“Just so I’m clear, you want Mrs. Grimlock to set up a meeting with John Anderson at a remote location so you can grab him, right?” Griffin asked, his face unreadable.
Dad nodded.
“Then what?”
“Then we’re going to have a talk with him,” Dad said, clenching his hands. “We’re going to talk and talk and talk. I think we have much to discuss.”
“And then what?” Griffin prodded.
Dad knew what he was getting at and was reluctant to give him the answer he sought. “I know this is hard for you, Griffin,” he said. “You’re a police officer, and what we’re planning is … well … it goes against your very being.
“I need Aisling to be safe, though,” he continued. “I know you need that, too. I’m not asking you to join in with us. In fact, if you need to leave this house, I fully understand. Aisling and Jerry can take you home. I won’t leave John Anderson alive if he’s a threat to my daughter, though.”
“I think you misunderstood me, Mr. Grimlock,” Griffin said. “If he’s a threat to Aisling, I want him dead too. I understand that we can’t lock him up for intentions.”
“Call me Cormack,” Dad said, narrowing his eyes. “What are you saying?”
I was confused, too. “Yeah, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you need to get rid of a body in a manner that won’t make people suspicious,” Griffin said. “This man is already dying. You’re hastening along the inevitable. He’s a threat to Aisling. I have no issue with killing him – which makes me think I need to reassess my own morals and judgment, but that’s for another time.
“I don’t want anyone in this family risking themselves for a homicidal maniac who wants to steal my girlfriend’s soul and put it in his body,” he continued. “I love her dearly, but I’m not dating a dude to stay close to her.”
Despite the surreal nature of the situation, Dad barked out a laugh. “That’s pretty funny, boy,” he said, clapping Griffin on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, though. We can handle Anderson – and the disposing of his body.”
“We can feed him to Aisling’s anaconda in the basement,” Braden suggested brightly.
“Wait a second,” I interjected, grabbing Griffin’s hand. “How can you be okay with this? I don’t want you shoving your feelings and morals aside to make my family happy. Maybe we should think of another way.”
“Aisling, you and I have been through a lot and I know I’m still behind on how all of this reaping business works,” Griffin said. “If this was a normal thing … or if John Anderson was a serial killer stalking you … I would want to go through regular channels.
“The fact of the matter is, though, this isn’t normal,” he continued. “This is a man who wants to use some ancient spell to suck out your soul, kill you and live forever. He’s using paranormal assassins to further his cause. I can’t take that to my boss. They’ll commit me.”
“But you’re okay with us killing him?”
“I’m okay with you being safe,” Griffin clarified. “Besides, you’re not killing him. Someone else will do the dirty deed. I know you still wonder about yourself because you burned the people in that mausoleum, but you didn’t have a choice.”
“He’s right, Aisling,” Dad said. “I’ve worried about you since that day, too. Those people took Aidan, and they were going to kill both of you. They wouldn’t have stopped. You had to stop them. This is no different.”
“Facing the end of your life is terrifying, Aisling,” Mom added. “John Anderson believes he’s being cheated. He has no problem cheating someone else to save himself. That makes him the most dangerous type of enemy.”
“I don’t have a problem with John Anderson dying, although I do want to be there when you question him because I want to hear his answers.” Griffin cast a pointed look in Dad’s direction. “I don’t want him killed on the word of someone else. Do you understand?”
Dad nodded. “I understand and agree,” he said. “We have to get him first, though. This is our best way of doing it.”
“Then do it,” Griffin said. “Call Anderson and set up the meet. I’ll go with you to the pickup.”
I immediately started shaking my head. “No.”
“Aisling … .”
“You’re still recovering,” I argued. “You want to protect me, and I get that, but I want to protect you, too. You’re staying here. We’ll bring him back to the house and lock him in the dungeon. You can ask him as many questions as you want there.”
“Aisling is correct, son,” Dad said. “You need to stay here and rest. We’ll take care of this.”
“Then I want Aisling to stay here, too.” Griffin obstinately crossed his arms over his chest.
“No way,” I protested. “I’m going. I want to see Mom interact with Anderson on my own.”
“You still don’t trust me, do you?” Mom’s eyes were sad, but resigned.
“Let’s just say I’m getting better, but I might relapse where you’re concerned,” I said. “I want to see Mom interact with him. My brothers and Dad will be there the entire time. Jerry can stay here with you.”
“Oh, I can’t, Bug,” Jerry said, moving past me as he headed toward the front of the house. “I have to go to the bakery. There’s a cake emergency.”
“A cake emergency?” Dad asked, confused.
“Apparently the rainbow with the pot of gold on the cake one of my workers made looks like a really colorful penis with one blue ball,” Jerry replied, not missing a beat. “I have to fix it.”
“Of course you do,” Dad said, shaking his head as Mom smirked. “Be careful, Jerry. Don’t wander around Royal Oak. Go straight to the bakery and come right back here when you’re done. We don’t want anyone exposed tonight.”
“I’ll be quick,” Jerry promised. “I don’t want to miss the enhanced interrogation techniques. Do you think we have time to buy one of those rack things to tie him to?”
“You’re banned from television,” I snapped.
“Definitely,” Dad agreed, returning his attention to Mom. “Make the call. I’m ready to end this.”
“WHY is it that every creepy meeting has to go down in a cemetery?”
I pursed my lips, shrugged and regarded my brother, watching as he scanned the enormous gate cutting us off from the cemetery. “Are you frightened, Braden? Do you want to hold my hand?”
“Knock it off, you two,” Dad snapped from the front of the vehicle. We parked in the lot of Eternal Sunshine Cemetery and studied the front gate. “How will you get in there if it’s locked, Lily?”
“The lock doesn’t hold.” Mom sat in the passenger seat and stared forward. It was getting dark. I expected her to be antsy, but she seemed almost serene. “John isn’t due for forty minutes. We should get going so you have time to hide, though.”
“Will he bring wraiths?” Dad asked.
“It’s a distinct possibility.”
“Braden, there’s a bunch of weapons in the back,” Dad said. “Make sure everyone is armed.” He lifted his eyes and met mine in the rearview mirror. “You, too. You also stick close to your brothers. I don’t want to risk you getting separated.”
“I’ll be fine, Dad.”
“You will be fine,” Dad agreed. “If I come home without you, though, the handsy cop will jail me in the dungeon and let Jerry throw bread crusts at me. I can’t abide that.”
Redmond, Aidan and Cillian met us by the gate, wordlessly taking their silver knives from Braden while Mom opened the lock. Once on the other side, she closed it and gestured in the direction of our mausoleum.
Dad walked on one side of Mom and Cillian the other, while Redmond, Braden and Aidan kept close to me. It was obvious what they were doing.
“Are you trying to smother me?” I asked.
“We’re making sure you’re never alone,” Redmond replied. “Don’t even think of separating from us. If John runs, let us catch him. You are not to be left alone in case there are lurking w
raiths. They’ll grab you.”
“And we don’t want that,” Aidan added. “I would miss you.”
“I wouldn’t.” Braden forced a cheerful smile, but I could tell he was nervous.
“Braden, stop teasing your sister,” Dad ordered. “She’s worked up enough. I can tell. You can be as jovial as you want, but I know you would be upset if someone got their hands on Aisling.”
“I think you’re overestimating my attachment to her,” Braden said.
“I think you and Aisling have the same defense mechanism and choose to talk big when the stakes are high,” Dad shot back. “Do not let your sister out of your sight. I mean it.”
“We’ve got it, Dad,” Redmond said. “I’ll keep her with me.”
“And me,” Aidan said.
“No one is leaving you out, bonehead,” Redmond said. “Stop acting proprietary.”
“Hey, we shared a womb,” Aidan reminded him. “I would miss her the most.”
“Griffin would miss me the most,” I corrected.
“Jerry would miss you the most,” Dad said. “The cop would be a close second, though. How is he feeling, by the way? You should’ve let him sleep in this morning instead of bouncing on top of him. Wait … that came out wrong.”
My brothers snickered while I fought to keep a straight face. “He says he’s fine. I think he’s still a little tired, and his nose is going to be out of joint because we left him behind, but he’ll be okay.”
“And when is moving day?” Dad asked.
“Moving day?” Mom arched an eyebrow as she glanced back at us. “Are you really still moving?”
“Griffin and I are moving in together no matter what,” I replied. “We’re not changing our minds.”
“And what about Jerry? Are you going to leave him alone? That doesn’t seem fair.”
Mom’s opinion of Griffin was obvious – and ridiculously tedious. “Something tells me Jerry will be fine.”
Aidan winked at me. “Jerry is excited to live with me. He’ll miss Aisling, but he’ll adjust. We’ll be right next door. Things will be fine.”
“So, wait … .” Mom furrowed her brow. “Are you saying Aisling is moving next door and the four of you are going to play like you’re living in Three’s Company land? I must have missed that in the explanation the first time. That dinner was utter chaos, so I’m not surprised a few things slipped through the cracks.”
“Holy crap,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s what I said. I totally compared it to Three’s Company.”
“That’s because I used to let you watch reruns with me when you were little,” Mom said. “You had a crush on Jack Tripper.”
“I can see that.”
Aidan snorted. “Jerry had a crush on him, too.”
“Of course he did,” Dad said. “All right, we’re getting close to the mausoleum. We need to find proper hiding spots. We have to be close, but not close enough to tip off Anderson. If you see wraiths getting near us, though, don’t hesitate to kill them.”
“Oh, man! I wanted to catch one and bring him home as a pet,” Braden groused. “I thought we could put him in the basement to feed off Aisling’s snake.”
“I will kick you in the butt!”
“I would like to see you try.” Braden didn’t look remotely worried.
“I will separate you two if you’re not careful,” Dad warned. “Good grief. Why must you always bicker?”
“I think they get it from you, dear,” Mom said.
Dad opened his mouth to say something mean and then surprised us all and chuckled. “I suppose they do. All right, let’s split up. I want Redmond and Aisling with me. No arguments.”
“HOW long do you think it’ll take Anderson to get here?” Redmond asked forty minutes later, keeping his voice low. “He’s already late.”
“He’s probably being extra careful,” Dad said, one hand resting on his favorite sword – no joke – and the other resting on my shoulder. He was terrified of separating from me. I got that. “It won’t be long.”
Something niggled the back of my brain. “What if he’s not coming?”
Dad shifted his eyes to me. “Why wouldn’t he come?”
“Maybe Mom sent him some warning we didn’t understand over the phone,” I suggested. “Maybe they had a code word and he’s trying to figure out a way to rescue her right now.”
“You watch far too much television, missy,” Dad muttered, although his attention shifted to Mom as she paced in front of the mausoleum. “Watch her. If she tries to run … .”
“Then we’ll know,” Redmond finished.
“Her story was really sad,” I said. “I felt bad for her.”
“Did you ever consider that’s what she wanted you to feel?” Dad challenged.
“Yes.”
“I felt bad for her too,” Dad admitted. “I don’t know what to do, though, Aisling. She’s not the woman she was … and yet there are glimpses of the woman I married there. The problem is the changes aren’t just on the outside. They’re on the inside, too. I won’t risk any of you being hurt or killed because I want to believe her.”
“What about Barbara?” I asked. “She hasn’t been around as much.”
“Barbara is uncomfortable with your mother’s return. There’s nothing I can do about that right now,” Dad answered. “We haven’t gotten all of the information from your mother yet. I have a lot more questions I need answered. We have to get past the immediate threat first. Barbara understands that, but she doesn’t want to risk running into your mother, so she’s going to stay away from the house for a bit.”
“I don’t blame Barbara. I don’t like her getting hurt in all of this,” I said.
“I don’t blame her either,” Dad said, sighing. “We have to focus on our immediate problem. The other issues will work themselves out in due time.”
“Mom’s story didn’t plug all of the holes in this mess,” Redmond pointed out. “Fontaine was very specific about Mom wanting Aisling. I think he would know the difference between Mom’s wishes and Genevieve’s plans.”
“Fontaine was an ass,” Dad muttered.
Duke Fontaine and Dad had had a tempestuous relationship. Dad wanted to throw a party when I killed him. Still … . “Fontaine had no reason to lie,” I said. “He knew he was dying, and crawled outside to tip me off.”
“I don’t believe anything Fontaine said.” Dad was adamant.
“I don’t either, but that’s not the only part of the story that bothered me,” I offered. “Wouldn’t you go after the guy who imprisoned you and kept you away from your family? Why did she sit back and let Fox Grimpond do what he did?”
“On top of that, she totally skirted the issue of whether she’s still sucking souls,” Redmond added.
“She is,” I said. “Didn’t you hear the way she phrased it. She basically said she was ready to come home and die without the souls before she was taken captive a second time. That was long before Genevieve got her hooked on living. We have no idea how or to what extent Genevieve twisted Mom during that time.”
“I admit it’s difficult,” Dad said. “I just … we’ll watch her. We’ll monitor the situation. I don’t know what else we can do until we handle Anderson.”
“And how long are we going to wait again?” Redmond asked. “I don’t think he’s coming. I’m not sure he ever was.”
I couldn’t help but agree with him, but I kept my opinion to myself … for a change.
“We’re waiting fifteen more minutes,” Dad said finally. “After that, if he doesn’t show up your mother has more explaining to do.”
29
Twenty-Nine
“Give it a rest, Cormack. I have no idea why John didn’t show up. Take a pill.”
Mom stomped into Grimlock Manor ahead of the rest of us an hour later, shaking her head when Griffin descended the stairs with a questioning look on his face.
“He didn’t show,” I said, moving toward Griffin when he opened his arms and offer
ed me a hug. I let him embrace me, catching Mom’s troubled look as she watched us. “Mom and Dad have been arguing the whole way home.”
“You’re a Grimlock,” Griffin said, leaning back so he could brush my hair out of my face. “You should be used to the arguing.”
“Ha, ha.”
“Is Jerry back yet?” Aidan asked, scanning the foyer. “I figured he would be waiting because he was so keen on torturing Anderson.”
“He called,” Griffin answered. “He said – and these are his words, not mine – that not only did the rainbow look like a penis but the coins in the pot looked like someone’s … um … short and curlies.”
My brothers snorted in unison, tickled by Jerry’s description and Griffin’s discomfort.
“He said he had a lot of work to do and to eat dinner without him,” Griffin said. “He’ll be here as soon as he can.”
“That’s great,” Mom said, stalking toward the dining room. “What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”
“Who invited you to dinner?” Dad asked, following her. “I think you should go back to your cage and we’ll have Jerry bring you a sandwich on a doily when he gets back.”
“Don’t be an ass, Cormack,” Mom snapped. “I haven’t eaten anything today – and that includes humans, so you lot can stop whispering snide jokes to one another when you think no one is listening – and I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”
The scent wafting from the table as the cook delivered platters wasn’t my first choice if I’d been given my druthers. “Oh, man! Why did you have to pick Mexican? Why couldn’t you have done prime rib or pot roast?”
“Why can’t you eat Mexican?” Dad challenged, sitting at the head of the table. “You love Mexican.”
“I love Mexican from a restaurant,” I explained. “Whenever you make Mexican food it’s not as good because you use low-fat cheese and sour cream.”
“And beans,” Aidan added. “Low-fat beans aren’t as good.”
“Shut up and eat your dinner,” Dad ordered. “Then, when you’re done, lock your mother in her cage and scatter in five different directions. I can’t take much more of your mouths tonight.”
Grim Reunion (Aisling Grimlock Book 4) Page 25
