
“Long story.”
Aaron waggled the sandwich. “Like a story with my dinner.”
“Aaron, I know you’re doing this to avoid what’s happening here, but can we not?”
Aaron shrugged. Finished his sandwich. Wiped his hands down his jeans. He had to physically exert himself to lose the protective layer of detachment and give Kenny what he wanted. “I’m being framed.”
“It would seem that way.”
“Any theories on who?”
“Someone who knows who you are.”
“Which are you, Jervine, the UKPPS and now the police.”
“Someone else does.”
“Why do we think they know who I am? I mean, really? Cause they’re using Aaron. Is it because of the roses?”
Kenny stared at him. “What roses?”
Aaron spun the stool from side to side. It helped him focus. Or not focus. Allowed him to fidget and not feel overloaded. “Rahul had rose vines around his neck, right?”
Kenny seemed to rise an inch off the floor. “How do you know that?”
Aaron shrugged. “Common knowledge, innit?”
“No, Aaron, it’s not common knowledge .” Kenny stepped forward. “How do you know about the roses?”
“That’s what Frank did, right? It’s a guess.”
“A guess?”
Aaron leaned away from Kenny’s penetrative, probing stare. “Jesus, back off. I didn’t put them there.”
“So who told you?”
“I don’t know! You !” He flapped a hand at Kenny. “Or your fucking bellend ex.”
Kenny stood in front of him at the breakfast bar, hands on the surface, shoulders tense as he stared him down. “Who told you?”
“I can’t remember!”
Kenny slapped his palm on the surface.
Aaron flinched. “Don’t do that. It turns me on.”
Kenny glared at him, then launched across the counter, grabbing Aaron’s hoodie in a clenched fist and wrenched him over the surface. Nose to nose, his face twisted into something Aaron should fear. But he didn’t. And he splayed there, manhandled and heart racing, breaths laboured with anticipation.
“So does this, FYI.”
Kenny let him go, then stormed around the breakfast bar. “Up.”
“What?”
“We’re doing the deep dive now.”
Aaron swallowed. He didn’t want Kenny in his head. He hated it there himself. And he’d already cried on Kenny more often than he should when he wanted to be taken over a kitchen counter by him. So he desperately wracked his brain to give Kenny something to stave off what would no doubt put a dramatic end to any eventuality of that happening.
“Jervine.” Aaron spun on the stool to face him.
“What?”
“Jervine must have told me.”
Kenny mulled that over for a moment. But before Aaron let him do any more thinking, he grabbed Kenny’s tie, dragging him closer. Kenny tumbled forward, falling between Aaron’s spread legs.
“You want in my head, Dr Lyons, you gotta work for it.”
“Aaron.” Kenny’s warning was weak and fragile. “Please. This can’t happen.”
“No?” Aaron tugged on Kenny’s tie, the silk soft in his palms. “Like the tie, doc. Brings out the dark in your eyes.” He hovered his lips a breath away from Kenny’s, forming the kiss he planned to beg, borrow or steal. Because a kiss would end Kenny’s need to analyse him. Because this touch, this heat they undeniably shared, would obliterate any further questions.
Kenny’s brow furrowed, as if just realising something. “Is Jervine in contact with Roisin?”
Aaron’s grip on the tie faltered, silk sliding through his fingertips the same way Kenny was from his clutches. “Not that I know of. Why?”
“Are you?”
“No. Why?”
“Because she knows.”
“Knows what?”
“I’m guessing everything.”
“How would you know that?”
Kenny waited a beat, then, “Because I saw her today.”
The confession landed like a physical blow to Aaron’s head. “You what ?”
“I went to see Roisin. With DI Bentley.” Kenny moved away from him.
Aaron waited for it. The look. The realisation. That same look when Aaron’s first foster father had discovered who he was. Who his mother was. The same one that the bloke he’d accidentally told who he was had. Fear. Disgust .
“How is she?” Aaron swallowed his dread.
“The same as she always is. Manipulative. Detached. Exceptionally clever.”
“Did she ask about me?”
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
“What she wanted to hear.”
“Which was?”
“That you were talented. Beautiful.”
Aaron’s lips tugged into a small, involuntary smile, soft and fragile. “That what you think?”
Kenny sighed, running a hand through his hair as he turned away, putting even more space between them. “ Aaron …” His voice was quiet, heavy, as though carrying the weight of everything he wanted to say but couldn’t. He paced, his movements restless, radiating tension.
This was it. The full stop Kenny was about to put on whatever tangled thing existed between them, and Aaron braced himself for the second blow.
Kenny leaned back against the fridge, folding his arms across his chest as if putting on armour. He stared at the floor for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before lifting his gaze to meet Aaron’s. His eyes were dark, shadowed by an unmistakable blend of regret and restraint.
“I’m here for you,” he said, steady but laced with an undercurrent of tension. “You can trust me. But this—whatever this is between us—anything more than what we already have? It’s impossible. You know that.”
Aaron’s smile faltered. He didn’t respond, waiting; the silence stretching taut as a wire.
“It’s not just because I’m your professor, though that alone should be enough. It’s because you’re now actively involved in a case I’m working on. You’re not just any student, either. You’re connected to the very case that defined my entire career, the case that shaped the person I am today. The conflict of interest alone should send me running in the opposite direction.”
Aaron’s chest tightened, the faint flicker of hope dimming with each word Kenny said.
“And it’s not just about me .” Kenny rubbed his forehead. “If I cross these lines, it’s not just my career on the line. It’s yours, too. Before you even have one. Whatever it is you even want from this degree. Do you understand what that means? Every single choice I’ve made to protect you, to help you, would be called into question. My credibility? Destroyed . Every case I’ve ever worked on, every victim I’ve ever tried to help, would be thrown into doubt because of us.”
Aaron flinched, the words hitting harder than the ones before, and he tried to defend the first time he’d ever latched on to anyone for anything. “I won’t tell any—”
“Then there’s you .” Kenny pressed on, determined to hammer it home. To Aaron. To himself. But his eyes softened, as if it pained him to say it all. “You’ve already been pulled into the depths of something far darker than most people can comprehend. You’re carrying the weight of your past, your family, the things you’ve seen and lived through. You don’t need me making it worse. What you need is space to figure out who you are. Without someone like me complicating everything.”
Kenny dropped his hands to his sides, fingers curling as if he were trying to hold himself together. “And I…” He hesitated, swallowing hard. “I’m not sure I can trust myself around you. That’s the truth. You have this way of unravelling me, of making me question every boundary I’ve ever set. And that, to be honest and open, terrifies me.”
Aaron ground his teeth, biting down to prevent either an outburst of anger or an influx of tears. This was why he hated emotion. Hated people . Because they could produce this pain.
“This is about integrity.” Kenny searched his face. “About doing the right thing, no matter how much I wish things could be different. But if I let this happen, continue to happen, I’m not protecting you. I’m failing you.”
“You got all that after seeing my mum?”
“I’m sorry, Aaron.” Kenny’s voice broke at the edges. “But this is where it has to stop.”
Aaron stared at him, chest tight and his throat burning, but he didn’t speak. What could he say? Kenny had drawn the lines, set the boundaries, and there was no crossing them. Not now. Not ever.
So he slipped off the stool and, through the silence, walked out of Kenny’s house, the door clicking shut behind him like the closing of a chapter that had barely begun. And he wasn’t sure why, or even how, but his legs ran where they ran. All the way to another house. A much tattier one. And when Taylor opened his front door to him, Aaron launched at him for a furious kiss, enabling his mind to stop racing and silence the storm swirling inside him.
If only for a short time.