30. Thirty Kaleb
Thirty: Kaleb
I had wanted to kill them. I’d almost shot those fuckers right in their ugly faces. The only reason I didn’t? Freya was behind me, watching my every move. She didn’t deserve to witness such a scene. That, and I wanted to get as much information out of them as possible before I ended their miserable lives. But I never got the opportunity.
I’d never felt so much rage in my entire life. It was as if a demon from the pits of hell had melted into my body and taken over, making me land punch after punch to the dark-haired man’s hideous face—while Brent ensured Hannah was alright—demanding for him to tell us where his accomplice was.
I would’ve shot them myself had the coward not turned the gun on himself and his friend.
Luckily, the heavy rock music outside drowned out any sound of yelling or guns going off, and security was none the wiser. I’d called my chief, and he’d sent some more of our men and the police to the scene.
Although I’d expected them to cut the fair short and evacuate everybody, they didn’t. They wanted to keep it under wraps since Will could be involved, and Brent and I were told to leave so they could handle the repercussions.
He won’t stop.
He’ll keep going.
He won’t give up.
I clamped my teeth together as the words rang clear in my head, bouncing off my skull and filling my bones with tension. Somebody had a vendetta against Freya, and it had to be Will.
It was my fault. He was doing this because he knew Freya meant something to me. He knew Brent and I were up to something, but I couldn’t understand why Kaylee hadn’t been targeted either. I’d questioned Brent on whether she’d noticed anything out of the ordinary, and she hadn’t. She continued to live life normally and without worry. Why was it only Freya was being hunted? Brent had made it clear that Kaylee was his girl, and I didn’t understand why Will wasn’t having her stalked, too.
I slammed my car door shut before shoving my hands in my pockets and making my way through the overgrown field. My mood was glum—reflecting the grey cloud-coated sky above me.
Not an ounce of sunshine. Good. I was in no mood for it.
My boots trudged through the mud as I weaved around multiple large rocks, chewing on the inside of my cheek. I stopped in front of the bulkiest one, next to a decaying tree, and gazed down at the stone, gnawing on the inside of my cheek.
Here lies Brie Evans.
The sun shines less brightly with you gone.
The stars no longer twinkle.
The moon doesn’t glow.
You were the one that gave the world light.
Now, we see nothing but darkness.
My mother’s words—she’d written them on a particularly bad day.
Guilt swarmed me, the waves riding higher and higher until it was a tsunami of remorse, hitting me full force and nearly knocking me to my feet.
Five years. Five fucking years without her. A death that I had caused.
Blackness had been consuming me—clouds of ominous turmoil cast over me that followed me wherever I went—but for whatever reason, whenever Freya was near, I forgot I was being rained on.
I’d learned to redirect my intense emotions for the most part. It was why I would slip away and shoot—to refocus my mind on something helpful, like learning how to blast a sleazy drug dealer or child rapist in the face. That was going to make the world a better place. Not wallowing in my self-pity.
“I met someone, Brie,” I muttered as I settled down on the small boulder opposite her grave, ensuring it wasn’t taken. The last thing I wanted was for a corpse to reach through the mud and grab my ass for perching on their resting spot.
I imagined Brie's teasing look. I knew she’d be laughing—giggling out of control as she gazed up at me with her bold, grey eyes, urging me to continue and tell her about the girl who was slowly thawing my icy heart.
“She keeps me on my toes,” I said, casting my eyes down and fiddling with a twig, ripping the small delicate leaves off and throwing them to the ground. “She’s fiery.”
Just like me, Brie would have said.
I grinned at the thought, but it quickly dropped. “I fucked up, though.” The wind pricked the back of my neck hauntingly as if my little sister was controlling the weather and warning me. “I dragged her into things. She’s mixed up with the wrong people now, and it's put her at risk."
Brent and my chief had to physically restrain me and shove me against the wall at the Christmas fair. Fury had been coursing through me, and I wanted to do nothing more than march down to the shooting range and choke Will until he was a bag of bones.
I couldn’t, though. He wanted this reaction from me, and killing him would do nothing for me but land me in a prison cell—even if he was a seedy criminal. The police and my organisation didn’t want him dead. They wanted him behind bars where they could gather information from him about the trades he was working in.
I ran a hand down my face, groaning as I tilted my head back and glared up at the looming clouds angrily. They were threatening to downpour on me, and I cursed at them in response.
Fuck, history was repeating itself.
This was yet another person who I cared about that I was going to get killed.
I kept my sopping wet hood up as I entered the house, kicking the door shut, my hands shoved into my jean pockets. Everyone was still out, and I settled down on the couch, not caring if I soaked it through.
I braced my elbows on my knees and held my head in my hands, grunting to myself. Droplets of water trickled down my forehead and nose and dripped onto the wooden floorboards, filling the silence with steady bloops.
Brent had been watching Freya today while she was at college since it was the anniversary of Brie’s death. I’d spent a couple of hours at her burial site—not having visited in a little while. I had a feeling it was the reason precipitation had begun to beat down on my back painfully. Brie was letting me know she wasn’t happy about it.
I’ll be better, I’d told her.
It was fucking hard living with the fact that the consequences of my own actions caused the death of my innocent little sister. Hindsight was a wonderful thing, though; no amount of wishing it hadn’t happened would change the fact that she was no longer alive.
The front door opened, and I raised my head to see Freya entering the house. She smiled at me, and even though I was in a foul mood, it was enough to brighten my thoughts and drag me out of the powerful current that was keeping me under.
“How was college?”
“Same old. How was… Brie?”
I could tell she was hesitant to ask, but as uncomfortable as I felt talking about my sister, for whatever reason, I didn’t mind the subject with Freya.
“Probably pissed at me because it was the first time I’d visited in a while.” I chuckled.
She hummed. “I got you something, and I know it’s stupid, but…” Freya dropped her bag from her shoulder, leaning down to rummage through it.
I watched with curious eyes. “Freya, I don’t need—“
“Shh. Close your eyes.”
I groaned but adhered to her request, scowling as she took my hands in hers and pulled them toward her, forcing them into a cupping position. Another few seconds passed, but I then felt something soft and plush touch them, and I peeked my eyes open.
A fuzzy brown bear sat in my palms—eyes so wide and brown they mirrored Freya’s. A red scarf was wrapped around its neck, and it held its paws out wide—as if inviting me in for a hug.
I furrowed my eyebrows. “Oh… thank you.” I attempted to hide the confusion from my voice, and Freya laughed, tapping the cuddly toy's belly.
“You don’t have to do it now, but when you want to, squeeze his stomach.”
“His stomach?”
Freya dipped her chin. “Yeah, but maybe wait until you’re alone before—“
Without thinking, I squeezed the bear, and my throat constricted as the most magical noise sounded.
Brie. Singing.
Freya appeared sheepish as my little sister’s vibrato bounced off the walls, and she picked at her cuticles nervously as she gauged my reaction.
I couldn’t react, though. I couldn’t move. It was as if the bear had been welded into my skin, and we were connected for life. Fuck. I wanted to be. I wanted to carry around this little creature for life—forever able to hear Brie’s beautiful tone.
“I got your mom to send me some recordings,” Freya said as Brie’s voice fizzled out.
I couldn’t do anything but stare. My blood was rushing through my veins, and my heart was pounding to keep up with it. Elation . It invaded every spare inch of space inside my body.
“Kaleb?” Freya cleared her throat. “Too much?”
I immediately shook my head, a smile breaking out on my face. “No, not at all. Fuck, Freya, this is perfect. Thank you.”
Her shoulders sagged in relief. “I wasn’t sure.”
I studied her gift for another second before placing it on the couch next to me, cupping Freya’s cheeks and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “I’ve never been given something so thoughtful. Ever.”
“She’d be so proud of you, you know? I know you don’t like to talk or think about it, but I know she doesn’t blame you for what happened. She’ll always love you.”
My chest tightened, and I swallowed down the urge to disregard Freya’s words—not because they didn’t matter to me, but because I didn’t agree with her. There was nothing that could convince me I wasn’t the sole reason for Brie’s death, but it was something I was working through in my head.
I would never rid myself of the guilt. That was something I was going to carry with me for the rest of my life, but having Freya by my side made it a whole lot more bearable.
“Are you sure about this?” Brent questioned as he glanced up at the derelict building before us, spitting rain sprinkling onto our hooded heads. “We’re going to be outnumbered in there, and Will could easily kill us.”
I shook my head. “He won’t. He’d be stupid to do that. The chief knows where we are, and it’d be too easy to pin the murders on him.”
Brent hummed in a way that said I’m not so sure about that, but Will was clever and calculating. It was the reason it had taken our organisation years to pile up evidence of his crimes. He wasn’t an open book, and everything illegal he partook in was very much under the radar. Gaining his trust was the reason he’d let things slip, but now that he didn’t believe we were who we said we were, he was going to be hostile.
I wasn’t here to gather more information on his crimes, though. I knew we weren’t going to get any more of that—despite what my chief believed. The reason I was here was to confront him about stalking Freya. To warn him to back off because if he didn’t, there was a fat chance I was going to kill him myself.
Brent and I made our way inside, the aura feeling much more adverse than usual. We were no longer welcome here. Beady eyes lingered on us, following us as we peered around the room casually, cigarette smoke wafting through it and making it a little harder to see.
It wasn’t busy, and the few people who were shooting turned away from us after a couple of seconds, minding their own business as they continued with their day.
“You’re brave, boys.”
I gritted my teeth at the voice, turning on my heel to see Will leaning against the doorway to the hallway in a plain white T-shirt and slacks, his mouth void of a cigarette for once. His hair was messy instead of being gelled back, and the dark circles under his eyes indicated he’d been skipping out on sleep.
His eyes flickered down to my handgun hanging from my waistband, his thick eyebrows raising questionably.
“I’m not here to shoot you,” I said calmly, gaining a chuckle from him. “No matter how much I want to.”
Will scowled, but it was exaggerated, a glint of cockiness and danger lingering in his dull eyes. “Now, why would you want to do that, Kaleb? You were the ones to infiltrate my business in an attempt to frame me for a variety of heinous crimes.”
There was no point in denying it. Will knew what Brent and I were, and I wouldn’t insult him by trying to convince him we were here simply because we enjoyed his company. I just couldn’t figure out how he’d found us out, though. We’d given little away about ourselves, and although some people would see that as suspicious, it was odd that Will immediately jumped to the conclusion that we were here to collect evidence against him after having trusted us for years. Something had changed his mind—I wanted to know what that was.
“There’s no need to lie to us, Will,” I said. “We both know the shooting range isn’t a business. A cover-up is a much more suited word.”
Will’s expression didn’t falter, and he gestured towards the bar where a young blue-haired bartender was working before stepping aside to give us a view of the receptionist tapping away at her old and outdated computer. “I have staff.” He cocked his head as if challenging us to deny the fact. “They work for me and get paid. Therefore, I think we can all agree that the shooting range is very much a business.”
He was deflecting.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Will,” Brent spoke with a tight jaw. “Although judging by the dark bags under your eyes, it looks like you haven’t been getting much. Why is that? Been busy?”
We already knew he had. More handovers regarding the drug ring had been going on over the past few days, according to my chief. They had enough evidence to arrest him on those charges, but it was the murders they really wanted to get him with, and as of yet, that evidence wasn’t strong enough to hold up in court.
“Never heard of insomnia? It’s very common. Look it up.”
“I’m not here to talk about your sleeping habits.” I took a threatening step toward him, my eyes blazing. “I’m here to talk about the guillotine you have hanging over my girl’s head.”
“Your possessiveness is excessive, Kaleb. It’s not a good look.”
I didn’t care. I didn’t care what Will thought of me. All I cared about was him staying the fuck away from Freya.
“Freya has nothing to do with this, Will,” snapped Brent, his mouth curling into a snarl as he glared at the seemingly unperturbed man before us.
“You’re right. She doesn’t, and that’s why I have no idea why you’re coming to me with this,” Will snapped, appearing bored by our intrusion. “I’m a very busy man, boys. You both need to leave and next time you step foot in here, I won’t hesitate to fire bullets into your shins.”
Displeasure flared inside me at his threat, and I closed the gap between us, keeping my vibe calm yet threatening. “You give your little stalkers a warning for me then, Will.” A deadly smile graced my lips. “None of them will get anywhere near Freya, and if they try, they’ll end up dead. The last thing they’ll see is the barrel of my gun, and I’ll be sure to make their deaths as drawn out and as painful as possible. Mercy isn’t something I possess.”
Will smiled coldly, moving past us and disappearing around the corner, and Brent sighed, following me out of the building with his hand tactically on his gun.
I knew Will was going to take my threat seriously. It was obvious I didn’t like people messing with what was mine, but that didn’t mean he was about to order Freya’s stalkers to step down.
If there was one thing I knew about Will, it was that his pride came before anything else.