Chapter Forty-One
Ash
One week, that’s how long we had to chill, before the next drama hit us. This time it was in the form of Cal being called by the police, to inform him that there were suspects in his parents’ murder. And his uncle’s.
They’d informed him of their deaths, and he’d pretended to take it hard, or maybe he hadn’t been pretending at all. That raw pain was real, whether they were close or not. It was just about more than losing people. It was about removing the people who’d harmed him for decades.
We were ‘invited’ to the police station to meet with the officer in charge, and the first thing I did was ring my dads, because I had a bad feeling about it. We’d been careful, but this meant we were in their sights, and that was never good.
“We’ll make sure you have our lawyer there, kid.
Just in case.” Yikes. There really was a family lawyer, and the guy was about as disturbing as you’d expect, to represent people like us, but he earned a shit-ton of money for it.
My family had made so much money over the years they’d been together.
Mostly with properties and investments, because if I thought dad Gray was good with investments, dad Dory had a freaking scary mind when it came to that stuff.
That was something Blaze had inherited too, so they were doing well too.
We hadn’t yet decided what our future held, but for the moment, my concern was making sure it didn’t end behind bars.
“Ah Mr Jeffries, and Mr Cross, is it?” We both nodded, and that’s when the cop noticed the guy behind us. He sighed heavily, waving him in too.
“Mr Sharp. It’s not necessary for them to have legal representation right now. This is just an update with regard to an ongoing case.”
Mr Sharp, because you never called him anything but that, merely stared at the cop, and took up position behind us as we both sat down.
Cal kept half glancing over his shoulder, like the presence of old Sharpie behind him was as freaky for him as it was for me.
It was like having a fucking vampire standing behind us.
“You said you had information?” Cal finally said, his voice a little shaky, which thankfully made him sound grief-stricken rather than guilty, at least to my ears.
The cop nodded, opening something up on his computer and reading from it.
“An anti-religious group has claimed responsibility for the murder of your uncle, Gordon Jeffries, and also both of your parents. I’m very sorry.”
We both stared at each other, bemused and brain-fucked.
Someone was falsely claiming the honour of killing those fucks, taking credit for disposing of them?
I wanted to scream from the rooftops that it was us, that we were the ones who cleansed their evil from this planet, but I knew that was the dumbest thing I could do right now.
I took Cal’s hand, squeezing it gently, not just for comfort, but in case he felt any similar urges to denounce their fucking usurping of our activities.
“Uh… who are these people? Did they say why?” I asked, surprised to find my own voice a little meek in this situation where I’d probably expected to feel like a fucking king. Oooh or a god.
The cop narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m not at liberty to give out that information at this time. The investigation is still ongoing. Apparently it’s part of a gay rights movement,” he said, as his eyes drifted to our joined hands, and one eyebrow lifted.
“Were they accepting of your relationship?”
“My clients won’t be answering any questions at this time,” Mr Sharp interrupted, his voice as jagged as his name.
The cop sighed. I didn’t even remember his name, but it didn’t matter. What did matter was someone else might be held accountable for our crimes, and as much as I hated them getting the credit, I also didn’t want to get banged up for the rest of my life.
“What happens next?” I asked, squeezing Cal’s hand again, because the poor sweet man was staring at his lap in silence. Again, it looked like grief, but it could be anything.
“We’re actively investigating their claims, and continuing to study the evidence, but-”
“I think we’re done here,” Mr Sharp interrupted again. Apparently his entire philosophy was on keeping the cop off balance, and breaking the flow of this fucking discussion.
“If charges are made, we’ll keep you informed.”
“If?” Cal finally asked, ignoring my hand squeezing his in warning. Don’t push this shit, Cal. We’re almost out of here.
The cop consulted his file again and rested both hands on the desk.
“If we can make a case against them, despite their claims, which could be retracted later, or proven to be false, we may be able to pursue it. Three people died, but the sad reality is that their case may never be closed to any level of satisfaction that you, as their family, would be able to accept. We’ll do our best, but organisations like this are notoriously hard to prosecute, which is why they’re so willing to claim credit for such acts.
If you have more information that we can-”
“Interview over. We’re leaving,” old Sharpie declared, tapping both of our shoulders as he spoke. We both lurched up from our seats, probably because we felt like we’d just been touched by a demon or the fucking lord of hell himself, and the cop nodded.
“I’m sorry again for your loss, Callum.”
He nodded. “It’s Cal, but thanks. I uh… I just want to get on with my life. I need to.”
Old Sharpie led us to our car and smoothed his dark suit jacket as he eyed both of us practically into puddles of fear.
“Do not speak with any law enforcement without my presence. If they get a chance to pin this on you, they will. Their conviction rates are appalling, and they need easy wins. Don’t be that for them. Go on with your lives, and stay off their radar. My card, use it if you need me.”
He held it out and we both stared at it in abject horror. We had to take it from him, but none of us moved for a second, and he sighed, resting it on the roof of the car.
“Go home.”
He turned and left, and only then did we feel like we could breathe properly. It felt like the shroud of his unholy presence had been siphoning the air from the damn atmosphere.
“Fuck me, he’s terrifying. Do you think he even has a soul?”
Cal laughed breathlessly, like he’d been running.
“Fuck me, he’s even scarier than your family!”
Pfft. My family weren’t the scary ones in life. Cal’s were worse. I reluctantly grabbed the business card and passed it to Cal with a smirk. Neither of us wanted it, but we had to keep it.
Cal got in the car, and as I walked around to the other side, I glanced up at the building we’d just left.
That cop we’d just met with, he was standing at the window, watching us leave.
Did he see us laughing? Did he think it was some sign of us being bad guys?
Was he cataloguing our every move? Fuck.
I drove out of there like an old lady, but I wanted to slam my foot down, and get away fast. I felt like there was still an axe hovering over us, and it freaked me out.
At home, we found a note from Ren to say he was hanging at my family’s place with Pyro and Nix. Shit. Clearly my parents had collected him, but it made me edgy. I’d laughed it off when Cal had been worried about their influence on Ren, but secretly it bothered me too.
My so called ‘normie’ brothers might be the worst of all of us, and I didn’t want our son being caught in the hellfire, see what I did there? Still, it gave us a moment to reflect on that damn visit to the cop shop.
“He suspects us,” Cal said, grabbing a beer and passing it to me, before grabbing a second for himself. It was only lunchtime but why the hell not. Did my hand tremble as I popped the cap? Was it because of the threat of the law, or that creepy ass lawyer?
“I think he might be a vampire.”
Cal frowned. “The cop?”
Oh shit. That’s what we were talking about. “Sharpie. That guy makes my blood chill in my veins.”
Cal visibly shuddered. “That guy definitely lives in a crypt and eats people’s pets or something. Ugh. I feel like he’s still in the room with us. Who the fuck is he?!”
I leaned on the counter, trying to pretend I didn’t feel the exact same way, but damn that guy freaks me out.
“Dad Gray’s known him for decades. I have no idea how they met, but, shit. The first time I met him, I peed myself.”
Cal started to laugh, but it dried up fast. “As a kid, or more recently?”
“A kid! Obviously!”
“I mean, not gonna lie. I kinda wanted to piss myself with him behind me like that. Could you feel that coldness wafting off of him? If I was still religious, I’d swear he was a demon, or fucking Satan himself.”
Ugh. We needed to stop thinking about that sick fucker, and start moving on.
“That anti-religious group claiming responsibility is a weird twist, right? Who the fuck are they?”
Cal
That bit was freaking me out too. Who the hell were these people, and why the hell were they taking responsibility for murders they didn’t commit?
I mean, as the people who actually did it, we were the only ones other than them that knew it was a lie, but it was creepy.
Did this mean other murders weren’t committed by organisations who claimed they did it?
Was it all about using these deaths to further a cause, rather than the truth?
Did they know it was us, and this would be something they’d raise later to-
“Babe, don’t go too deeply into it. I wanna fuck you in a minute. Just… it’s definitely weird, right?”
I set my beer down, and wiped the condensation from my palm, leaning beside Ash. Beside him always felt like where I should be, and I think that had always been the case, at least for longer than I’d been willing to admit.
“It makes me wonder what their deal is. Like, were they already planning something and we just jumped ahead of them? If they’re supporting gay rights, then maybe they had them and others on their radar already. We might have saved them a job, but maybe it was always going to happen.”