Chapter 16
BONER
"You shouldn't—" Harlow started.
"He's already involved," I said, anticipating what she was going to say. Should I have run my mouth off when Cass asked what was going on? To be honest, I knew what I was doing. The moment he saw those photos, he was in it up to his eyeballs. He had two choices, join us or try to walk away.
Yeah, we couldn't have risked him walking away. Even now, whether or not I trusted him, his involvement was still a big question mark.
He was clearly smitten with Harlow, but now that he knew what she was really like? That could disappear down the toilet faster than you can say flush.
Hell, knowing the real her changed everything for me. That first night with her was incredible, but seeing her on the fire escape outside Carl's apartment? Knowing why she was there? It made her a million times hotter than she already was.
Yeah, I was also smitten. Sue me.
"Maybe we should sit down." Harlow pushed the laptop to the side and sat on the desk.
Cass, who was still looking like a stunned sardine, needed a shove from me to flop into one of the chairs. That gave me room to close the door and lean against it. Barely. The office was the size of a closet.
"You knew what he was doing?" Cass asked carefully. Evidently reality was starting to seep back in. "That was why you wanted me here."
"We suspected," Harlow agreed. "We had to be sure. We knew there was a chance you'd see what you saw." She ran a hand over the back of her hair and tugged at her ponytail.
"We set you up," I said bluntly. There was no point apologizing for it. This whole thing was bigger than any of us.
"I set you up," Harlow said softly.
"It wasn't only you, love," I told her. "I was well aware whoever you asked to help would get caught up in it. We all understood that." I decided not to bring Archer's name into it yet. Cass had no idea a third person was involved. It would be better to keep it that way for now.
"Yes, but it was me who brought him into it," Harlow said. "I'm sorry, Cass I—"
"I want to help," Cass said. He shook his head slowly, the front of his hair falling over his face before he pushed it back. "However all of this went down, it went down. What I saw, I can't unsee, but I can do something about it. Right?" He looked from Harlow to me and back again.
"You don't know what you're asking," she said.
"Yes, he does." I eyed him carefully. "He knows exactly what he's asking, but what I don't know is why. Why do you want to help?"
"Why do you?" Cass shot back at me.
Knowing he could just as easily end up being cubed, slid onto a skewer and barbecued, I told him my story in as few words as I could. Then glanced at Harlow before telling him about her sister.
"You've seen mine, show me yours," I said. "You or someone close to you?" Yeah, that was direct, but I'd been the same with him. If he was going to join our little crusade, then he was going to have to give us something.
"My younger brother," Cass said slowly, like he'd prefer to have his teeth pulled one by one. "He took his own life because of it." He didn't go into detail and I didn't ask.
Harlow slid off the desk and knelt in front of him, her hands on his knees. "I'm so sorry. If I'd had any idea, I never would have asked you to get involved."
I squinted at Cass. "You didn't have to," I said. "You only had to give him Granger Fairfield's name. He already knew."
Cass swallowed. "I had my suspicions. He was friends with Fairfield's son. He had a sleepover there one night. When he came back…" He pressed his eyes shut. "He was different. He refused to talk about it. He shut down. A few weeks later he…" His voice broke on the last couple of words.
"Fuck," Harlow whispered. "I'm so sorry. How old was he?"
"He was seventeen," Cass said, dropping his eyes.
"You never spoke to the cops about it?" I asked.
Cass didn't respond at first. He kept his head down for a minute or two. Finally, he looked up and over at me.
"And tell them what? I had no proof. Now we have proof. But you're right. They won't touch him. He's too powerful." He looked back at Harlow. "Is this what you do? You hunt down people like him and you…what? Kill them?" His voice was higher on the last couple of words.
"Yes," she said. "We make sure they can't do it to anyone else."
"You've never been caught." It wasn't a question. Obviously she hadn't or she wouldn't be here right now.
She smiled slightly. "I'm good at…covering my tracks."
"So am I," I said. I leaned back against the door and crossed my arms like the cocky fuck I was.
"This is insane," Cass said to himself.
"The necessity is insane," I agreed. "No one should be so powerful they get away with anything and everything. The law can't do anything about it, but we can and we do. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need to."
"In a perfect world, people like Granger Fairfield wouldn't exist," Harlow said darkly. "Fucked up monsters. But they do, and I refuse to let them continue. He murdered my sister and I can't forgive that. I won't let him keep doing it. I can't."
"He'll get a nasty, painful, preferably slow death," I assured her, trying to contain how turned on I was by her passion.
"What was your brother's name?" I was a big believer in knowing all the names, so they wouldn't be forgotten. It was my way of honoring the people we'd lost.
Admittedly, in this case, I wanted to observe Cass's sincerity. Call it risk assessment if you like. If I was going to turn my back on him, I wanted to know I wouldn't find a knife in it.
That kind of information was somewhat important.
"Augustus," Cass said. "My parents had a thing for ancient Rome. My older brother's name is Julius.” He made a face and then added, "He goes by Jules."
"Thank fuck they didn't name any of you Nero," I said. "Or Caligula. Screwy in the head, both of them." I made a screwing motion in the air with my finger. As in, driving one into a piece of wood with a screwdriver, not the fucking kind of screwing.
Although, they were similar, now I thought about it.
"Yeah it could have been worse," Cass agreed. "So, what do we do now? I want to help." He pressed his lips into a line so tight they went white. "I've waited long enough for justice for Auggie."
"We need to figure out where Fairfield is and how to get at him," Harlow said. "When and where he's the most vulnerable." A fire burned in her eyes, like she was ready to burn the world down on behalf of her sister.
Totally fair. If I had a sister and anyone did to her what they'd done to Lettie, I'd burn the whole fucking universe down.
Same if anyone tried to touch a hair on Harlow's head.
It wouldn't be the first time I'd cut off hands.
It wouldn't even be the first time I slapped them across the face with their own fingers.
That was funnier than it should have been.
No, it was just fucking funny.
You should have seen the expression on the guy's face. Somewhere right between offended and in a shit ton of pain. It was a thing of beauty.
"I can get a hold of his schedule," Cass said.
"That shouldn't be too difficult. Taking down his security system long enough for us to get in and out is doable.
" His mind was turning over with thoughts and plans, I could see that in his eyes.
Although, I suspected his ideas were straight out of a Hollywood movie.
I liked the guy, but he had a lot to learn. He better learn it quickly.
"You won't be going in with me," Harlow told him.
"Us," I corrected. "I'm not sitting out."
She looked like she was about to start arguing with me, but closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.
"We need to make a plan," she said. "Then we can work out who's doing what."
"I can get behind that," I said. Of course, I was going to make sure I was as involved as possible. I'd be happy to go in alone if need be. Whatever it took to get the job done.
She raised an eyebrow at me in justified suspicion. Yes, I was up to something, why else would I back down so quickly?
We both knew what I was up to. I wasn't going to be left out. Never let it be said that I wasn't a stubborn prick.
"Okay, let's get that schedule first," she said.
"Then we can go from there." She rose and moved the laptop back into the center of the desk.
"You think you can find it without seeing anything else?
" From the way her hand pressed down on the lid of the laptop, she wasn't going to open it again if it meant confronting Cass with more.
"It's probably publicly available," Cass said. "I won't need to go back into that…area." He rolled the chair closer. "He'll notice if we delete all of that, won't he?" He sounded regretful.
"He might," she agreed. "Once we deal with him, we can delete it. Or make sure the cops find it. They'll be looking for a motive. We can give them one. Let them see what he was really like. Hopefully that will give everyone some closure."
I'd like to think the police wouldn't look quite as hard for his killer once they realized he got exactly what he deserved.
Unfortunately, every cop I'd ever met was dogged about doing their duty.
Even if they completely agreed with what we did, they'd keep looking until the trail went stone cold.
Which would be quick, because we were, after all, good at covering our asses.
Sometimes I felt sorry for them. I thought about joining the force when I was younger. Once I saw how tied their hands were by the law, I abandoned the idea. Having to abide by the rules would have driven me crazy.
If I wore a hat, I'd take it off to them. Instead, I occasionally threw them a proverbial bone. Making sure they got leads to find the kind of people who deserved to be locked away, rather than dead.
I'm a vigilante, not an asshole.
"Right." Cass waited until Harlow stepped aside before easing the laptop open and waking up the screen. He closed out of the files he'd hacked into and tapped at the keyboard, looking for Fairfield's schedule.
I watched Harlow watching him, her expression difficult to read. She really didn't want to drag him into this, but he was in it. I understood her apprehension. Not just bringing a guy like this into the craziness, but working with him, me and Archer as well.
And dating us. Yeah, I knew Archer had a thing for her too. This whole situation could easily become complicated, and people like us didn't like complications.
As for me, I couldn't drag myself away from her if I wanted to.
I could very easily fall for this woman.
I'd die for her. I'd definitely kill for her.
I'd drive a knife into Cass' neck right now if he showed any sign of not being on our side.
If he didn't think I’d watch him closely, then he needed to think again.
People like me, we didn't survive by being na?ve. We survived by being untrusting, suspicious pricks. Something I definitely intended to continue being for as long as I lived.
"Okay, I'm in," Cass said. He leaned in closer to the screen. "This lists every place he'll be for the next eight weeks.” After a few moments of reading, he whispered, "Fuck…"