Chapter 11 #3
I smile blandly at her. “I have a germ thing, so sorry if I don’t shake your hand…”
Alexis yanks her hand back as if she’s been burned.
“My bad.” She surveys the room, then strides into the kitchen with all the confidence as if she’s still wearing her four-inch heels.
Dante shrinks a little the closer she gets, fear and admiration clearly written across his adoring face.
Amazing. I let Parker take my hand and tug me along, curious to see how this is all going to play out.
Hayden comes into the room with all the subtlety of a category five hurricane.
He huffs and puffs, avoids Alexis’ gaze, and throws himself down at the table despite Dante’s kind murmurs.
Alexis looks at each of us, an aura of a mindful babysitter who’s been disobeyed radiating from the very core of her.
I even feel a little ashamed when her gaze lands on me.
“Okay, so they’ve got Jacob in custody, and they’re charging him with first-degree murder for Warton and Hyland, along with a bribery charge for Hyland, as there was an email on his computer demanding money in order to stay silent about the less than savory charges we know have been levied against both men.
” Alexis scrolls through her phone, then taps it against her thigh while blowing out her cheeks.
“I tried to get bail at the hearing this morning, but they’re not considering it.
They think he’s a flight risk considering his charges. ”
“Duh,” Hayden says with derision.
“And they think he acted alone.”
Hayden’s head snaps up. “What?”
Alexis spreads her hands in a you got me sort of gesture. “He hasn’t spoken to them, he knows better than that. I was his first phone call. But so far, all the evidence they’ve mounted against him appears to show a man who acted alone.”
“What’s the fucking evidence?” Dante asks with a growl.
“Circumstantial at best. License plate photo for a vehicle on the highway, grainy surveillance footage, and a bullet matching the gun he had on him at arrest being found at the crime scene.”
“Wait,” Parker says, holding his hands out with a shaky laugh. “None of that points toward Jacob. That all points to me.”
“Please don’t confess any crimes to me right now because I absolutely cannot take it,” Alexis begs while simultaneously tossing Parker an annoyed look.
“You’re all clearly being framed. It’s not my business to know why, nor do I particularly care.
I’m only paid to protect all of you by keeping you out of jail.
But you’ve got the cops sniffing your way now, so I highly suggest all criminal activities be paused, for now.
” Alexis aims her final sentence at Hayden, who just looks grumpier and more annoyed as the seconds pass.
“Okay, so… you’re going to get him out, right?” Reid asks.
“To quote Hayden… duh.” Alexis winks at Reid, then turns her attention back to Parker. “He wants to see you. But may I remind you that all conversations held at the correctional facility are recorded. So do not go in there and implicate yourself in any way.”
“What about me?” Hayden asks, tone hopeful, eyes wide.
“He did not mention you at all,” Alexis says offhandedly. “But also, I believe I might be the bearer of bad news on this one, but Robin has added another member to the keep you shits out of trouble crew. He’s outside.”
Hayden looks crestfallen. “You’ve spoken to Robin? Since Jacob’s arrest?”
Alexis rolls her eyes. “Obviously. I’m here.
” She stomps away from the table but pauses a few feet away to send us all the most disappointed and annoyed look I’ve ever seen.
I want to melt into the floor. “Be quiet, keep your heads down, and absolutely, under no circumstance, are you allowed to kill someone.”
She heads back to the mat by the front door, puts on her shoes, then leaves without another word.
Wow. I fear her but am also a little bit in love with her take-no-shit attitude.
The door opens again to reveal a broad-shouldered, barrel-chested man with light brown curls and a permanent-looking five o’clock shadow.
“What the fuck!” Reid screeches. He’s halfway across the table before Parker grabs his legs and tugs him back. “Let me at him! I’m going to chew through his chest, eat his heart, then spit it out into his mouth and make him eat it!”
Hayden’s eyes go wide, and he starts to laugh hysterically. “Oh my god, this takes the fucking cake. Robin hired you? I’m going to go kill myself. Goodbye.”
“Everyone shut the fuck up!” Parker yells. He tosses a look full of vitriol toward a still seated Dante. “Handle your bulldog, will you?”
“Uhm, if Reid doesn’t kill him, I will, so you need to decide who is going to jail for first-degree murder beside Jacob.” Dante delivers the sentence with an air of finality that sends a shiver down my spine. “Reid! Stop squirming on the table. You look ridiculous, baby.”
Reid flips over onto his back and shoots a lethal glare at Dante.
I can’t help but laugh because it’s so reminiscent of when he’d glare at me when I’d first gained custody of him.
Back then we were just kids, how had I ever been deemed fit to parent him as barely twenty myself.
My laughter must be louder than I realized because Reid tips his head back to aim that terrifying glare at me.
“Shut up! He’s the man who tortured me, Mason.”
I swing my head back to the new addition to the room.
All the blood in my body boils and my heartbeat rushes in my ear, the sounds of everything around me disappearing until all I can see is a funnel of violent crimson that zeroes in on the man who tore my brother to bits.
Forgetting about germs, about touch, about anything, I lunge across the room but don’t make it far enough to make contact with the intruder.
Parker’s arms wrap around me tight, squeezing me to him, even as I keep trying to escape his grip.
“Mason,” Parker says gruffly into my ear as I try to lunge at the oddly grinning man standing with a self-satisfied smile in my entranceway. “Alexis said it was fine.”
“He turned Reid’s stomach into ground beef!”
The man lifts one hand. “I was paid to turn your brother into ground beef. It was not because I wanted to, do you understand?”
Reid screams behind me, and Parker just squeezes his arms tighter around me, enough to make me focus on him and nothing else.
“Excuse us for a moment,” Parker says with false cheer.
“Okay.”
Parker drags me backward toward the backyard, where Dante is already wrangling an extremely pissed-off-looking Reid. If I didn’t know better, I would think Reid was going to bite. Hayden follows us all outside with a bored sort of look, that damn neon cast hanging limp at his side.
“You guys put on a fun show, little psychos.” Hayden tosses himself into a chair and stares up at the sky in exhaustion.
“Robin hasn’t said anything, but Alexis said Claude is legit so…
we go with it.” Hayden turns his head to fix me and Reid with a stern stare as our boyfriends hold us tight.
“Can your minders let you go or are you going to commit a felony against that kind Russian in there?”
“Kind!” Reid exclaims in shock. “I’ll show you fucking kind! He tore me to pieces!”
Hayden rolls his eyes. “And now we must play besties. Well? Can you both behave?”
Reid goes to make what I assume is another snipe, but I whistle out of the corner of my mouth, forcing him to turn my way. We stare at each other for a fraught moment before I lift my arm over Parker’s to sweetly tap my nose. The corner of Reid’s mouth quirks up in a frustrated tilt of a smile.
“Jeez, Mason, teach me your ways,” Dante says with a smile.
Reid elbows him in the ribs, making him yelp and let Reid go. “You did not defend my honor.”
“I was too busy ensuring you don’t go to prison, sue me.”
Reid gives Dante the stink eye, then warily joins Hayden at the seating area. Parker is not so quick to let me go. He grips my chin, tilting my face so he can look into my eyes. That smile I love so much covers his face, making me feel safe and secure in the circle of his arms.
“You gonna be okay, baby?”
“I won’t murder him, I promise.”
“No bodily harm either,” Parker amends with a proud smirk.
With a pained sigh, I tilt the rest of the way to press my lips to his and kiss him softly in promise to not inflict bodily harm onto Claude. Although I want to, very badly. But if anyone deserves to be able to, it would be Reid, so I’ll leave that up to him.
A knock on the sliding glass door grabs all our attention. Claude is standing on the other side with a terrifying little smile, one hand tucked into the front pocket of his jeans, the other resting on the glass like a bored child being asked to be let back inside. Jesus. Who is this guy?
Hayden clears his throat and gives Parker a look I can’t parse, but Parker clearly understands because he lets me go, taking a moment to guide me into a chair beside Hayden.
Again he pushes me down, with a look that clearly says stay, and I obey again because Parker usually knows best. I watch with bated breath as Parker heads to the door, slides it open, then invites Claude out with a flourish of his hand.
“You’re here because the boss says so,” Parker says with a nod toward Hayden.
“But if you touch Reid, that one will kill you”—he points toward Dante with a severe look, then he points at me with the scariest smile I’ve ever seen—“and if you touch him, you’ll die twice, because I’ll kill you, bring you back to life, then kill you again to make sure you end up in the very last circle of hell. ”
Claude holds up two fingers in a Scout salute, which is laughably unbelievable for some reason. “No touching.”
“Actually,” Parker amends, “don’t look at Mason either. You can speak to me.”