“It is,” Pember said, rushing towards him. “It really is, Tay. Look, I know you don’t like Ru but at least Johnny getting hurt wasn’t for nothing. A dangerous man has been taken off the streets for a very long time, so long as Ru can…”
His words trailed off and he looked at the floor again.
“What?” Taylor said, but he suspected he already knew what was coming. “Just spit it out, Pem.”
“Ru’s being interviewed again. By Isla. She was going to tell you but she said you had enough to worry about.”
Taylor sighed as he slowly started walking towards the door. “It makes sense, I guess. It was her case before the murders and she wants it back.”
Pember nodded rapidly. “You aren’t mad?”
“What’s there to be mad about? Like you said, JP found a rapist.” Taylor pushed out his bottom lip. “Even if it was through sheer fucking idiocy. Honestly, he’s meant to be the sensible one.”
Pember nodded, following him across the living room.
“Do you still visit him, Pem?” Taylor continued. “In prison?”
Pember’s mouth cracked open, his eyes flitting across Taylor’s face. “I didn’t… How do you know about that?”
“JP and Blake talk. He said he was worried about you going. But please don’t tell him I told you that because I don’t need that lanky fucker coming round here all moody and shit.”
“He isn’t lanky,” Pember said, gripping the front door handle. “He’s very well proportioned, thank you very much.”
Taylor smirked, because Blake was a good five inches taller than him and Johnny, so if he was ‘perfectly proportioned’ then his cock must be fuckinghuge. Then he imagined Blake with a micro-penis, which made him feel a little better. “Uh-huh. Sure he is.”
A blush edged up Pember’s neck.
“Anyway,” Taylor said. “Tell him to collect the coffee machine because I ain’t hauling that shit over to your place.”
Pember laughed. “Sure.” He hung in the doorway for a moment. “But… there’s something else.”
Taylor raised his eyebrows. “Jesus, what now?”
“When word gets out about there being another alpha suspect in Ru’s case, people might… Omegas might not be so kind towards alphas. With the new laws being looked at, it’s kind of a perfect storm. Just be careful, okay?”
A bitter taste flooded Taylor’s mouth, and he shot Pember a smile that was entirely too wide. A horrible, sick sense of satisfaction washed over him as Pember’s eyes dropped to his fangs and he started to back away.
Taylor followed.
“You gonna murder me, Pem? Slit my throat like Sam?”
Pember gasped, stepping back even further. “W-what? No! No! I would never!”
“You sure? Might get you in Ru’s good books.”
Pember’s eyes widened. “H-he isn’t… He isn’t like that, Tay. I would never?—”
Taylor immediately dropped the smile when he realised what he was doing, retreating back into the house. “Sorry,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Shit, I’m really sorry, Pem. I’m in a weird fucking mood. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Pember let out a breath, but carried on backing away until he was all the way out of the house. “You’re overwhelmed,” he said, hopping back over the garden wall with the two dogs.
“Yeah, but?—”
“Think about what I said, and get some sleep. You look like you need it.”
Taylor felt like a piece of shit as he shut the door, locking it again. Perhaps he was overwhelmed. Maybe that was the word normal people used when their whole body hurt and their head felt like it was going to explode.
He downed another can of Coke before stalking upstairs and getting into the shower. He used Johnny’s shower gel. Spicy and fruity, like Christmas, kind of, but without the last-minute stress shop on Christmas Eve followed by the inevitable eye-roll from Johnny when he received a pair of novelty socks for the tenth year in a row. Taylor was nothing if not consistent.
