“I’m not sure yet,” Liam says. “If we don’t, though… I can deal with him myself.” He seems far too interested in this path.
“And how are we going to explain that to Jesse? ‘Oh, don’t worry about the guy who was leaving dead bodies for you.’ And he’ll be all, ‘Why would I not worry about him? What happened to him?’ and what exactly do we say at that point?”
“The same thing I say to you every time I want you to forget what we’re talking about.” He turns and smiles at me. “Hey, hon, do you have any cute pictures of your baby?”
I stare at him as I realize that this traitorous man is far too conniving. Even though he’s joking about it, my fingers twitch to show him a video I’d taken earlier and had wanted to wait until I saw him in person to show him.
He smirks, pleased with himself.
“Oh shush it. You’re not as good as you think you are,” I grumble.
“I’m phenomenal,” he says with a grin, obviously proud of himself as he starts toward the hospital doors. “I’ll simply tell Jesse I want to see pictures of his pest. Or I could say something like ‘Are daddy longlegs actually spiders?’ just so I can hear him rattle on about the difference between spiders and arachnids until my ears bleed and my soul leaves my body.”
“So you simply plan to converse with Jesse for the rest of his life until he forgets about a literalserialkiller after him? That’s so sweet, Liam. I didn’t know you had it in you to talk to your friends for so long.”
Liam stills when this settles in. “Let’s just cause him some kind of memory loss. What’s the easiest way to do this? I feel like significant exposure to Matthew causes brain rot. We’ll go with that. We could do a one bed, locked in a cellar together kind of experience.”
I walk off, leaving Liam in the parking lot alone with his twisted thoughts, a place he seems to enjoy as his laughter chases after me.
“Fine, fine. No cellar, but we can still figure out the one bed thing somehow.”
“I’m ignoring you!”
“Gabriel, I’m a smart, smart man.”
“Not that smart,” I decide as I reach the front lobby where Jesse rushes over to us.
“Did you get anything?” Jesse asks quietly. I notice Matthew watching us, looking a bit confused.
“Not yet. Michaels refused to let me waterboard him,” Liam says. “Although… he was lying so close to his car that I was actually leaning toward driving over him, just a little.”
“How do you drive over someonejust a little?” Jesse asks.
“Matthew is coming,” I whisper.
Matthew hurries up. “What are you discussing?”
“Just Liam being Liam and wanting to waterboard the suspect,” I say. “We’re going to head back up.”
Matthew watches us for a second before glancing at Jesse. “Jesse, are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” he says a little curtly, and I can see Matthew’s fragile heart shatter. It’s hurting me, and I’m not even the one who is in love with him. Jesse and Liam head off together, leaving Matthew alone with me.
“Um… is it just me or is Jesse acting short with me?” Matthew asks.
“Is he? He doesn’t seem to be.”
He stares at me, then gestures at Liam and Jesse getting into an elevator together and heading off without either of us. “Has… Has Jesse ever willinglychosento go anywhere with Liam? Let alone being locked in a small, confined space with him? He always goes with me.”
“I think he’s just focused on the vic, you know? There’s a lot going on for sure.”
Matthew nods. “You’re right, I’m being foolish. Sorry.”
Now I feel like I just got done disciplining a puppy with the way he looks at me. Does he really need to look so dejected all because Jesse got into an elevator with Liam instead of him?
“Come on,” I say as I urge him into the elevator. I want to tell him that Jesse is caught up in a lot right now, that he’s probably acting like this because he doesn’t want Whitaker to see him with anyone and target them, but I obviously can’t say any of that. So instead, I get into the elevator and try my best to distract Matthew so he doesn’t think it’s something he did.
NINETEEN
