“You see, I’ve been digging for a while, and I was surprised to find that you weren’t born as Ryker but Jason Caldwell. A foster kid. A violent one, at that. Which is why I’m calling regarding your whereabouts last night. Seems there was a bit of a scuffle in the woods.”
I forced a grin onto my face, leaning against the desk next to Aeron, who’d stopped eating, his fork frozen mid-air, his eyes wide. “I was having sex, actually,” I said, keeping my voice steady despite the sweat beading on my neck. No one had ever been this fucking close to us aside from Runo. No one that threatened to turn us in and upend our lives.
Tyrone’s voice hardened, cutting through the speaker. “Cut the shit, Ryker. There’s a man dead because of you.”
I pushed out a bitter laugh, the sound masking the spike of fear in my chest. “No, that’s what you think, and your emotions are getting the better of you.”
“Just tell me where you were last night, or I’ll have to kindly ask you to come to the station.”
“I told you,” I said, my grin widening. “I was having sex.”
Tyrone snorted, his tone skeptical. “All night?”
“Yes,” I said, leaning closer to the phone. “He has quite the stamina.”
“It wouldn’t happen to be Killian, would it?”
My grin sharpened, a flicker of that wild energy from last night sparking in my chest. “Actually, it wouldn’t.” I hung up, not giving Tyrone a chance to continue questioning me before locking eyes with Samael. “I need to know what the fuck Tyrone is doing calling about this.”
Silence sat between the three of us for several seconds before Samael finally spoke. “We didn’t plan for him, which means wehad no idea he was watching. We’ve been a bit lax these past few months and Tyrone presented himself as just an owner of that little place. However, our time here in Primrose is falling apart. Being here worked when no one truly knew who we were, when we were just part of the city, not the true cause of their fear. We can’t be the ones they salivate over and at the same time the ones that keep them in during curfew. With Chief Matthews in charge, we would’ve been fine, but he’s getting suspicious, and he’s terrified of his own son. Tyrone, on the other hand, doesn’t play as nice, and apparently he’s been watching Primrose for years, which means he’s seen a lot more shit than most of the officers.”
I straightened up a little, my hands curling into fists at my sides. “And when were you going to tell us that bullshit?”
Samael shrugged, his dark eyes tired—it was the first time I had truly seen past the mask he kept up. “It’s been a little hectic dealing with Runo, and I didn’t know what would set him off if he knew. We haven’t really had a moment, just the three of us.”
Aeron set his bowl down. “We haven’t, have we? And yet, we’ve spent more time together with him in our lives than before. As scary as it is, he’s kind of brought us closer.”
He wasn’t wrong. The problem was that we now had Tyrone breathing down our necks and he was a lot closer than I wanted him to be. If he knew about my foster situation, it was only a matter of time before he stumbled onto Samael and Aeron’s pasts as well. “And then Runo ruined the one place we were safe to let our demons out,” I pushed out.
Samael laughed, the rough sound echoing in the office. “Slash, we all knew there would be a time we’d have to leave. And after last night, I don’t think Primrose is enough for us anymore.” I opened my mouth to argue, but Samael stood up and moved around the table to stand in front of me. “Hey, I’m not mad about last night. We all need to let go sometimes but we kind ofneed a different space than cute little old Primrose. Something a bit…bigger, a place more used to the darkness so that we don’t stand out.”
RUNO
Daemon: I never realized how boring this shit was until you took over. Even Finn made this job look interesting.
“I am bored as shit. Bored out of my mind. How the fuck did Killian do this day in and day out?”
Killian: Because it’s interesting and you get to research new—
“Shut up, nerd!” I cackled to myself, swiveling around in my chair. It was nice not having a cubby mate, especially one I wanted to murder. Although, I guess I had already done that, hadn’t I? I did another twirl in my chair, wondering what to pick up next. One of the gods had handed me something to look into and type up but I was having way more fun doing absolutely nothing for the remainder of my 8 hours.
The only interesting thing about this place was the gossip. Whispers about Niles’ death floated around the office—cubicle chatter about his body in the woods, carved up like a roast.However, there was also chatter about how the top ten bachelors in Primrose were falling apart—Ryker had quit and Phoenix’s food truck hadn’t been open in a while.
Finding out that Aeron had posted on his social media about the ‘death of food’ or something equally hilarious had me making a mental note to ask what was going on. Other than that, though, there was nothing to do around here.
Dark: For old times’ sake, we could go to Bondage Palace.
“That’s been the best idea all morning and I would. However, Tyrone is fucking on our ass and I know he’d find some reason to connect me to every single murder in Primrose.” I twirled around in the seat again before stopping.
Killian: I like how the only reason you wouldn’t go is because of a murder investigation and not because of your fucking boyfriends.
I snorted. “Killian, I would gobecauseof them. Every time we went, they’d show up and fuck us. It would be a wonderful escape from all this madness.” I waved my hand around my cubicle and then sighed. “Where is Finn?”
Finn: Right here. Ya’ll are having a jolly good time and I’m wondering how we get out of this fucking mess. If you haven’t noticed, we don’t do well in confined spaces so jail isn’t a great option for us. There’s also the matter of my fucking child…
“That’s your fault for sticking your penis where it doesn’t belong. Although, I wonder if Jade did that on purpose.” I really had thought about killing her even after her pregnancy admission but I’m not completely heartless. Just mostly. And I really was curious about what kind of child I would create. I had an inkling it would be a girl. “I’ve got a plan.”
Killian: Runo with the plans, everyone!
