Epilogue
CALEB
It’s been a while since the entire family has gathered like this. Alice, Trent, me, and my parents.
Earl and Grandfather are missing, of course. It’s Grandfather’s house, but it feels even emptier than usual without him taking his place in the large armchair.
My father paces the room while the rest of us sit quietly on the sofa. Vortex is waiting outside of the private living room, on the other side of the locked door.
My father’s face is twisted in fury. “We can’t let this stand,” he hisses. “This insult?—”
My mother’s lips thin in disapproval. “You aren’t even sure of what happened. All we have is one body.”
Alice lets out a long huff. “I bet Earl did it, honestly. He was getting on my case about letting him have one of my apartment complexes. His finances have been really bad. I bet he got into a fight with Grandfather, realized his mistake, and took off.”
Trent looks from Alice over to me. “I don’t know. Earl did make some money recently. Maybe not enough to cover all of his debts, but why would he kill Leon? ”
“The inheritance, of course,” Alice counters. She scoots away from Trent and glares at him. “What’s your theory?”
Trent’s eyes flicker to me once more before he says, “The Clubs? Earl was doing business with them at one point. Maybe they took Earl and offed Leon in the process.”
It’s my turn to scoff. “They wouldn’t risk the truce like that—at least, Virgil Club wouldn’t. The murder of Leon Spade would cause too much upheaval in Calamity. No, it must have been an outsider,” I say.
My father clenches his fists. “Which brings us back to the Lockwoods. My contacts at Calamity PD say Earl’s last call was to a New Bristol number. And we all know they’ve been sniffing around our business.”
Now they all turn to look at me. I keep my breathing steady.
“This is my fault now?” I ask calmly. “I didn’t force the Lockwoods to do anything.”
“If you weren’t keeping that… that…” My mother trails off. “But it doesn’t matter. None of this excuses what the Lockwoods have done. If we return the boy to them now, it’s akin to saying we’re afraid of them.”
“I’m not bowing to them,” my father snaps. “If they want war with us, we’ll give them war.”
“ If they did it,” Alice interjects. “We still have no proof. Until we find Earl, we can’t be sure.”
All the more reason for them to never find Earl.
“I’ll do whatever is necessary to prove to the Lockwoods that our family isn’t to be trifled with,” I say.
“You would,” Trent says under his breath. Alice must have heard him too, because she shoots him another glare.
“I’ll need to talk to some people. We’re going to get this sorted. But any Lockwood who attempts to mess with this family will find out exactly how we do justice here in Calamity,” my father declares.
That seems to be the end of this emergency family meeting. Trent, Alice, and I shuffle out of the living room, the same one that Grandfather used to hold all of his private meetings in.
I nod at Vortex, who waves from his spot against the opposite wall.
“I have to go pick up Lori from her friend’s house,” Alice says to Trent. She pauses in front of me. “For what it’s worth, I think it’s a good thing you have someone. You’ll have to introduce me soon. Lori keeps talking about him too.” She smiles ruefully. “Except I have to hear about those stupid martial arts lawyers almost every day now. And which ones she thinks should be kissing.”
I laugh about that. “Yeah, I’ve heard a bit about that too. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. Besides, it was Trent’s idea to introduce them.”
Trent shrugs innocently. “He looked like he needed a friend! The only person I could think of was Lori.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Alice says, her voice colder.
I guess their marriage really isn’t doing well lately.
Trent, Vortex, and I follow Alice more slowly. I wish Trent would get out of here too, but he keeps pace with us as we go out the front door.
“Do I still have a job?” Trent asks as we approach the cars. “Or are you firing me now that Leon is gone?”
I consider him. “You’re not a bad general manager. But I don’t like employees who can’t follow orders.”
Trent nods. “Understood. But, y’know, it might be bad if anybody found out the last person to see Leon alive was…”
Vortex visibly tenses, but he has the good sense to keep his mouth shut.
“You want to make Seven’s life even worse than it was?” I ask mildly. “You can keep your job, but I won’t put up with anything, anyone , that endangers him.”
That makes Trent laugh. “Yeah, fair enough. I’ll see you on Monday, Boss .”
With that, he gets into his sports car and drives off.
Vortex shakes his head. “He’s going to be a problem. ”
“He’s been a problem,” I answer. I wait until we’re both in the car to ask, “Did you find Earl?”
Vortex shakes his head. “Nope. No sign of his body. Both cars were still there, but the water and food were gone. He might have wandered off into the desert, but, no offense, I wasn’t going to go look for him.”
“That’s fine,” I say as we pull out of the long driveway.
It’s not fine.
Nothing is fine, but Leon would’ve ripped Seven away from me — from us — and I would’ve been powerless to stop it. At least this way, we have a fighting chance.
The Lockwoods may think they’ll do anything to get Seven back, but they’ll find out quickly that I’m willing to go even further than that to keep him.
One way or another, he’s ours, and no amount of trouble is going to change that.