“I’m going to call the police.” She reached for the landline, but Ewan jerked the cord out of the wall socket.
“Please. I don’t think that’s a good plan. I get why you want to, but if the cops come, it’s unlikely to be Flynn that they arrest. It’s his blood splattered around the kitchen. Do you really want them to haul your friend down to the station?”
Obviously not.
“We need to let him out of the cupboard.” Judging by the banging, he was going to bust himself out before long anyway.
“We will, but we need him to calm down. You need to calm down.”
“Yeah, and how do you propose I do that? He’s got every fucking right to be angry, same as I do. Ewan, Flynn put Spook in the hospital, and he’s been missing for months.”
He nodded. “Don’t think that my guts aren’t churning over that. Listen, if I get him out of here—.”
“You’re going to let him go?”
“Realistically, what other option is there? Even if you went to the police, there’s no evidence to connect him to the attack. You can’t prove it, and he is going to deny it. The only person who can really pursue it is Spook. Given he hasn’t done so yet, it seems unlikely he’s going to.”
“So I’m just supposed to let him get away with it?”
“I didn’t say that, but you need to be smart, instead of letting your frustration get the better of you. I’m going to get Flynn out of the house.”
He rose, but he’d barely taken a step, when a loud slam set them both running towards the kitchen.
The door remained in situ, Rock Giant still confined, but Flynn was gone. Alle ran to the front door. Out in the street, Flynn was weaving a path between the parked cars. A set of headlights blinked, and he dipped below her line of sight. “Let him go,” Ewan advised, coming up behind her and gently drawing her back so that he could close the door.
“I’m going to let Paul out.” She returned to the kitchen and released the bolt. “Don’t hit me.” She ducked just in case, but Black Halo’s bassist merely grunted as the light from the kitchen flooded the dingy cupboard. He flipped onto his feet and stalked past her.
“Wait! Paul.” She fisted the back of his shirt. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to break that fucking twat’s neck.”
She slid before him. “He’s gone. He had his car. You can’t—”
He punched the wall to the right of her head, damaging the plaster. Alle flinched, but when he drew his arm back again, she clasped his bloodied fist. “Listen to me. I had no idea. None. You have to believe me.”
Ewan righted one of the fallen chairs, then dug out a dustpan and brush and began sweeping up mug shards and wooden pellets.
Rock Giant regarded her from beneath beetling brows. “I do believe you. It doesn’t change anything. I’m still going to kill him if I see him again.”
“Do you think I don’t feel the same?” Her gaze grew fuzzy, and she attempted to blink her vision clear. “He’s my own fucking brother. All this time wondering, and it was him… it was Flynn. No wonder Spook wants nothing to do with me.” Hot tears trickled down her face and over her lips. It was only when Rock Giant brushed them aside that she realised her lip was split. It stung as his thumb traversed it.
“Spook’s avoiding us all, not just you. However, I need to go. I have to let the guys know about this.”
She could already envisage their fury, their hurt… “I want to come with you.”
He scoffed. “Alle, I don’t think that’s such a good plan.”
“Maybe not, but I need to. I can’t…I can’t stay here at the minute. I need to do something. I need to be part of…” She gestured wildly trying to pull her thoughts together as if they were floating around in the air. It might not make sense, but she wanted to be there when the guys learned the truth. If that exposed her to an unpleasant level of vitriol, then better they said whatever they had to say to her face than behind her back.
“I can’t be cut out of things again.”
“No one’s cut you out. We’ve all been in the dark. Asking the same question and getting the same answer every time doesn’t mean you’re being shut out. It can just mean the person you’re asking doesn’t know the answer. Look, come if you feel you have to. They’ll all be at the hotel by now.”
Alle nodded. They both cleaned up in the downstairs bathroom while they waited for the Uber to arrive.
“I don’t think you ever specifically said that your brothers thought Spook was beating you.”
“Did I not?” She shrugged. “They’re idiots.”
