Wouldn't he? I couldn't rule out the possibility he'd tell his brother Jules and try to go after them themselves.
In spite of that brief misgiving, I believed him when he shook his head.
"Just their nicknames and their phone numbers," he said, his lips twisting with annoyance. "I'm going to take a wild guess their numbers are redirected, but I'm going to need my computer to look in deeper."
"Who's going deeper?" Boner called out from across the room, grinning as he teased. "Am I missing something over there?"
While Cass' face turned pink, I called back, "You're not missing anything."
"Yet," Boner shouted back.
I shook my head at him. The man was incorrigible. I liked that about him. No matter what happened, his sense of humor remained intact. When things were dark as shit, he'd crack a joke, or be ready with a smile. Even if he was stabbing someone at the same time.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to get this phone back to my place," Cass said, drawing my attention back to him. "The sooner we can find those three, the better."
I'd lost count of how many times I'd thought, and said, that he didn't need to get involved with our crusade. Withmycrusade. He'd insisted. Since his brother's abuser was now dead, would he want to step back?
He must have seen all of that on my face, because he said, "I'm involved. I want to see this through with you. Let's find them andendthem."
"I can't talk you out of this, can I?" I asked with a sigh.
His voice low, he said, "I care about you, Harlow. I…want to do this with you. What we're doing here, all of us, it's important. We're doing what the law can't do. Ineedto do this."
I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his mouth. "I care about you too. I don't want to come between you and your brother, though?—"
"Don't worry about him," Cass said quickly. "He'll come around. And if he doesn’t…" He adjusted his glasses. "That's his problem."
"Do we have to worry about him squealing?" Boner had stepped over to lean against the wall, his arms and ankles crossed. His blond hair was tousled, like he'd dug both hands into it and messed it up deliberately.
"Because you know what snitches get."
"Stitches wouldn't fix what you'd do to him," Cass said, torn between defending his brother and agreeing we'd have to take steps to deal with Jules if he decided to go to the police.
"Accurate, mate," Boner told him. "He'd fit nicely into that oven over there." He jerked his thumb behind him.
"I'll talk to him," Cass assured both of us. "So…" He held up the phone.
"I'll come with you," I said. "I want to see what else is on there for myself."
"Me too," Boner said.
"I need to finish up here." Archer peered into the oven, neck stretched, meticulously checking its job was complete before he turned it off.
"I'll dispose of the ashes when they're cool enough. The river is a popular place for scattering them. That's too good for this asshole." His mouth turned down, conflict in his eyes.
"Pretend he's a goldfish?" Boner suggested.
"I've already washed enough of him down the pipes," Archer said. "I don't want to clog the plumbing." The conflict slowly eased. "There's a nice park a couple of blocks down. He could feed a tree."
"Finally, he does something useful with his existence," I said dryly. "Hopefully he doesn't poison the tree." I stepped over to give Archer a hug and a quick kiss. "Thank you for everything. Tonight was perfect."
I scooped up the jar containing the heart Archer cut out of Fairfield's chest and held it carefully while I followed the other two out the door.
"You're going to keep that?" Boner eyed the jar.
"Of course I am," I said. Otherwise, I would have thrown it into the oven along with the rest of Fairfield.
After a moment, I realized the real reason for the question. "It's okay that you didn't think of it first."
