“Okay, then we do it in waves,” Thomas said. “I go in alone—”
“No fucking way,” Aiden snarled, taking a step towards Thomas.
Thomas raised a hand. “Fine.Wego in alone. The rest of you can be outside on standby. We will bring the signal jammer because it does seem like a power move to try to take us all out in one go. Once we’ve subdued our friend, the rest of you can come in and do what you want.”
They all looked at each other in confusion.
“You don’t want a piece of this guy?” Noah asked. “After the stress and torture he put you through over the last few days?”
Thomas shook his head. He truly didn’t. It wasn’t that he had any sentimentality towards this man. He didn’t. He needed to be put down. But all the fear, all the grief, all the secrets and lies he’d lived with for the last twenty plus years…that was all Thomas. He’d tortured himself. That had nothing to do with this Nathan person or even Shane.
Thomas had been running from a ghost for so long, he didn’t even realize nobody was chasing him anymore. He was tired of running. He was tired of it. He just wanted…peace.
Finally, he said, “No. I’m done with Shane. I’m done with the bitterness. Nathan Jeffries went after the children. He likely is a serial killer. He needs to be put down. But he also forced me to finally deal with the ghosts of my past, with my family’s secrets. It brought all of you home.” He looked at Aiden, taking his hand and squeezing it. “It brought Aiden home. This needed to happen, but now, it needs to end. So, let’s go end it.”
Aiden kept a close eye on Thomas the whole drive to the lake house. He was looking for some sense of strain or anguish—some semblance of the fear he’d displayed less than a week ago. But there was nothing. Thomas was fine. Eerily calm, even. It scared Aiden. Like Thomas had made peace with dying or something. He didn’t like it.
“Tell me you’re not going to do something crazy,” Aiden pleaded.
Thomas looked over at him and smiled. “Like meet a serial killer in the house where he thinks I killed his father?”
“Like sacrifice yourself for your children,” Aiden said, not finding any of this fucking funny.
“I’m not suicidal, Aiden. I’m just…at peace with whatever happens next.”
Aiden’s heart plummeted into his shoes. What the fuck did that mean? Aiden was not at peace. He would never be at peace while this piece of shit was threatening his family, his future husband, the future father of their children. He needed to know Thomas wasn’t going into this willing to die.
“Fuck that,” Aiden said. “Fuck all of that. I don’t want you at peace. I want you ready to fight.”
Thomas took Aiden’s hand, threading their fingers together. “I’m not that self-sacrificing. I just have faith that the entire Mulvaney family versus one mediocre serial killer is a fight already won. He’s lost his power over me and doesn’t even realize it.”
Why was he so fucking zen about this? Aiden’s insides were shaking. In all his life, he’d never been so scared. He couldn’t lose Thomas. Not when the fucking universe had taken twenty fucking years to finally let him have him.
“I need you to take this seriously,” Aiden said as they pulled into the long curving driveway that led to the home looming in the distance like something out of a gothic novel.
Thomas gave him a patient look that was so much like the old Thomas he was tempted to slap him. “It’s going to be okay, Aiden. I promise.”
This was a stupid fucking plan. The stupidest. How could any of this be okay? They should have just had Mac take the dude out with a rifle. What were they trying to prove? Why did they need to torture everyone? To prove a point? They should have just shot him and been done with it.
“You realize you’re talking out loud, right?” Thomas said, amused but now also looking a little concerned.
What was wrong with him? He didn’t fold under pressure like this. He was the one everyone came to when they needed help, when they needed someone killed. He didn’t freak out like this.
“Take a deep breath,” Thomas encouraged, still frustratingly calm.
Aiden glowered at him but did as he asked. It didn’t help a lot but his heart was no longer slamming against the walls of his chest. It was fine. It was all going to be fine. They were not going to get blown up into tiny little bits. The rest of the Mulvaneys were parking nearby, then cutting through the woods on foot per Thomas’s instructions. They didn’t want to spook this Jeffries guy.
Aiden rolled to a stop, putting the car in park and scanning their surroundings. They were in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t another soul for miles. Everything was so…still. Even the trees weren’t swaying. It all just felt so ominous. He couldn’t shake the feeling something bad was going to happen.
There was a late model Ford F-350 in the driveway. When they approached it, Aiden put his hand on the hood. It was cold. Jeffries had been there for some time. He wasn’t even attempting to hide his presence.
Hide it from who?he asked himself. There wasn’t a soul around. There was no reason to hide his vehicle. Or even his logo on the side. The man was in construction, and that probably gave him all the credibility he needed to be almost anywhere. It had likely helped when stalking his victims.
They approached the house, Aiden peering into the panes of glass on either side of the door to make sure no surprises awaited on the other side. If Jeffries was suicidal, there could be a shotgun or something pointed right at them. But there was nothing. Everything inside seemed cast in shadow, even though there was plenty of light in the sky.
Aiden entered first, keeping Thomas behind him. From the foyer, there was a clear view to a large sitting room with floor-to-ceiling windows, much like the house Thomas and Aiden had stayed at earlier in the week.
But unlike that house, someone had painstakingly blacked out those windows with paper that cast strange shadows on the wall as the sun began to set. They had also pushed all the furniture against the walls, leaving a big empty space in the center. Thomas stopped short. Is this what it had looked like when Shane killed his family?
