Chapter 5 RUNO #2
I shrugged it off, trying not to let that thought in my head. Slash wouldn’t kill me. I wouldn’t let him. I would never push him that far. Right?
Finn: I’ve got something to tell you. You need to listen.
I gritted my teeth, my lip ring clicking against them. “How do you keep getting out?” I muttered, low enough that I hoped the others didn’t hear. Finn was supposed to be locked away, stuffed deep with Daemon and Killian, but they all kept clawing their way out.
Samael’s eyes narrowed at me, catching my mumble. “They’re still in your head, aren’t they?”
I shot him a glare, my fingers digging into the chair’s armrest. “Don’t talk to them.”
Slash let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders finally falling as the manic high dissipated completely.
He leaned back in his chair, musing for several seconds before speaking.
It seemed like he was warring with the decision to hate me or ask me to drag him deeper into the hell I had just reintroduced him to.
“So, we got to the part where Runo’s been in love with us.
Excellent. Fantastic. He knows all the buttons to push because I somehow went manic on Niles.
He’s just a flesh pit of blood and guts at this point.
Don’t fucking ask.” He glared at Samael before running a hand down his face, his knuckles still flecked with dried blood.
“I want to know how we’re cleaning that shit up and why you’re so fucking calm, Runo. ”
“Oh! My dad will get it.”
Samael’s frown deepened. “The chief of police has been searching for The Skinner for years. You think he’s just going to…”
I nodded, my grin widening. “Yes, yes, I do. You see, I’ve been doing this maybe just as long as you have, but I haven’t had you, Samael, to clean up my shit. I had my dad.”
Aeron tensed. “There’s no fucking way that the chief…”
I cut him off, my voice taking on an almost playful tone.
“He’s more of a crooked soldier than you’d think.
He was all about his image, which is why no one ever really knew about my mom.
Or me. Not until I became Killian, anyway.
He’d clean up whatever I did. Thought he could tame me.
It didn’t work. So now, I’m using it against him. ”
The kitchen went quiet, my words sinking in.
Well, everything was quiet except my fucking head.
Finn: Runo, you’re going too far. Listen to me.
Daemon: You’re going to fuck this up for all of us.
Dark: I will say that last night and this morning were just a bit too—
I clenched my fists, shoving them back down into that mental void. What did Finn want to tell me? Something about Dad, maybe, or the others? But I couldn’t deal with that now, not with my men watching me, not with the thrill of the game pulsing through me.
Aeron’s voice broke the silence. “So, whatever you were doing before us… your dad’s been cleaning them up since you were a kid?”
I nodded, chewing my lip ring again. “Since I was sixteen or so? He buried Mom’s sickness, buried me, too. Thought he could fix us by hiding the mess. Now I’m making him face it.”
Slash snorted, but there was no humor in it. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Runo.”
I grinned wider, ignoring the pain. “That’s the only kind worth playing.”
Samael leaned forward, his hands braced on the table. “And what’s the endgame? You keep pushing your dad until he breaks?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but that’s when my phone rang, a call I had been waiting for. I held up a finger, my smile taking on a wicked edge as I answered. "Hey, Dad," I said, sweetening my voice as much as possible.
His shout came immediately, blasting through the speaker, his words tumbling out in a furious rush. "Runo, you reckless idiot! What the hell are you thinking? Take your crazy ass somewhere else or lock it down before you destroy everything I've built!"
I leaned back in my chair, a grin creeping across my face as I twirled my lip ring with my tongue before leaving it alone. The metal was more of Finn’s thing but I hadn’t had time to get rid of it. "Why would I do that? It’s much more fun messing with you. By the way, did you clean up my bedroom?"
He exploded again, his voice cracking with rage and something deeper, a tremble that made my grin widen. "What is the point of all of this? I’m sorry for whatever I did, but why did you have to come back?"
My men watched me curiously as I put the call on speaker, letting them see a side of Chief Matthews no one other than I and my mother had seen.
I waited a few beats longer before speaking.
"Why can’t you just love me as me?" I asked, my voice still sweet, but edged with the hurt I'd carried for years, the void where his acceptance should've been.
Dad's breath hitched, his tone shifting to pleading, terror seeping through the speaker. "Son, you need help. Help I can’t give. I can only cover up so much for you, and the deaths at the facility…"
A wild cackle tore from my mouth, echoing off the kitchen walls.
"Dad, I didn’t do all this so you could cover up for me," I said, my cackle fading to a purr. "I’m helping you atone for your sins. You’re really going to like this one, though.
I was going to send you a picture, but it’d ruin the moment. "
His voice trembled, the terror now full-blown. I could imagine him cowering in that office of his or curled over the dinner table as he spoke into the phone. "Where are you?"
"You don’t have time to worry about that," I said, sweetening my voice again.
"You have a cleanup on aisle nine. I've always wanted to say that.
But no, in the forest, at the edge of Primrose, I left you a little present.
" I didn’t give him time to say anything else as I hung up and refocused my attention on my men.
"I think it’s time to say hello to our friends in the basement, yes? "