Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
LELAND
“While I thought of Sera often after that, I never thought of her brother again,” I admit. “I honestly wasn’t sure if he killed her. I wasn’t sure if someone killed them both… and some days I wondered if Lucas did it.”
“Everything was a mind game with that man,” Micah says. “Do you remember her last name?”
“Brown, but it’s such a common name… I’ll talk to Cassel; he might be able to find something from what I can remember. Let’s go back and discuss what we should do.”
We head out to the SUV, but before we’re able to pick up some food, Cassel texts us that Ava is making something, so we hurry back to the safe house.
The moment we walk in, Waylon is there, cat in hands. He then tries to act like he wasn’t waiting by the door for us by giving us a nod and a “Yo.”
“Waylon… I’ve gone…” I check my phone and gasp. “Twenty minutes without a cat picture.”
“Don’t be jealous that everyone likes him more than your fence,” Waylon says.
“Not even through the door one minute and I’m hit with his sass!” I comment. “He’s brutal!”
Waylon looks smug about that, so I take the cat from him and stare at the creature.
“Why are you staring at him like that?” he asks.
“Trying to see him do something magical,” I respond as the cat rolls this way and that while he purrs in my arms.
“Just his existence is magical,” he says.
“Where’s Cassel? I need to talk to him. Will the magical cat lead me to him?”
“No, but I will,” Waylon offers before he leads us to where Cassel is glued to his computer screen. I flip the cat over his eyes so the cat’s fluffy stomach is blinding him.
“It’s… it’s so soft and pleasant,” Cassel says, making my plan backfire when the cat starts grooming Cassel’s face without a care in the world.
I pull the cat back before Cassel can fall asleep in the cat’s fur and leave us to stare at the computer with absolutely no idea how to wield it like he does. “I have some information for you,” I say before telling him everything I’ve come up with.
Cassel asks, “So… are you going to trust Lucas and kill him? Lucas might very well be fucking with you.”
“I know. That’s why I want to look into him first.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Can I help?” I feel like I’m throwing so much on him.
“I mean… you could like… cheer me on.”
“I got you some chocolate,” I say, dropping it on the desk.
“That’s so much better than having you,” he says as he digs into it.
“Thanks,” I retort with much sarcasm.
“Is there anything I can do?” Waylon asks.
“I think… I think just hold this magical cat,” I say, depositing the cat back in his arms. He gives me a look.
“You know what I mean.”
“Not at the moment. I don’t even know what I’m doing at the moment,” I admit.
“Waylon, are you coming back?” Cam calls from down the hallway.
“I’ll be right back,” Waylon says before trotting off to meet up with Cam.
My problem is that Cassel seems busy enough trying to figure out what he can about the Barlow family, so I don’t want to pull him away to deal with my stalker. While I think about what I want to do, I head toward the room Jackson and I are staying in.
Tucker and his daughter, Dani, left when Cassel arrived, though I know Ava and Lewis are around here somewhere, likely in the kitchen if she’s making us something to eat.
But right now… I need a moment to breathe.
I flop down on the bed while Jackson shuts the door and walks over to me. Then he drops down on top of me.
A laugh escapes me. “You’re smothering me!”
“Good. You deserve a bit of smothering every now and then. Especially after that atrocious fence song.”
I feel like I’m eating his shirt as my face is smashed between his chest and the bed. I wrap my arms around him and bite his chest.
“Ow! What the hell!” he cries.
“I’m trying to find your nipple.”
“You think my nipples are way up there? I don’t have any collarbone nips.”
“Well, I don’t know that yet since I haven’t found them,” I say before biting him some more.
“You are painful and evil.”
“Says the man squishing the life out of me!” I whine. I hook his leg, thrust up my hip, and flip him onto his back so I can squish him instead. “Much better.”
“No! Not better! Now I can’t breathe!”
“You can breathe,” I say as I lift my shirt. “Does this help? I bet this bare flesh makes you tingly, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does—”
His voice is cut off when I flip the shirt over his head so I can smother him with my bare chest. “Why?”
“I don’t know, Jackson. There’s something about skin-on-skin contact being soothing or something, I believe.”
“I think that’s for newborns.”
“Strange…”
I hug his head, which is now all I have hold of. Then I scoot down a bit so I can tuck my head against his and take a deep breath.
“Are you snorting me now?” Jackson asks.
“No! I was trying to breathe!”
“What a creep!”
“Oh my god! Even if I was willingly snorting you, I should be allowed! I am your husband, husband.”
“What a weirdo.”
“No! Not I! Not me! Not Leland the Lustrous!”
Escaping my shirt, he flips me back on the bottom and then bites my neck, which makes me squirm.
I try my hardest not to laugh. “Dammit, you’re not a vampire!”
“I might be! Don’t you dare try to control what I want to be! That’s not very husbandlike!”
I gasp because how dare he believe I’m not husbandlike enough? “Fine! You may be a vampire as long as I get to suck on you too.”
“You can suck on me any time you want,” he says with a grin.
“Perv.”
He cocks his head like he could possibly be confused. “So you’re allowed to say it, but if I do, I’m a perv?”
“You’re delectable.”
“Thank you. You’re pretty damn delicious yourself.”
“Awww, how sweet,” I say as I squeeze him some more. “I have a very, very serious question for you.”
“I’m already prepared for it to not be serious in the slightest, so shoot.”
“If I… okay… I mean… really serious, get me?”
“I’m going to give you the most serious answer for the most serious question.”
Smiling at him, I tap my finger against him. “Perfect. So if I got bitten by Sasquatch and became a wereSasquatch which turned me into a Sasquatch on the full moon… would you have sex with Sasquatch me?”
“I would spread those hairy cheeks without hesitation,” Jackson assures me.
I nod approvingly. “This is why I know we are meant to be.”
“I’m glad it’s that and not like… risking my life, confessing my love, or marrying you.”
“Nope. It’s the Sasquatch bit.”
“Wonderful.”
I beam at him. “You are wonderful.”
I kiss his face all over, which really should cement how happy I am that he’s agreed to be my lover through thick and thin. Hairless and hairy.
My phone beeps, and I look over at it and see that it’s from Waylon.
Waylon: Thought it might have been too long since you got a cat picture, so here are seven more.
“At what point do we decide this is payback for me making him look at The Fence?” I grumble. “And he still hasn’t named the thing? What is he waiting for?”
“There was a while there that you were sending him fence pictures on the daily.”
“Oh… was I supposed to stop that?” I ask.
“How many pictures of that stupid fence could you even have?”
“Four hundred and seventy-two.”
“There is absolutely no way you only have four hundred pictures of that fence. Let me see your phone.”
I pin my phone to my chest, prepared to protect it at all costs. “No, Jackson. Unless you want to sign up for The Fence Daily subscription, you are not allowed to see these pictures.”
Jackson huffs. “I don’t want to see the pictures, I want to see how many you have—which is certainly far too many—and that’s why you’re refusing to show me!”
I simply beam at him and decide I’ll include him in my daily Fence photographs; I’d hate for him to be jealous.
I get up and head toward the door, and Jackson follows me. He loops his arms around me and pulls me back for one last kiss before we step out of the bedroom and nearly run into Waylon.
“You name that cat yet?” I ask.
“I was thinking… what if I name him Fence, and then every time anyone says anything about The Fence, we’ll all look at my cat instead of that chunk of wood,” Waylon replies.
“When did our son become so devious?” I ask.
“I love that idea,” Jackson the Traitor says.
“Absolutely not. Find something else. You hungry? I’m hungry,” I ask as I pull him in close.
“Sure?” Waylon says, already looking skeptical. How can he be skeptical of my loving hug?
“Waylon, while we were gone, we ended up at a birthday party.”
He eyes me warily. “Yeah? And what were you doing at the birthday party?”
“What we were doing there doesn’t matter. What matters is that there were children everywhere. They were like… crawling out of every crack and crevice.”
“How did this become a horror story?”
“But I realized that out of all of them… you are the best one,” I say. “They were such lowly children. I’m glad we picked the perfect one that’s so much better than the other children.”
“I’m…” Waylon hesitates and thinks for a moment. “A part of me is like… is this a compliment? Is it a threat? Is this man in front of me the strangest human to have ever existed? One never really knows.”
“I know. And the answer is…” I freeze when we walk into the kitchen where quite a few people are gathered, including Ava and Lewis.
“Don’t look her in the eyes, don’t look her in the eyes,” I whisper as I try to shield Jackson and Waylon. They both fight a little, for some reason.
“My mother is not Medusa,” Jackson says.
I grimace when I realize she’s caught me trying to protect my lovelies. “She’s looking at me.”
“Do you think it’s because you’re shielding us from her?” Jackson asks.
“She’s scrutinizing me.”
“I really don’t blame her!” Waylon tells me.
“Jackson… Leland,” she says, and I freeze, caught in Medusa’s hold.
“Hey, Mom,” Jackson says. “Thank you for watching Waylon.”
“He’s really no trouble at all. He’s an absolute angel, unlike…” It’s very clear she’s looking at me. “I’m glad you both came back safely.”
“Both of us?” I ask.
“I would hate to see my son sad,” she says.
It sure took you many years to figure that one out, I think to myself.
Honestly, the only reason she got away with any of her attitude was because Jackson kept that relationship going long after I would have given up on it.
But I also never really knew what it meant to have a family, so maybe it was harder for someone who did to cut ties so easily.
“Jackson, this one here is quite normal and well-behaved,” Ava comments as she eyes Ellis, who is sitting at the table.
Ellis flashes everyone his puppy-dog smile. He’s just happy to be here, happy to be alive, and happy to be included. And… for some reason it appears that he’s happy to be around Medusa.
“Jackson, I was telling your mom about this dog we saw at the clinic the other day,” Ellis says, happy as can be.
“He’s already too far gone to be saved,” I explain to Waylon.
“Oddly, I think the only one who has a problem with her is you,” Waylon whispers back.
“Are you making me out to be the villain?” I ask in disbelief. But it’s not like Waylon knows about Ava’s less than pleasant side… well, the side she doesn’t wear on a daily basis, that is.
The oven beeps and Ava ditches us to hurry over to it. She pulls out a large dish of baked ziti and slides it to the middle of the table. The table isn’t big enough to fit everyone, but people grab chairs or whatever they can find to slide forward to make room.
Then plates are passed around and filled with pasta, breadsticks, and salad.
“I’m so hungry,” Tavish says as he immediately dives in.
I watch him for a moment before leaning into Jackson. “How long would it take for the poison of your mother’s choosing to take down a man of… oh, for example, let’s say… Tavish’s size?”
“I wouldn’t poison the whole dish,” Ava says. “How would I enjoy it myself if I did?”
I eye her then lift my plate and make a show of sniffing it. While I take a bite, I dish up two more plates for Cassel and Jeremy. “I’ll be right back. Jackson, watch my plate while I’m gone so she can’t poison it.”
“I can help,” Waylon says as he pops up and follows me.
“I can handle it,” I say, positive that I really can handle two plates, but Waylon must want to talk to me or something because he follows me anyway. “What’s up?”
“Should I… not like Ava?” he asks.
“What? No, I’m just goofing around,” I assure him.
Waylon stares at me.
“You’re so much smarter than all of those other kids,” I decide.
His eyebrow shoots up. “Not sure I am.”
“You definitely are,” I promise him. “I don’t… dislike Ava. She just… really had a problem with Jackson being gay for a bit. It… upset me seeing Jackson hurt by it, but she eventually came around.”
“Did you tie her up in the basement like you did to Henry?” Waylon asks.
“Nope, that Leland Specialty was reserved for Henry only. I didn’t want him to ever feel like he wasn’t special enough, you know?”
“Sure, sure,” he says. “Uh… how… old is Dani?”
“Too old for you. You’re not getting a girlfriend until you’re at least fifty-two.”
“Why? That’s such a strange age!”
“Because I said so. Now go eat and promise me, Waylon, whatever you do… do not look Ava in the eyes.”
“I’m not promising you anything!” he declares, but off he goes.
My precious child has already been won over by Medusa and a girl… I must protect him at all costs.