Keeper of the Peace (Graveyard Guardians #2)

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  “What the fu …” he turned his head to the right, searching for the source of the pain. His muscles weakened and his vision began to blur. Aw fuck, he’d been tranqued.

  Just before he faded away into unconsciousness, he heard a voice that sounded familiar … a voice he’d hoped he would never have to hear again, for the rest of his life.

  CHAPTER

  18

  HANNAH

  She could feel the eyes of the other women on her.

  She sat on the bunk they had given her and scooted back into the corner of it so that it felt like she was hiding in a cave. None of the others had spoken to her since she’d come in and she sure as hell wasn’t going to talk to them either. She felt like a dead piece of meat being circled by buzzards.

  This was it, she was a criminal. Her record was going to be marred for the rest of her life and she would probably never be able to do her job again either. All those years of college down the drain.

  Dammit.

  “So …” a pale woman with hair so blonde it was almost white, plopped down onto the edge of the bunk and turned to face Hannah. “Not to sound cliché or anything, but what are you in for?”

  Hannah so did not want to make friends with any of these women, but she also wasn’t stupid. She knew that she might be here for a while and her best bet would be not to get on anyone’s bad side, so she responded with a clipped, “Murder.”

  There was totally a reason that Hannah didn’t say, ‘suspected for murder’ or add ‘I didn’t do it’ to the sentence. Let them think she was capable of murder and maybe they would leave her alone.

  The blonde shook her head. “Damn. Who’d you kill?”

  “I can’t talk about it,” Hannah told her, in hopes that would be the end of it. Luckily, the woman did drop the subject, but she didn’t go away. She reached out, extending her hand to Hannah, “I’m Sophie, what’s your name?”

  Accepting her hand, Hannah gave it a brief shake. “I’m Hannah.”

  “Nice to meet you Hannah.” She pointed toward the other women. “That there is Nicole, the tall one is Shanna, and the one on the bunk over there is Brandy.”

  She managed a weak wave and a soft “Hello,” but none of them returned the greeting. It looked like Sophie was the social one out of the bunch.

  “Soooo,” Sophie leaned back on Hannah’s bunk and examined one of her fingernails. “I’m in for drugs. Not meth or anything like that, just weed.”

  Looked like she wasn’t going to get rid of her, so she may as well talk it up too. “You’re in jail cause you smoke weed?”

  “Smoke some, grow some, sell some. I did a little of everything. They busted my place and confiscated everything … including my kids.”

  “Shit …” No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find anything appropriate to respond with. “Sorry.”

  “Ah, it happens. I’ll get my kids back when I get out. They’re with my mother now.”

  “That still sucks though.”

  She nodded. “It sure does, but whatcha gonna do, ya know?”

  Hannah nodded as if she did, when in fact she did not know even the slightest bit about that.

  Suddenly the door opened and a deputy stepped inside. “Estmond, you ready to make that phone call yet?”

  “Yes.” She nodded and scooted off the bunk. “Yes, I am.”

  “Come on, then.” The male officer waved her over.

  She wasn’t looking forward to the phone call at all, but at least she could be thankful that the family would know what was coming. Once they got to the phones, the deputy stepped back, giving her only the slightest bit of room while she made her call.

  She dialed the numbers to the family home and waited for someone to pick up the phone. After three rings Jack answered. “Hello?”

  “Jack?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. Hannah?”

  “I’m in jail.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know anything yet. I haven’t been in any kind of questioning and I probably have to see a judge before I can get a bond.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.” Hannah knew why Jack wasn’t saying much. He couldn’t give away that he knew anything about why she was in there.

  “Ok. Hannah, I’m going to tell everyone and we will come up there. But, listen, it’s going to be a little while before we can get there.”

  “It’s all right. Like I said, it will probably be at least tomorrow before I can see a judge.”

  “Lucy’s going to climbing the fucking walls until you get out of there. They all are.

  Hannah almost smiled, yeah, she certainly didn’t envy Jack right about now. The poor Reaper was going to have to deal with the whole Estmond Clan, plus Ethan, and they were all going to be moody until she was free again.”

  “Sorry, Jack.”

  “No worries, you just sit tight and keep ahold of your soap.”

  She shook her head. Only Jack would be able to make jokes about her incarceration. “On second thought, maybe you should work on getting yourself a bitch. Throw your soap on the floor and make one of the others pick it up for you.”

  Aside from avoiding the community showering for as long as she possibly could, that scenario was one that she was pretty sure was never going to happen. “Shut up, Jack. Just tell the others and get here when you can.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Goodbye Jack.”

  “Bye.” He clicked off before she did and she was met with an empty silence which spoke volumes. This was now her life … and it sucked.

  The deputy walked her back to the cell where she immediately went to her bunk and told herself not to cry. She was supposed to act tough so that no one would fuck with her. She would have been fine being left alone, but for some reason Sophie still wanted to chat with her. She sat on the edge of the bunk and peppered Hannah with more questions.

  Finally, Hannah had enough and leaned forward. “Look, I know you mean well, but I need some quiet time to think.”

  Sophie managed to put a super offended expression on her face and jump up off the bed. “Sure, whatever,” she muttered, stalking off to chat with the other women in the cell. None of the others even tried to speak with her, and she was totally all right with that.

  Where was David? She knew he had to keep his distance, but he had said that he wouldn’t be long. Maybe he decided that he couldn’t love a criminal after all. The thought brought tears to her eyes, so she lay down on the bunk and turned toward the wall. She didn’t want the other women to see that she was crying.

  “Estmond!”

  Hannah’s eyes fluttered open and she realized that she must have fallen asleep. Too bad this whole thing wasn’t a bad dream.

  “Estmond.” The same deputy who took her to her phone call was there again. “Come on.”

  She didn’t ask where they were going. She simply rose from the bunk and made her way over to where the deputy stood just inside the door. “All right,” she told him when she got close enough. “Let’s go.”

  “Moving with Estmond.” He said into the little mic attached to his ear piece. Only a second later the interior lock clicked, freeing the heavy door. He moved aside and let Hannah walk in front of him as he directed her toward the interrogation rooms.

  The inside of the interrogation room was just like the ones you saw in the movies. There was a table with two chairs on one side and one chair on the other. The side with one chair faced the mirror, which everyone knew was a two way mirror that was used to look at the person being interrogated.

  “Wait here,” the deputy told her, leaving her inside the room by herself. She wasn’t dumb, she knew this was a tactic too. Leave the prisoner alone to stew for a little bit before coming in to ask questions, it shook them up.

  With nothing else to do she pulled out the chair and sat down. She tried to avoid looking at her reflection in the mirror, but it was basically impossible since the mirror was so damn big. She had only been here for a few hour
s and she already looked haggard.

  “Dammit,” she whispered to her reflection.

  After a few more minutes, which felt more like hours to Hannah, the door opened and a dark haired detective entered the room. “Hello, Hannah.” He pulled out one of the other two chairs and sat down across from her. “I am Detective Jonah Avery.”

  Hannah smiled sweetly, “Hello Detective.”

  “I am the detective in charge of this case and I need you to answer a few questions for me.”

  Hannah leaned forward. “Where’s David?”

  Jonah flicked his eyes up toward the mirror. “We … he has been removed from your case because of your history together.”

  Boy, this guy wasn’t very good at hiding his emotions. She knew right away that he didn’t expect her to ask that question and he didn’t know how to answer it.

  “Now.” He set a folder on the table in front of him and flipped it open. “Let’s get to it.”

  Hannah shook her head. “You know that I’m not supposed to talk to anyone without my lawyer present.”

  Jonah raised an eyebrow. “Well, we are here now, so why don’t you answer a basic questions.”

  “Sorry.” Hannah shook her head again.

  He leaned back in his chair and stared at her. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. I’m not stupid you know.”

  “Well,” he closed the folder, “that’s all right because we’re still trying to track down your paperwork. Foster took it with him when he left.”

  Ah, a well-executed statement to let her know that David wasn’t here and possibly shake her up. “That won’t work on me, Detective. Now you better take me back to my cell until my lawyer arrives.”

  Reluctantly, he took her back to the cell and left her there. Sophie glanced at her when she entered but didn’t try to approach her. Hannah nodded acknowledgment and then went to her bunk. She lay down on top of the covers and stared at the bottom of the bed above her. Even if her family got here tonight, they weren’t going to be able to do anything since they probably had some kind of visiting hours at the jail. So, there wasn’t much else she could do but go back to sleep.

  And she did sleep, surprisingly better than she had thought she would. It was breakfast when she woke. A different deputy than the night before stood just inside the door with a cart that held the breakfast trays. Each of the trays held a small portion of scrambled eggs, toast and oatmeal.

  Mechanically, Hannah rose from the bunk and walked slowly to the cart to accept her tray. The pod had a small rectangular table with benches on either side. The benches were bolted to the floor, but at least there was a table where they could sit and comfortably eat their food. After she had her tray, she approached the bench and chose a spot on the end beside Brandy.

  It was an awkward breakfast, at best. No one spoke at all. Sophie acted like she wanted to, but the other women just stared down into their food and ate slowly. As they ate, Hannah wondered what each of them had done to be in jail. She already knew Sophie’s story, but the others were still a mystery.

  After breakfast, a deputy arrived to tell her that her lawyer was here and wanted a meeting. So, again, she was directed out of the cell and taken to a room much like the interrogation room, but this one was for lawyers and clients to speak privately.

  She entered and saw a friendly looking gray haired man, who was also surrounded by a shimmering silver aura, waiting for her at the table. He rose when she entered and waited for the deputy to leave before shaking her hand. “Hello, Hannah. My name is Andrew Ainsworth, and I am to be your lawyer.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Ainsworth. Did my family call you?”

  He nodded and sat back down in his chair, gesturing for her to take the seat across from him. “Yes, your brother Greg, to be exact.”

  “Do I have a chance?” she asked in a low voice.

  Mr. Ainsworth nodded emphatically. “Yes, of course you do. It won’t be hard at all to prove that this was self-defense. But, our first order of business is getting you out of here. You are going before the judge in about two hours and a bond should be posted then.”

  Hannah looked down. “It’s going to be a lot. I can stay here, it’s no problem.”

  He shook his head. “Your family has informed me that no matter the cost, they have it covered.”

  She smiled weakly. Of course they would say that, because that is exactly what she would say if it were one of her sisters or brothers in here. “All right, then. Tell me what I need to do.”

  Mr. Ainsworth leaned forward, “I know the whole story about the Reaper and also the story we are sticking with, what I need from you is for you to repeat to me what happened. We have to make sure that every detail is covered.”

  “Thank you Mr. Ainsworth.”

  “No problem at all, this is my job. Someone has to make sure that the innocent don’t pay for the problems caused by Reapers.”

  Hannah nodded in total agreement. “I wish my family was here with me.”

  Ainsworth looked up from the paperwork in front of him. “Well, they are, sort of. They are all out in the lobby. They’ve been there all night, but it’s not visiting hours so no one will let them in.”

  Hannah smiled. “Really, they’ve been out there all night?”

  He grinned back at her. “Did you really expect them to do anything else?”

  She shook her head. Of course she didn’t. They were the Estmonds and what happened to one of them, happened to all of them.

  “Now, Miss Hannah, let’s get down to business.”

  CHAPTER

  19

  AIDEN

  Aiden couldn’t sleep. He lay under the sheets in only his boxer briefs, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness. In all his life he’d never had so much on his mind that he couldn’t sleep. Normally, he was a straight to the point kind of guy who dealt with things the same way. He took orders, fulfilled the mission, had a drink, got laid … lather, rinse, repeat.

  Now… now he wanted out of the Reaper world simply to have a life at all. If he stayed with the Empress, he would be her lap dog for the rest of his life and he had too much respect for himself to do that.

  His cell lit up on the night stand as it jangled the tone that wasn’t designated to anyone in particular. His eyes flicked to the clock before he picked up the phone. Almost midnight. Whoever was calling at this time of night had better have a damn good reason.

  “Hello?”

  “Aiden?”

  “Jack?”

  “Yeah man,” Jack responded. “Look, I don’t know if you can … or will help, but we need a favor.”

  Aiden flung the sheet away and sat up on the bed. “What kind of favor?”

  “Hannah, Lucy’s sister has been arrested. One of my mom’s men attacked her and she killed him. She freaked and didn’t take care of the body. It was found by the authorities and now Hannah has been arrested for murder. We can’t make a case that she didn’t do it, because she clearly did. But, we can have a witness come forward who can claim he saw the whole thing go down.”

  “You want me to tell them she was fighting for her life and ended up killing him?” Aiden rose from the bed and turned on the lamp beside the bed.

  “Yeah. You think you can do it?”

  “I can, yeah, but the question is, why the fuck would I want to? The Empress will have my head on a platter for something like that.”

  “I spoke with the family, we will offer you full protection. You will come live here until we can fully extract you from the Reaper society.”

  “Fuck.” Aiden shook his head. He knew he wanted out, but he didn’t realize it was going to be like five seconds from the original thought. “Who was the Reaper?”

  “You know Jeffery Myers?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, one of our not so finest Reapers. The good thing is he’s part of the Guard, so he isn’t in any system. You know how it goes, these guys are born and bred for this, so there won’t be much on them anywhere and nothing wil
l lead the authorities back to the Reapers.”

  “Aiden, will you do it?”

  He went silent before he answered. He knew why none of them could come forward as a witness, they were all too close to Hannah. But, he … he was a stranger and would have perfect reason for not coming forward immediately.

  “This could free her of murder charges Aiden. You know it wasn’t her fault.”

  “Yeah, I just don’t understand why I’m supposed to give a fuck.”

  Jack laughed through the receiver. “Because, you shithead … because you care about me.”

  Well, he did have a point there.

  “And I care about Lucy, which in turn makes her family my main priority since it hurts her to see her sister in jail.”

  “All right!” Aiden almost shouted into the phone. “I’ll fucking do it. Just shut up already.”

  “Thanks man.” Jack let out what sounded like a sigh of relief.

  Before Aiden hung up the phone they hashed out the smaller details of the situation like where to go and what to say, that kind of shit.

  When, he was finally able to hang up, he headed straight for the shower. As he scrubbed, he silently cursed himself. Why did he tell Jack he would do this for a Keeper? Man, this was probably one of the dumbest things he’d ever done.

  But, he was still going to do it.

  Mother fucker.

  He shut off the shower and headed into the bedroom where he slid on his jeans and a dark blue tee shirt. After he laced up his boots and threw a hoodie on over his tee shirt, he packed up his bag and headed out the door.

  Instead of taking the SUV from the garage, he called a cab to pick him up. When the taxi arrived, the driver hopped out to take Aiden’s bag and throw it in the trunk. “Where you headed sir?” he asked, slipping behind the wheel.

  In the back seat, Aiden fastened his seat belt and then leaned forward. “Summer Hollow.” The cab driver turned and shot him a surprised look, “Serious? That’s quite a distance.”