Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
JACKSON
When the house Leland had gone into suddenly bursts into flames, panic floods me.
How can chaos just explode around him? I rush toward it, my heart pounding hard in my chest, but I don’t get far before Leland and Cassel come dashing out like nothing strange is happening behind them.
I wait until Leland catches up with me before hurrying back to the vehicle which I push Leland and Cassel into before climbing in myself a moment before Jeremy guns it and we’re off.
“Where to?” Jeremy asks.
“I have a hotel booked,” Cassel says. “We’re staying there for the night to see what I can figure out.”
“Raul is dead,” Leland announces.
Everyone shifts their attention over to him. “You shot him?” Everly asks. “After all of that?”
“I did not. My amazing stalker chose to. Cassel, do you have footage of what happened on Raul’s end? I wasn’t able to see and was only able to go off what he told me.”
“Hold tight,” Cassel says as he settles in his seat and Ellis hands him his laptop. Cassel sets to work on it while Leland hovers over his shoulder and I peek around the seat to see.
He slows the playback down when he finds what he’s looking for, but all I can see are people running.
He moves the recording back a bit and presses play, and we watch Raul quickly moving across the yard, likely looking for his guards or us.
He is saying something to his son and waving at him, telling me he’s trying to end the party, just as the bullet hits him right in the head.
It’s a good shot, but our gunman had a clear opening if he was firing from the window.
Still… knowing that he was skilled enough and ruthless enough to take that shot in the middle of a party filled with children makes me anxious.
The blood splatters the man Raul had been talking to and everyone at the party freezes. Parents rush for their children as people scatter and run.
“They’re going to come after you harder than ever before,” Micah says.
The look Leland gives tells us that he knows that, and he sounds discouraged when he asks, “What is the right answer here? Do I shoot the man who killed Raul? He’s not harmed a single innocent person, but he’s hellbent on ruining my life.”
“I blocked him in the stairway for a reason,” Cassel says as he switches to something else. It looks like a map and I see a dot moving on it. “When he shoved past me, I slipped a GPS tracker into his pocket. Let’s hope he leads us to his home.”
When we reach the hotel, all of us head into the room Leland and I are in, planning to talk before we go our separate ways for the night. I turn to Leland, who sighs as he sinks down into a chair.
“Tavish, on your hands and knees, I need a footrest for my best thinking,” he demands.
“The only feet allowed to walk all over me are attached to Ellis,” Tavish says.
Leland seems displeased by that as he sighs again and rubs his forehead. “How badly did I fuck up?”
“Is it really your fuckup when you had no control over it?” Micah asks curiously.
“I feel like things are spiraling and I’m just dragging all of you along for a life-threatening ride,” Leland says, although again, I’m not sure why he’s trying to blame himself. Does chaos latch on to him? It sure as fuck does, but it’s not his fault… most of the time.
“Has Leland grown a heart? Does he care what happens to others?” Cassel asks with a gasp.
“I’m going to stop caring about anyone but my fence, Jackson, and Waylon if you don’t shut it,” Leland hisses.
“Jackson, did you notice he listed The Fence first?” Cassel murmurs.
“That was just… No!” Leland sinks onto his side and closes his eyes. I think we’re all startled by the fact that he just stops functioning, and everyone seems uncertain if he’s going to start again anytime soon.
I reach over and squeeze his hand. “Leland, it’s not your fault.”
“I know. I’m just… thinking. I can’t look at all of your expressions of disappointment when I think.”
Cassel reaches out and squeezes his other hand. “We’re not disappointed in your ability. We’re disappointed in your personality.”
“Yeah, what Cassel said,” Micah says.
“Agreed,” Henry tosses in.
“I—” Tavish begins, but Ellis squeezes Tavish’s wrist so hard that any desire to say something evil about Leland goes right out the window.
“I think you… did a good job today! Yes. That one.” Tavish looks to Ellis for confirmation that he did well, and Ellis smiles at him. It makes Tavish beam right back.
“Are things going to go as smoothly now? Definitely not, but we might still have control of the situation,” Cassel says. “We just need to figure out something that the FBI has been unable to uncover during the many years they’ve investigated the Barlows. That’s not hard at all, right?”
“Do you think if Raul’s son takes over, the people who are being dragged into this hell are going to get eliminated?” Everly asks. “What’s the second son’s name?”
Leland leans back, looking disgruntled that he doesn’t have a Tavish-sized footrest. “Eddie. He’s been involved with his father’s business for years and knows the ins and outs.
Will he eliminate those he controls? Probably not yet.
He likely won’t until there’s a stronger law enforcement element involved.
But if he feels like it’s become risky to keep going, or if he starts feeling anxious, there’s a slim chance he could. ”
Micah nods. “I’m with Leland. I think we have some time before our leads get hidden and it becomes impossible to save those the Barlows have control of.”
“I might have everything I need from the information Tavish and I brought back. I won’t know for a while, though,” Cassel says.
“So I’m going to head to my room where it’s quiet.
You’re only allowed to enter if you give me a neck message and bring me something to eat and drink.
I will also take foot massages and someone whispering how amazing I am in my ear. ”
He heads off and Jeremy follows after him, presumably to do those things since no one else has volunteered.
I wake up with Leland’s arm over my head where he’s struggling to stare at his phone that’s just beyond me. I see why he’s in this peculiar position when I realize that I’m hugging him to me like he has no option to withdraw.
“You could have pulled away,” I mumble.
“Why would I?” he asks with a raised eyebrow before giving me a forehead kiss.
I close my eyes and squeeze him tighter, not quite sure I want to get up from this position since it feels so comfortable.
“Could you not sleep?” I ask.
“No, I slept, and then I thought, and then I slept some more. And now I’m being forced to look at twenty… seven photos of a cat that Waylon sent while we were asleep last night. Twenty-seven, Jackson. Only twenty-seven. Not twenty-six… twenty-seven. What have I done?”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t get him that pony too,” I joke.
He flashes the phone at me. “And here on this grand day, we have a mighty Felis catus, unhinging his jaws in a magnificent yawn!” He swipes to the next one. “Now don’t be alarmed, because at 11:46 PM, we are greeted with a mere stretch of gigantic proportions.”
“Oh wow!” I say. “The cat is stretching.”
“But don’t fret! We have twenty-five more thrilling photographic masterpieces to get through.”
“Oh joy. Am I excited or what?” I tease. “The cat is cute, but twenty-seven is a bit much.”
Leland’s arm that’s been holding the phone flops down on me as he snuggles close and closes his eyes.
I love it when he pushes aside his fear of emotions and showers me in them…
even if he’d claim to be doing nothing of the sort.
It shows me how much he’s opened up to me.
How comfortable he is with me; comfortable enough to do things that make him feel uncertain.
“Here is my plan, although it could change the instant Cassel finds something,” Leland announces.
“I’m going to follow Eddie and see what happens now that he’s in control.
He’s going to try to shift things around, figure out where the weak spots are that the police could be looking into with the death of his father.
If we find anything, we’ll be there to tear them open. ”
“The police are going to be crawling all over the place now that Raul is dead,” I say.
“I’ll be careful.”
My phone beeps at the same time as Leland’s. Since looking at mine would require me to pull away from him, I stare at his phone instead while he opens it.
Cassel: Wakey, wakey, bitches, meeting in two minutes in my room.
Leland: If I have to arrive in two minutes, you’re really not going to like what I come wearing, but I’m really going to like what Jackson comes wearing.
Cassel: Don’t make me vomit. I’ve gotten no sleep and just ate candy all night. I’m already on the verge.
Ellis: We’ll be there!
Leland: What an overachiever.
Ellis: And we’ll be dressed, unlike the creeper next door.
Leland: Hey, when did you get sassy?
Henry: Let’s make it one minute. I have something to say.
Leland stares at his phone. “That’s not good. Like Cassel doesn’t concern me at all, but the second Henry wants to say something… it’s concerning.”
“It really is,” I say as I get out of bed and head over to the bag we’d brought in case we ended up staying overnight. I open it and pull out the clothes that were packed inside before staring at them with a raised eyebrow.
“This is what you packed me?” I ask.
“Yeah, why?” Leland asks before I hold up the shirt that’s so tight my nipples have been known to show through it.
It also doesn’t help that the bottom half is made of fishnet.
I’ve worn this shirt one time in my life, and it was for a Halloween event Leland dragged me to.
I was forced to stop and pose in front of The Fence for far too long before we were even allowed to leave the property.
Leland gazes at it for a long moment before going, “Looks good to me.”
“You packed this?” I ask, positive that there’s no way he did.