I wouldn’t bet on that. This was probably the last time I’d ever see Lex. I had to say goodbye.
"This is for Tommy," I said.
Lex rolled his eyes. "You already said that."
"Well, this is for him too." I punched him in the face. “Good riddance, motherfucker.”
19.Hell and Back
Rob
Normally, I took off before any dust had time to settle. Honestly? That seemed like a good plan. Because sticking around to pick up all the pieces and get shit squared away was apparently awkward as fuck.
Our showdown with the demon formerly known as Lex happened a few days ago. After Frost filed an official report about this incident, Stone called a meeting before being ready to lay this issue to rest.
"Let’s see, there’s a couple details we need to go over."
Assistant Director Stone kicked off the meeting in her usual no nonsense way, yet the silence stretched on in the conference room when it was our turn to fill her in.
On our side of the table, Frost stared back at Stone like a deep pool or a really dark rock with unfathomable depths. Then there was Orion, the GQ motherfucker who looked so fine in that grey three-piece suit. God, he rocked a vest so well. He faced the agent evenly, unbothered and calm as usual.
Then she glanced at me and I immediately shook my head and rolled my roll-y chair away from the table. I pleaded all the fifths possible and intended to let the other two handle the rest.
Stone tapped the blue folder in front of her. “The details in here are…” It looked like she was trying to find a polite word for nonexistent.
The official version, as far as I knew, went something like ‘everything is totally taken care of, nothing weird happened at all, everything that happened was totally authorized, and everything is totally fine now.’
“You’re sure this ‘Lex’ AKA Steven Cartwright is taken care of?” she questioned.
Frost took point on answering. “Yes.”
"And there’s a BOLO on this ‘Mar’ AKA the previously presumed deceased Taryn Lennox?"
"Yes."
"Even though I can’t find it—"
"The right agencies have the right details to apprehend him."
As far as I knew, that meant Hell and whatever system they had going on there in the circle of Hell where Bad Mother came from. They were definitely on the lookout for future hijinks. And Frost was too. Did he count as his own agency?
"If you guys killed this Lex, would you say so?"
“Yes,” Frost answered.
Orion said something as well, but he also covered up whatever he said with a shamelessly fake cough.
I stared up at the ceiling and pretended I was somewhere else.
The details were hazy there anyway. Frost promised he’d find somewhere appropriate for Lex. A fitting place to hold a murderer but not somewhere gratuitously cruel. Angels were a mystery. They weren’t chubby cherubs with fuzzy wings, but I doubted the guy would do anything too awful.
Orion planned on killing Lex once but keeping him out of commission and stowed away somewhere was probably the smarter play. The guy was one of the few people on Earth with knowledge of Hell and he was also familiar with Orion’s brother, who still had dreams of returning, so his information might come in handy.
Also, Lex’s given name had beenSteven Cartwright, something so ordinary and human. Trippy.
"We won’t find Lex’s body in a few months, will we?" Stone carried on with the questioning.
“You definitely won’t,” I muttered.
