He kissed me, and I melted.
It was always a bad idea to mix business with pleasure. Always. And yet I’d fight to the death to make sure Maddox stayed with me.
“Does Bo know?” I whispered. “And how the hells did you manage to convince her to let you work with me?”
“Bo knows. We had a long chat, she and I. She saw everything with her staff.”
I cringed. I remembered so little of that day, other than I’d shoved into the office doors, decrying Tanner the Satyr the villain, and had promptly passed out like a fecking damsel in distress.
“I still can’t believe it was him. I always thought he was a nice guy. And I can’t believe I didn’t recognize his wife earlier. But it’s not like he’d ever really brought Isa around much. There was just a picture of her on his desk.” I shook my head, scowling as I thought about the destruction they’d wreaked and the countless lives they’d destroyed.
“I can’t understand why he did it at all,” Hatter said. “There are still holes for me. Like why kill the gardener and maid at the Charming estate?”
I rolled my eyes, sighing, but not letting him go.
“All clear and justifiable evidence ends at Tanner. But I know he wasn’t behind it all. He was the killer. He was not, however, the catalyst.”
Taking my hand in his, Hatter led us toward a bench and sat. I joined him, still clinging to his hand.
“Who was?”
My lips thinned. Ichabod and I had had many alcohol-fueled late-night talks, and our best guess was something that could see us hanged for treason.
I worked my jaw from side to side.
“You know you can trust me.”
I grinned weakly. “I know I can. That’s not what’s bothering me. What’s bothering me is that my gut tells me, with the active participation of BS in all of this, all the bribes and the hustle that went on behind the scene, there could only be one reasonable culprit.”
He frowned. “Who?”
“The very people now paying for Tanner’s children to live out their lives in comfort and ease. The very goddessdamned people who live high up on a charmed hill with too many damned bloody apples growing on their trees. The very people who, until just two years ago, had been declared sterile by even the most high-ranking wizards around but then one day, have a miracle daughter. The maid had been pregnant, did you know that? If the child had been born to her and not cruelly ripped out of her womb, the child would be roughly the same age as the princess.”
The confusion vanished from his face, and he gasped, glancing worriedly over my shoulder. To speak out against royals would be folly, so I wouldn’t do it, but goddessdamn did I think it.
“Those people.”
He pulled me into a tight hug, kissing the crown of my head with obvious worry. We’d come so close, but we hadn’t come close enough. Not nearly close enough to expose the real monsters amongst us.
I shook my head. “Sometimes I wonder why we do this job day in and day out. The bad guys just keep getting away, no matter how damned hard we try.”
“So we keep trying, and we keep trying, Elle. Because that’s who we are. We have to keep pressing forward, believing that one day, we’ll get them all. We’ll catch every one of those sick bastards and make them pay. But until we can, all we can do is grind and press on.”
I closed my eyes.
“The groundskeeper and the maid that had been found on their estate, did you know they were father and daughter?” I swallowed hard, feeling the tears pricking at my eyes. “He…he must have gone searching for his daughter, I doubt they’d have killed him otherwise. He must have stumbled on the scene and was just another casualty in a long list of them.”
He sighed deeply. “I didn’t know that.”
I nodded with a sniff.
Hatter’s jaw clenched, and his Adam’s apple rolled. I knew he felt it too. The injustice. The absolute and wretched injustice that, at the end of the day, power and money had been all that was needed to see them free and still living their lives while so many others had been lost.
Hatter was right. There were parts of the crime still fuzzy and unclear, but it was a miracle we’d been able to uncover what we had with the cover-up that had gone on. Tanner, when he’d been taken in, never talked. Even up to the bitter end, he’d never cracked. Isa had spoken, but all she’d said was an apology to Alice. Tanner had been hung in the town square for his crimes. Isa had been allowed to deliver her child before being thrown in the eternal fiery pits of the Darkrealm, forever cast out of the universe of Grimm.
Cases like these were the hardest to swallow and the hardest to let go of. But it was the reality of the job. Sometimes there wasn’t going to be a neat and tidy resolution. Sometimes it was as messy and confusing as the twin hells.
“Maybe someday, they’ll see the hanging end of the rope. Maybe someday, Elle. But for right now, we at least brought the murderer and his accomplice to justice.”
“How’s Alice,” I asked softly. “Isa was her— ”
He sighed. “Better now, though I don’t think Alice will ever trust anyone again. Not after me, and especially not after Isa.”
“Was it you, Maddox?” I asked in a breathless rush, hating myself the moment the words escaped me, wishing like the two hells that he wouldn’t understand what I meant.
But he went snake-bitten, so still he looked like stone.
His eyes blazed, and I knew he was seeing something. I watched him, pained in my soul for this good man, but desperately needing to know the truth. Desperately needing to be told he didn’t cause the fire, couldn’t have done that to his own child.
Letting me know in no uncertain terms that he’d understood what I was asking, he took my hands in his and stared deep into my eyes.
“Hear me now, Elle. Only you could ever make me say what I’m about to say. My butterfly is off limits to all but you. You ask me did I do this terrible thing, and I have just one question for you.”
My nostrils flared, waiting with bated breath to hear what he’d say.
“If I tell you the truth, will you believe me?”
I blinked.
“Will you really?” he pressed.
“Yes, Maddox. Yes, I’ll believe you.”
“The short answer is no. I could never have done that to my precious child. But the long answer is that it’s very complicated, and in a way, yes I did.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Will you leave now?” he asked slowly.
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I shook my head. “I want to know you, Maddox. I want to know you. So no, I won’t leave. But someday, you’re going to tell me the full, complicated story.”
His face was serious, and his eyes looked broken. “I know. But that’s not all I came here for today, Elle. I… I saw something. And the last time I saw something and didn’t tell you, I nearly ruined any chance for us. So I’m going to tell you something now that I don’t want to tell you, and I’m pretty sure it will destroy our story completely. But I care for you too much to keep it hidden.”
I frowned, a sick feeling worming through the pit of my stomach. “We haven’t been together for a year, Maddox. What could you possibly have to tell me that’s so dire?”
“He’s alive, Elle.” He squeezed my fingers so tight that I felt bone rub on bone.
I blinked, confused by what he was saying. “What? Who’s alive?”
“Hook. He’s alive. Hook’s very much alive, and… he’s not well.”
I suddenly felt cold all over. Shocked. Numb. I was sure he was teasing, but I saw nothing but heartbreak in his eyes. It took a full minute before I was able to register what he was saying.
“What?” I shot to my feet, looking down at him, numbed to my very core. “What did you say?”
He closed his eyes and, looking like a man resigned to his fate, whispered, “Hook’s alive, and I know where he is. So, now tell me, will you leave?”
He looked at me, green eye and blue gli
ttering with profound pain.
I felt nothing as I said, “Yes. No. I don’t know. Maybe?”
There was too much in my head, too much for me to process, to work through. Hook was alive. Alive? How was that even possible? I’d seen him die with my own eyes. I’d seen and felt his lifeless body. I’d kissed his blue-tinted lips, and then I’d let him sink into the depths of the sea he’d loved so well.
I shook all over.
Hatter’s shoulders slumped, and he stood. “We need to talk with Bo, and if you’ve got leave, take it. I think I might know where to find him.”
He was cool, calm, and collected, just like he’d been after I’d attacked him for witnessing the darkness of my past. He would work with me, stand beside me, but he’d gone cold. I knew him well enough to know what this was. He was hurting and protecting himself as best he knew how. Hatter turned on his heel and marched right back through the precinct doors, giving me my space.
I wanted to chase after him, to put him at ease. But I was rooted to the ground, cold, and staring up at the noonday sky with disbelief pinching my features. This wasn’t possible. None of this was possible.
Hook was alive?
Alive…
All I could do was tip my head up and watch as a large, lone raven flew through the sky. I watched it until it became a dark speck on the horizon, and only once I was completely alone did I whisper, “Hook.”
TURN PAGE FOR THE LONG GOODNIGHT, BOOK 2
UNTITLED
The Grimm Files: The Long Goodnight
Welcome to a world of fantasy, fairy tales, and murder most foul…
Crow shifters. Bank heists. And lots and lots of stolen goodies. Just what I need to keep my mind off of the fact that Hook, my dead lover, might not be so dead after all.
But the crime syndication known as the Slasher Gang aren't just small-time crooks anymore, they're turning deadly. Everywhere they go now they leave a sea of blood in their wake. And nothing about what they're doing makes any sense.
A fae stronghold's been robbed. Dozens of the queen's royal guards have been killed. Whatever was taken, I knows it's bad. Like crazy, stupid bad. Like end of the world kind of bad. And I don't know how I know this, I just do. I can feel it, taste it in the wind, hear it in the changing tides. Something super evil, super deadly, and super scary this way comes. I only hope I can stop it, whatever it is, or Grimm as I know it might never be the same again...
PROLOGUE
Grimm Reports
Cold Case File # 308: The Slasher Gang Heists
DETAIL OF EVENTS-
SEVEN ROBBERIES IN A YEAR, traversing realms and dimensions. Each time, the shifters get bolder. On the sixteenth of May, they held a group of fae nuns from the Holy Tree of Immaculate Conception at gunpoint, escaping the vanguard of uniformed dispatch waiting out front with ease. On the twenty-second of July, they took it one step further and held a high-ranking wizard’s gnome hostage, forcing him to draw on dark magick to release locks dipped in dragon’s blood, narrowly evading capture. Grains of dun-colored sand found at multiple scenes. Possible clue? On the twenty-seventh of August, committed worst act of terrorism yet. Holly Thorn, daughter of high fae Lord Banyon and Lady Seraphina caught in crosshairs of gunfight. M.I.C.E.—Mystically Issued Crime-Scene Examiners—on scene attempted to resuscitate, but she was later pronounced DOA at Winged Seraph’s Infirmary.
Summary-
TASK FORCE CREATED. All active and retired investigators recalled.
PROLOGUE
BLACK ANGUS (LEADER OF THE SLASHER GANG)
A YEAR in a half earlier
I WAS ON ME KNEES. Me! And as if that were no bad enough I also had a bag over me head. I couldn’t see a damned thing.
Me head were fuzzy too. I’d been asleep. It were the witching hour, no one sane was awake righ’ now. Even the surliest of pirates were a’bed. But it weren’t cuz we were good li’l bairns. Rather, because we’d been preparing for this day nigh unto a year now.
All the pieces was being set in motion. But to succeed with the riskiest of plans yet, the hermit golden king were needed to host a gala. No a problem, or so his lover assured us. If Lord Humpty lied we’d end him an’ he knew it, so there was no incentive to deceiving us. So long as he told us truth and gave us the keys to the promised land, he’d be free to walk away once it were done. It’d been a sheer stoke of happenstance that’d landed that inflated bag of excrement onto our laps. Stealing from the King of all waters, Triton hisself.
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk . What a fool he’d been to think his deeds could ha’ gone unnoticed, especially by us on our own waters. We’d forced him to our will, but better tha’ than the fate that would ha’ awaited him had the King of Fish e’er found out.
And once Humpty were done, he were done. I didn’t keep wit slavery, I needed him for one task. Once we were done, we were through for good. To live his life as he saw fit. I didn’t give a crow’s arse what he did with his life, so long as he didn’t try to feck with mine. And so far the thievin’ bastard were keeping true to his word, it were all goin’ according to plan.
There was time now to learn the schematics of the locale we’d chosen for the event. We would clean up and finally, finally see our syndicate become the most flushed families in all the hundred realms’. No more livin’ hand to mouth, no more thievin’, no more heists. We’d be set and we’d be done.
Me first mate kept pushing for us to do more, to up the stakes. The ante as it were. But she were young and excitable. She didn’t understand that overreaching had been the death knell of far too many crime families before us. Getting too big fer our britches were a good way to get all of Grimm down on our arses. An’ that was a fight we’d no win. No matter how good we were.
Course, right now I were thinking Humpty were doing his damnedest to betray our gentleman’s agreement. That double-crossing harpy, no doubt it were him responsible for my currently being trussed up like a Christmas turkey. I glowered beneath me hood.
One second I’d been asleep, and the next I was out here. Shivering, naked in the cold of night. Tossed unceremoniously down. I’d tried to get up, but I’d been cuffed in me left ear for the effort and I felt the warmth of blood still oozing out.
Me boat pitching up and down on the waters. Reason why Grimm PD or the Bureau of Special Investigations hadn’t found us was because we were “grounded” birds. We lived not in the skies we ruled, but upon the waters themselves. Traversing the realms on the legendary Jolly Roger.
An old ship, but a well maintained one. The previous owner had met a grim end, but he’d been a lawman of sorts once and as such had been granted access between realms through the Jolly Roger.
I snarled as I heard the shuffling of boots come up and over the ladder of the ship, landing on the warped wooden planking, before turning and walking off in the opposite direction. The sounds of their steps fading into the distance. A foreboding shiver of black ice skated up me spine. I couldn’t explain it, but I sensed deep down that this weren’t simple mutiny I dealt with here.
Humpty hadn’t just betrayed me, he’d done far worse. I just knew it.
A cold wind feathered along me naked body and I felt the squeeze of me feathers itch to burst through me pores so as I could fly far, far away. But whoever had grabbed me had placed a grounding cuff on me wrist. Nullifying me bodies natural ability to turn. Every time I tried I felt a sharp thrill of fire zap through me blood. I ground down on my back teeth so hard I were sure me teeth would turn to dust. I wiggled, fighting to work off the restraint and the rope so I could finally get up.
But whoever had bound me had done a helluva job. I couldn’t even move the damned rope an inch, me skin felt raw at the wrists and wet. There was the stench of blood in the air. My blood.
Panting, breathing heavy from my efforts I tamped down on the panic that were trying its damnedest to take me under. I needed to remain calm, rationale. There were always a way out of any mess. Hells, I were the one and only Black Angus that done broke
out of the maximum security prison of Grimm, warded by multiple level 10 witches. If I could do that, then I could surely do this.
I just had to think. I had to stop worrying and jus’ think. I blew out a harsh breath, feeling meself getting slowly centered again.
I strained to listen, wondering what’d happened to me crew. There was too much silence. I had a gang of nearly a hundred. Surely, someone should have found me up here by now. Me men were loyal, always had been. And I’d no go squawking a’boot begging for help, if I did it that was the quickest way to be forced to walk the plank. No man respected a captain what couldn’t hold his own.
But the mere fact that none of them had even crossed paths wit’ me here were worrisome. Where the hells was I?
I smelled the brine of sea air. Felt the cool brush of the winds. And heard the rustling of the sails. I was most definitely out of doors, and on the deck. I weren’t hidden below and out of sight. No, I was out where anyone and anything could see me if they’d had a mind to.
I wet my lips, tasting a hint of something metallic and irony. I’d split me lip somehow.
I glanced left and right, but saw nothing but darkness. Whatever they’d placed over me head didn’t let in even a sliver of light.
What the hells was this? Again, I twisted me body, trying in vain to stretch apart the ropes they’d bound me with. But trying to undo those knots was like trying to tear through steel with me bare hands.
There was magick at work here. The very darkest kind. I felt it, like arsenic in me bones, crawling all over me. Holding me fast. Panic began to slowly bloom within me. Naught but a mere seedling of it and I kept telling meself I’d been in worse binds before… and yet.
I opened me mouth and tried once more to speak, but for some damned reason me tongue couldn’t seem to form proper words. Nothing but grunts and groans spilled up me throat.
The Grimm Files Collection Boxed Set Page 25
