Page 128 of When Darkness Calls

“I mean given the alternative, this is a hell of a lot better than it could’ve been.” I cross my arms, leaning back against the couch.

Nick sighs from the recliner on the other side of Grayson’s living room. “I hate to admit it, but yeah. Dee Dee’s right.”

Cay scoffs, standing abruptly, a scathing look over the five of us around the room. “We didn’t learn fucking anything. We’re no closer to figuring out what the hell happened to those girls, or mom, or even fucking Casey, Dani. The more we dig the more shit we find!” He storms off out the front door, the sound of his truck pulling out of the driveway the only noise in the room.

“W—What’s he talking about mom?”

Grayson sighs, standing too, and going around the couch to the kitchen. I can hear the fridge opening and closing.

Keegan runs a hand down his face, the bandages on his burns peeking out from beneath the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

“The reason we started doing this…All of this…It was because of what’s happened to all of us. We didn’t wake up one day and think ‘Oh, let’s go beat the shit out of creeps and abusers while finding drugs and destroying them.’

“Cade—Grays—all of us, we’re trying to figure out the truth of this town. Why it’s gone to shit. Why no one found Casey. What really happened the night your mom died. What my dad was caught up in before he got locked up. Why Nick and Alex’s mom ended up in the psych institute. All of it.”

My mouth opens and closes. My mind is racing a million miles a second, but I just look at him, completely dumbfounded. “I—What—So you’re telling me y’all really aren’t just being like the broke version of the Avengers for the hell of it?”

Alex chuckles. “Nah, darling. As much as I’d fucking love that. No, we aren’t. When I got there that night,” he sucks in a breath, and I cringe. “Kenneth worked day and night for months, and just when he thought he was finally getting somewhere. A lead. A suspect. Evidence. Everything. Just when he got close enough, and y’all—we—thought we could touch the answer, it got swept away. Alibis, contamination, deaths or missing people, whatever the fuck. That’s why your mom’s case went cold. It wasn’t that there wasn’t any evidence—any proof—it just…disappeared.”

“And…the rest of you?” I ask, my voice breaking slightly.

“Pretty much the same,” Nick chimes in, taking a drink from his bottle of water.

“But—Cade said Casey— “

“She’s not dead.” Grayson’s cold voice comes from the doorway.

“I—There was a funeral,” I say gently.

“My grandma wanted it. Casey has been missing for almost ten years.” There is no light in Grayson’s eyes as he stares off at the far wall of the room. His voice is dull, like all the life had been sucked out of him.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I murmur, looking down at my hands picking at a loose thread on the hem of my shirt.

“That’s the point, Dee,” Keegan says calmly, placing a hand on my shoulder. “We didn’t want you to know. About any of this.”

“Cade thought it would keep you safe.” Alex scratches at the stubble on his chin.

Grayson snorts derisively. “Yeah, and we see where that got her don’t we. She’s being fucking hunted, and we don’t have a fucking clue who it is. We don’t have a fucking clue about any of it. Who’s bringing in all the drugs? Where are these girls going? Why isn't anyone doing anything about it?” He laughs humorously, hands rising to grip the roots of his dark curls.

“It’s driving me crazy. The only person who seems to know any of what is going on in this fucking town is trying to hide it!” He yells, pointing at the TV where a photograph of the mayor from last year’s Founder’s Fest is blown up across the screen, the reporter discussing the statement he plans to make the next day.

And I have an idea.

“Grays, what kind of clearance do you get with your freelance job?” I quirk an eyebrow at him dismissing his outburst.

His mouth opens before snapping shut, head tilting to the side in suspicion. “Why?”

He copies me, brow rising below the messy fringe across his forehead, arms crossing over his chest, displaying the collage of ink covering his bicep. The ring on his middle finger taps anxiously on his arm.

“Well, if the only person you think knows shit is Crook, he’ll be speaking at town hall tomorrow. You could just say you’re taking pictures for the paper, and we could go snoop around, see what he has to say, or doesn’t say, maybe see what people in town are thinking?” I lean back against the couch.

All four of them just stare at me, not saying a word. I huffed, annoyed. “What? Why do you guys keep looking at me like I have three heads and a tail?”

“Honestly?” Keegan chokes out through a grin.

“Well, yeah. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want to know.”

“It’s just funny being reminded that you are in fact Cade’s sister, and he isn’t some weird alien creature,” Alex deadpans and I burst out laughing, before my face drops.