Chapter Ten
“Why the sudden urge to treat me to dinner, dear friend?” Paris waggled her eyebrows at me.
“Does everything I do have to have a hidden sexual meaning?”
“You are a hidden sexual meaning.”
“I have no idea what to do with that.”
We laughed.
“Seriously,” I said. “Cairo texted me earlier saying we should go out. Antonio’s by the square, and it’s on him.”
“Hmm. Suspicious.”
I delayed answering by taking a bite of my pappardelle. “What’s suspicious?”
“My dear brother doesn’t get charitable out of the goodness of his heart. Wonder why he really told you to take me out. Have you seen him? I’ve called, but he’s not answering.”
“No, haven’t seen him.” For two days.
The guys busted into my barn, tied and gagged the Crows, tossed them in the back of Cairo’s truck, then told me to drive myself home in Legend’s car. I couldn’t be a part of what was coming next.
I fought them of course. Argued that this was for Roan, and they weren’t pulling that Bedlam Boy-only garbage. We stopped pretending I wasn’t one of them since Axel Verlice.
“You can’t come with us, Rain,” Cairo told me. “There are other people involved now. Those show-off fucks sent that video to half the town.”
“They what?” I cried.
“She’s seen it, and she’s authorized dramatic action.”
I swallowed. “You’re going to kill them?”
“Would you shed a tear if we did?”
My gaze flicked to them kicking and yelling on the bed.
“I’ll shed tears, but they’ll only be for Roan.”
Cairo stroked my lips. “If she shows up while we’re taking care of this, you can’t be there. No one’s supposed to know about what we do for her, or Bedlam.”
“I understand.”
I said I understood, but when’s that ever been true in regard to the Bedlam Boys? All I knew was I’d been sleeping in their beds alone.
“Sorry about Mom,” Paris said under her breath. “Ever since that video hit my phone and the Crows went on the run, she’s super momma-bear protective. I’ve got to check her every time she tries to follow me to the bathroom.”
Speak of the Nora.
Nora joined our table on the terrace, resplendent in a cream pantsuit and diamond earrings. I arrived to pick Paris up for dinner and Nora was dressed like this, though I surprised her at home. She volunteered to join us for dinner, and I couldn’t think of a reason why she shouldn’t.
“How are we doing, ladies? Room for dessert?”
“I love their melon sorbet,” Paris said. “Rainey?”
“I don’t get out of bed for less than chocolate profiteroles.”
Nora’s laugh chimed like bells. “Rainey, you’re such a character. I’m glad my baby has you to put a smile on her face.”
Paris fondly rolled her eyes. “She’s my friend, Mom, not my comic relief. And as your friend,” she said, turning on me. “I can’t let you stay in that house alone while all of this is going on. I’ll sleep over tonight. We can make a whole thing of it and invite Amy, Zara, and the girls.”
“Sleep over?” Nora repeated. “Paris, why would you stay there when Rainey is more than welcome at our home any time?”
“Because Cairo’s got a killer movie selection stashed in his closet.”
“Nonsense. That’s not a good reason for you not to sleep at home where you’re safe.”
“I don’t need a good reason. I’m nineteen, not nine.”
I rose half out of my seat, squinting at a strange light coming from the square.
“What is that?” I asked. “Is there an event tonight?”
“I didn’t hear about anything,” Paris said.
As she spoke, someone came running from that direction and stopped to speak to a couple strolling up the sidewalk. She said something to them, hands waving, then all three took off running.
“Something is going on.”
Paris and I shared a look, then got up.
“Wait, girls. Girls,” Nora cried. “Come back.”
More people were running through the square, directing others to see what was ahead. I grabbed Paris’s hand automatically, sensing what was coming before we rounded the fountain. Heat blasted us in the face.
Lips parting, the sound I meant to utter was stolen by the wind.
A ring of fire stretched to the sky, and defied its lack of reach by bending the air and sending its smoke high.
The burning well circled nearly the entire patch of lawn once used for family picnics. The people that occupied it now weren’t there for that purpose.
Jeremy, Micah, Zeke, Asher, Jonah, Bentley, and Gael strapped to seven wooden stakes reminiscent of Ruckus Royale. Where it differed was no sand pooled at their feet, it was blood.
“Help,” Jeremy bleated. “Please, h-help. Get us down.”
His face was a ruin.
Nose broken and weeping, eyes half swollen shut, and blood matting his hair. That was only from the neck up.
I looked down, and hissed.
In the middle of their chests, a blistering brand scorched permanently on their chests.
Bedlam Forever
“Bedlam forever,” Paris whispered.
I could only stare.
The beating Jeremy took at Riot Royale looked like love taps compared to the battered man before me, and the other Crows were not better treated.
Paris and I got as close as the flames allowed us—which seemed to be the point.
No one was to get to them, cut them down, or answer Jeremy’s pleas. The Crows would suffer the public spectacle they were happy to give Roan until emergency services did only what they were required by law.
“Paris.”
Nora gathered her daughter in her arms, tucking Paris’s head under her chin.
Turning to look at them, I noticed the growing crowd, and the familiar faces within.
Judge Stone fell in step with Dean Banks, saying nothing of the blatant crime before her. Nearest Jonah’s post, Mayor Creed blankly watched the spectacle. And across the flames, Arsenio, Legend, Jacques, and Cairo pushed through the crowd—lining up as a silent, dark force.
Bedlam’s protectors.
“Please, help! Get us down from here.” Jeremy was near tears. “The Bedlam Boys did this t-to us. They’re insane! Monsters!”
His sobs did not move me, nor anyone else.
The video spread through town. Roan’s hold on our bodies, minds, and souls held. Paris’s innocence tugged at our hearts.
No one would help these men. Their pleas fell on uncaring ears.
The Crows chose the wrong town to terrorize. Didn’t they know the blood of revolters ran in our veins?
I gave them my back, facing Paris in time to see Nora look across the flames and meet Cairo’s gaze.
Expression hard, fire danced in her eyes, and for a second, I saw the barren, frozen wasteland that defied their brilliant pools of green.
Nora looked at her son, and nodded in approval.
She.
“Come on, sweetie,” Nora said, rubbing Paris’s back. “This is too much. Let’s get those profiteroles and sorbet to go. Rainey, are you coming?”
“Yes,” I said as sirens sounded in the distance. “I’m right behind you.”
I cast one last look at my guys.
“Bedlam now,” they bellowed.
“Bedlam forever!”
“YEAH. YEAH, OKAY,”Cairo said into the phone. “Got it. I understand.”
He hung up and set his phone on the porch steps between us.
The night before, the Crows suffered in a ring of fire. This morning, the sun rose on a cloudless day, a magpie hopped across our lawn, and a stillness settled in my bones as I watched him.
It was just the two of us on the porch.
Legend left for the hospital early. Arsenio and Jacques were out dealing with the aftermath. I was at Paris’s house until an hour before. Cairo brought me home and we made it this far.
“That was my dad,” Cairo said. “The Crows are handcuffed to hospital beds in HC. They’re keeping them in to treat the burns and injuries, but Steven Ellis and the lawyers Jeremy kept boasting about are all over Dad. They’re demanding our arrest though we have a dozen witnesses swearing we were with them when the Crows disappeared, and when they reappeared in the square.”
“Witnesses,” I said, smile tugging at my lips. “I take back what I said. Bedlam is a family. We look out for our own.”
“Ellis should’ve listened to you.” He tsked. “Stupid sap is going to regret that for a long time.”
“How long? Will they see jail time for what they did to Roan?”
Cairo dropped his head back on the post. “Jeremy is saying they have witnesses too. They were at the Roadhouse when Roan was taken. As for Jonah, Dean Banks confirmed he was the one who came to her office that morning, but they didn’t find her phone on him and he’s not saying anything. Hasn’t spoken a damn word since they cut him down.”
“Traumatized?”
“Better be,” Cairo hissed.
“All of this is sounding like they might get away with it.”
He shook his head. “Roan will wake up and identify his attackers. Jonah snatched him when he got out to put in the gate code. The Crows met up with them in Buller’s Den and beat him. What happens after is courtroom drama, but even if there’s someone left with the slightest doubt the Crows got what they deserved last night, they won’t after he speaks up.”
Cairo inclined his head. “Though I won’t lie to you. From what my dad’s saying, they’re setting this up to look like we’re two groups with a long-standing beef, lying to get the other in trouble. Basically, the police can’t believe the accusations we make against each other.”
I scoffed. “As long as his lawyer includes Jeremy and Micah among the liars. I still can’t believe how far these guys are willing to go. They’re already rich.”
“I’ve never met a rich man who had enough.”
I left the beautiful bird to his hunt for breakfast, and gazed at my beautiful wolf. The nod between mother and son played in a loop in my mind. Try as I might, I couldn’t see it as innocent.
“Cairo,” I began.
“Rain.”
I was done asking to ask. The question came easily.
“Is your mother the one who gave you this job?”
He stilled.
“Did she tell the Bedlam Boys to kill Axel Verlice?”
Cairo slowly dropped his head and peered into my eyes. As the silence stretched, I accepted he wouldn’t answer.
“The job wasn’t mine,” Cairo said. “It was my father’s.”
I frowned, but otherwise did not say a thing or make a move.
“Jack Sharpe was elected sheriff for a reason. She needed someone in law enforcement that could make certain cases... go away. But my father, deep down, is a good man. A moral one. He couldn’t bring himself to play judge, jury, and executioner on the streets. So for a long time, he found other ways to handle the problem without pulling the trigger.
“Until one day, Dad got a call. A couple of supposed vacationers came up to rent out Jubilee Farm for the season. Harmless guys posing as husbands. They wanted to sip tea on the porch while watching the sunset. Nothing to worry about, except the owners of one of the neighboring farms saw something strange.
“Men with tools cut through the forest bordering his land, heading for the farm. Obvious that they didn’t want to be noticed,” Cairo said. “So, he goes out to check what’s going on and they say they don’t know what he’s talking about. There are no men. No tools. No reason for him to interrupt their afternoon. As he’s leaving, he notices a mound of dirt under a tarp and a structure that wasn’t there before.
“A couple days later, Mark Jubilee’s daughter called asking the neighbor if he’s heard from her parents. She’s been calling for weeks and neither one called her back. He tells her they took off on vacation. She replied, no they didn’t.”
Goose bumps rippled down my flesh. I did not like where this story was going.
“The neighbor called the sheriff immediately. When she got word of what was going on, she ordered him to handle it off the books. There was no doubt that those men knew, and they must’ve done something horrible to the Jubilees.”
Cairo’s eyes glazed. “I was thirteen. It was soon after the divorce, and I— I didn’t trust the guy by himself,” he said softly. “I didn’t know what he’d do. So, when he got a call in the middle of the night that made him slump against the wall, pleading with the person on the other end, I assumed it was Nora.
“Dad eventually got himself up and told me he was going out. He wouldn’t be long, and I was to finish my dinner and go to sleep. But I knew he was dragging himself back to Nora for another kicking. If that soulless woman got her hands on him again, destroyed any more of his dignity, my dad would swallow his gun. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“What did you do?”
“I climbed in the back of the truck when he wasn’t looking. Together we drove out to Jubilee Farm.”
My chest tightened. No, this story would not have a happy ending.
“I heard them arguing,” Cairo said. “Crashing, shouting, and then pleas for help. I didn’t think, Rain. I grabbed the spare shotgun my dad kept under the seat, and came in through the back door.
“The kitchen was a mess, but Dad had them both on their knees—gun trained on them. Man, they were bleating their innocence. One bawled his eyes out. The other spun a story of a shady guy that offered them fifty percent of their haul if they lured the Jubilees out and hid their excavating. They didn’t hurt anyone, and they promised to leave and never come back.”
I blew out a long breath. “Your father wanted to believe them. He couldn’t stomach executing two men in cold blood.”
“That’s why he lowered his gun, Rain. Told them to leave immediately, and if they ever returned, it’d be a different story. He turned his back on them, and the bawler shot up, snatching a cleaver off the block. He swung for my dad’s head, and I fired. Two shots in the back without hesitation. His friend ran at me and I killed him too.”
Holding his hand, I dropped kisses on his knuckles, willing warmth into his body.
“Dad vomited. He screeched and bawled and hugged me so tight it hurt. He was a mess, so I took charge. Made him bury the bodies in that hole they were digging. Then we searched the house to find and remove any trace they were there. Dad found the Jubilees in the basement freezer.”
“Oh no. That poor family.” I stroked his cheek. “And my Cairo. You were only thirteen.”
“The old man said that a lot in the months following. ‘You’re only thirteen. This will mess you up for the rest of your life. Sorry. Forgive me. I’ll be a better father.’ On and on it went till he and the shrinks realized I was fine. Too fine.
“There wasn’t a change in my sleep or eating. I wasn’t pissing my bed or sobbing into my breakfast. And more than once, Dad would try to leave in the middle of the night and catch me sneaking in the truck bed to go with him.”
A mirthless smile stretched his lips. “Everyone asks what’s wrong with my eyes, Rain, and the answer was always simple. They scare people... because they’re empty. Like me, you look inside of them and can’t find warmth or love or happiness. You can’t find anything at all.”
“That’s not true—”
“That’s why I was the most logical person to take on the job,” he carried on like I hadn’t spoken. “Dad didn’t have the stomach for it. If he tried, it would’ve destroyed the little left of my father.”
I swallowed through needles. “So she... your mother... gave kill orders to her thirteen-year-old son?”
The smile remained as he tangled in my hair.
“No, Rain. When Nora found out, she went off on him. A killer for a son hardly fit into her perfect life. She hardly cared if he got caught and went down for it, but if I’m hauled away in cuffs, everyone will look at the mother who abandoned me as the first blow that warped my mind.”
“Or maybe it’s because she does love you deep down. She doesn’t want that life for you.”
His laugh was a harsh sound. “No, that’s not it.”
I couldn’t argue with him. Nora was a stranger to me. I could trust her son knew her a lot better.
“What you need to understand is that she is not one person. She is multiple people. The guys and I don’t need to use names. They’re all basically one entity, taking orders from the same person. Nora is one of the people working with her. She convinced Jack to take on the job when they were married, and expected him to continue after.
“For years after what went down at Jubilee Farm, I knew something more was going on with him, but Jack kept me out of it. He refused to answer my questions and made sure I wasn’t following him when he went out at night. During that time, his drinking got worse.”
“How did we get here?” I asked. “Now you are doing your father’s job. The five of you. If Nora didn’t want you involved, what changed?”
“I didn’t give up. When I was old enough to drive, I started tailing my old man. Noting who he met, looking up the numbers he called, paying attention the nights he left his badge in the office. Jacques helped me put the pieces together. They led to Arsenio, Legend, and Roan in different ways. The boss has multiple people working for her, doing different jobs around town.
“We were already the Bedlam Boys by the time she made another call to Dad, and I answered the phone. I told her Dad’s not in that business anymore. She was dealing with me now. At first, she was hesitant, then I mentioned I’d been doing the job anyway. Cleaning up after my drunk father’s messy crime scenes, and pouring him into his uniform the next morning to continue the charade at work.
“Officially, our job is collections and keeping shits like the Crows in line. Unofficially, we’re the town’s cleanup crew. This serves her well since it keeps Nora off her back and the job still gets done. She calls Jack to give him a name, knowing I’ll get it out of him.”
“Goodness,” I breathed. “I truly don’t know anything about the home I’ve lived in for almost twenty years.”
“You’d be surprised how very few people do.”
“You’re not, you know.” I kissed him soft and light. “Empty. An empty person wouldn’t go to the lengths you have to protect your father. He wouldn’t care for his sister. And we wouldn’t be as connected as we are.
“I’ve known empty men,” I said, Cavendish floating through my mind. “They need to hurt others because they can’t feel pain themselves. While you’ve known pain, heartache, abandonment, and loss, Cairo Sharpe. That’s why you bleed it from me. You know what I need to breathe.”
He bent his neck, our mouths closing the distance.
“Morning.”
The mailman bounded up the path, waving to us like it was just another sunny day.
For everyone else, it got to be.
“Don’t have much for you today.” He climbed past us, heading for the box. “Can I say, people don’t send letters much these days. Especially not black ones.”
We shot off the steps, startling the poor man into jumping back.
“You two have a good day,” he said, hurrying off.
Cairo looked over my shoulder as I tore the black letter open, tearing out the note.
Well, well, well.
Did you hear my voice as you read that? Of course not. Stupid bitch, you don’t remember me, so you got the cops out here looking for me.
The thing about living in a small town is you know everyone’s face. You for sure recognize the strangers suddenly camped around drop boxes in town.
Clever plan, but ultimately, a waste of time. If you wanted to meet me, Angel, you didn’t have to go through all this trouble.
I’m arranging a little meeting for us as you read this.
I suddenly came into some good news and I want to share it with you.
If you’re lucky, we’ll both get what we want.
You’ll get answers.
And I’ll get you.
Stay psycho.
Love you, XOXO.
“Arranging a meeting for us?” I repeated. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t think there’s a hidden meaning, Rain.”
“But why would he?” I spun on him. “He said he’d meet me last time because I did what he wanted and killed Verlice. He found out that was a lie, and you know what I walked in on. This time I haven’t done anything for this guy. Plus, he knows the police are onto him. If there’s a meeting planned, it won’t be for beers at the Roadhouse.”
“That’s why we do this smart. Get Gold and Ribecco on the phone. Let them know he’s onto them. Those two will have to come up with a much better plan for when we ambush this guy.”
“I’m supposed to go along with this meeting thing like it could possibly be real?”
Cairo bundled me inside, closing and bolting the door behind us.
“If the letter comes with a time and place, we pass it on is what I’m saying. Let him walk in on a surprise.”
“What if he ambushes me again? He’s snatched me in the middle of a crowd before.”
Cairo cocked a brow. “Won’t be a problem because the allowable distance between us just got a lot shorter. Between me, Arsenio, Jacques, and Legend, there’ll always be one of us available to walk with on campus. As much as I hate to say this.” His lips peeled back from his teeth. “Nora’s cool to let you stay with her. I like her security cameras, gates, guard, and home alarm patched into the station, a lot better than I like our frat house with a few new locks.”
“You want me to stay over Paris’s without you guys?”
“Just at night,” he replied. “Even we have to sleep.”
I hugged myself, wishing like hell this wasn’t happening.
“Paris’s house is safer, but it’s not impenetrable. And it’d have to be for me to consider putting my best friend in danger. The Letter Man isn’t above shooting Esteban in the guard box, hitting open himself, and strolling inside. I’ve put so many people in danger since this started. First, Jennifer Wilson, and now Colton who is still in the hospital. I won’t put Paris at risk. There has to be somewhere else I can lie low for the night.”
“That has as much security?” A strange look came over his face. “Know what? There is a place.”
Cairo backed toward the stairs. “Get your stuff. I’ve got to talk to the sheriff, and you’re not staying here alone. I’ll drop you at the hospital. Meantime, get Gold on the phone.”
I wasn’t about to turn down a trip to see Roan.
“Let’s stop by Gold on the way,” I said while my fingers were dialing. “I’m starting to worry there’s a reason he hasn’t returned my calls.”
I PEERED THROUGH THEglass door.
The lights were off. The closed sign hung in the window. Gold’s desk was visible, neat, and missing its owner.
“No one’s here,” I called over my shoulder. “I don’t know where he lives and he’s not answering his phone. What now?”
“He’s got friends like Ribecco on the force.” Cairo leaned on the car hood. “Call the station and tell them you haven’t heard from him in a while. They can do a wellness check on his place. Make sure nothing happened.”
“Good idea.”
I hopped back in the car and Cairo drove me to the hospital. On the way, I put a call in to the HC police and told them I hired Gold to work a dangerous investigation, and was beginning to get worried that I hadn’t heard from him in two weeks. They promised to look into the matter and I had to let that be enough.
Please be okay.I sent the thought out into the universe. You’ve been so kind to me. You’ve helped me get answers I’ve searched a long time for. I couldn’t stand it if getting tangled up with me got you hurt.
Cairo dropped me off to be with Roan and Legend.
Roan woke on his own the day before. They had him on two different kinds of drugs that made him drowsy. The result was I held his hand and filled him in on the details while he lay there sleeping. Afterward, Legend drove me back to Bedlam.
“Yeah? That’s not a bad idea,” he said on the phone. “They’re not using the place, so why shouldn’t we? Cool. Be there in twenty.”
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Cairo. He’s got the keys to the Crow house. They paid rent to the end of the month and the cops cleared it as a crime scene, so it’s sitting empty. It’s got way better security. Figured this was a good compromise.”
“We’re not worried about Jeremy or one of them coming back?”
“They’re in HC. On top of that, they’re all under arrest. After they’re discharged, the Crows are moving to a cell.”
“Huh. This is a good compromise. All the security and no one to put in danger. The downside is I’ve got to spend more time in the place that filth lived and breathed.”
“Now he can do the first good deed in his worthless life and provide a safe place for you.” Legend punched the gas. “No one else is fucking with what’s mine.”
Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to the Crow house gates.
Cairo, Jacques, or Arsenio buzzed us in. The three of them stretched out on the couch, soccer game playing, and bags of Greek takeout on the coffee table. They made themselves right at home.
“Rain, eat something,” Cairo said.
“Don’t mind if I do.”
I helped myself to a couple of chicken kebabs, lemon potatoes, and Greek salad. Moving aside the soup, I spotted my recent note from the Letter Man.
“We’ve been talking options,” Arsenio explained. “Has the investigator or his cop friend gotten back to you?”
I shook my head.
“Then, we need our own plan for taking down this guy when he sets the meeting.”
“I still say he’s going to see that coming. By now, he knows I told you guys and the police. I’m not making it easy for him. He won’t make it easy for me.”
The doorbell chimed. Cairo got up to check it out.
“It’s Davidson,” he called back. “I told him to get the alarm codes from the owner, and info on how to change them. We’ll be outside.”
I shifted to Jacques. “What do you think? Isn’t your genius mind screaming that the same person who thought giving me a gift was attempting to kill an innocent person, only has worse for me planned down the line?”
“Yes,” Jacques replied. “To meet him anywhere, at any time, is a bad idea if he controls the situation. We simply ensure that we do.”
“But how—?”
My phone went off. I checked it and shot off the couch.
“Guys, it’s Gold. Give me a sec.”
I went into the dining room, turning my back on the guys.
“Gold? Are you okay?”
“It’s me. I am fine,” he said. “The police stopped by my place this afternoon to check on me because you were worried. I’m sincerely sorry I put you through that. I can only imagine what went through your head.”
“I thought he killed you,” I said bluntly. “I got another letter from him today, and he knows the police have been watching the drop boxes.”
“That’s unfortunate.” He sounded like he was speaking to himself. “I’ll have to call off Ribecco.”
“What’s going on? Why haven’t I heard from you?”
A deep, weary sigh gusted through the phone.
“I’m very sorry. I believe I’ll say this to you often during our conversation. The fact is I came across some information during the investigation that I simply did not know how to tell you.”
I slowly lowered myself on a dining room chair.
“I’ve taken this long to get back to you, because I’ve checked, rechecked, then checked again. I owe it to you to be one hundred percent certain.”
“About what?” I croaked.
“I’m hired to give hard truths. I’ve done so for years without hesitation, but to tell this to you after how much you’ve already suffered. It’s the first time in my career I thought I was doing something... wrong.”
“Mr. Gold, you’re scaring me. Please, just say it.”
“I’m sorry, Rainey.”
That made three.
“It’s about your sister, Ivy. How much do you know about where she’s been and what she’s done in the past two years?”
“Ivy?” I echoed. “I spoke to her a little while ago—before she hung up on me. She’s in Chicago with her boyfriend, loving her new life.”
“I see.”
“See what?”
“There’s something you need to know about Ivy,” Gold began. “She is—”
Pain exploded in my skull.
I pitched forward, head hurtling for the table edge. I ricocheted off and toppled out of my chair.
“Rainey? Hello, Rainey, can you hear me?”
The world spun.
Wetness dribbled down my face and neck. I touched them and my fingers came away covered in blood. Trying to make sense of the sight, I hardly registered the boots coming down beside my head.
Eyes fluttering shut, I drifted away.