Page 76 of Ashes to Ash’s

“Ash.”

“What? What’s worse than what he’s been through? He was drugged, and about to be r…” he glanced at the door, and lowered his voice, “he almost went through something way worse than any porn he’ll get to watch. Let him enjoy life without limits. He deserves that.”

“Limits exist for a reason.”

“Like having your sexuality repressed, and attempting to beat it out of you? Those kinds of limits?”

Ugh. There was no winning an argument with a member of the Cross family. They were right, ergo, everyone else was wrong.

“I’ll check on him in a bit, just to make sure he’s not-”

“No. You’ll give him privacy, and show him you trust him. Cal, he’s never been trusted and cared for. He’s never been respected. Let him feel what that’s like. If he makes mistakes, that’s part of being a fucking human being. We’ll fix them for him.”

I leaned back against the sofa and hugged my coffee.

“Just so you know, that’s called enabling.” Stubborn to the core, that’s me.

“I’ll enable your fucking cock in a minute. Can you just shut up so we can relax a bit? Alternatively, I can silence you in a way you haven’t tried yet.”

His low chuckle at my glare said it all. He was doing his best to wind me up, and for once I wouldn’t take the bait. Instead I leaned my head on his shoulder, and we took a moment to breathe, and enjoy the calm, because there was no way this would last.

Chapter Forty-One

Ash

One week, that’s how long we had to chill, before the next drama hit us. This time it was in the form of Cal being called by the police, to inform him that there were suspects in his parents’ murder. And his uncle’s.

They’d informed him of their deaths, and he’d pretended to take it hard, or maybe he hadn’t been pretending at all. That raw pain was real, whether they were close or not. It was just about more than losing people. It was about removing the people who’d harmed him for decades.

We were ‘invited’ to the police station to meet with the officer in charge, and the first thing I did was ring my dads, because I had a bad feeling about it. We’d been careful, but this meant we were in their sights, and that was never good.

“We’ll make sure you have our lawyer there, kid. Just in case.” Yikes. There really was a family lawyer, and the guy was about as disturbing as you’d expect, to represent people like us, but he earned a shit-ton of money for it. My family had made so much money over the years they’d been together. Mostly with properties and investments, because if I thought dad Gray was good with investments, dad Dory had a freaking scary mind when it came to that stuff. That was something Blaze had inherited too, so they were doing well too. We hadn’t yet decided what our future held, but for the moment, my concern was making sure it didn’t end behind bars.

“Ah Mr Jeffries, and Mr Cross, is it?” We both nodded, and that’s when the cop noticed the guy behind us. He sighed heavily, waving him in too.

“Mr Sharp. It’s not necessary for them to have legal representation right now. This is just an update with regard to an ongoing case.”

Mr Sharp, because you never called him anything but that, merely stared at the cop, and took up position behind us as we both sat down. Cal kept half glancing over his shoulder, like the presence of old Sharpie behind him was as freaky for him as it was for me. It was like having a fucking vampire standing behind us.

“You said you had information?” Cal finally said, his voice a little shaky, which thankfully made him sound grief-stricken rather than guilty, at least to my ears.

The cop nodded, opening something up on his computer and reading from it.

“An anti-religious group has claimed responsibility for the murder of your uncle, Gordon Jeffries, and also both of your parents. I’m very sorry.”

We both stared at each other, bemused and brain-fucked. Someone was falsely claiming the honour of killing those fucks, taking credit for disposing of them? I wanted to scream from the rooftops that it was us, that we were the ones who cleansed their evil from this planet, but I knew that was the dumbest thing I could do right now.

I took Cal’s hand, squeezing it gently, not just for comfort, but in case he felt any similar urges to denounce their fucking usurping of our activities.

“Uh… who are these people? Did they say why?” I asked, surprised to find my own voice a little meek in this situation where I’d probably expected to feel like a fucking king. Oooh or a god.

The cop narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m not at liberty to give out that information at this time. The investigation is still ongoing. Apparently it’s part of a gay rights movement,” he said, as his eyes drifted to our joined hands, and one eyebrow lifted.

“Were they accepting of your relationship?”

“My clients won’t be answering any questions at this time,” Mr Sharp interrupted, his voice as jagged as his name.

The cop sighed. I didn’t even remember his name, but it didn’t matter. What did matter was someone else might be held accountable for our crimes, and as much as I hated them getting the credit, I also didn’t want to get banged up for the rest of my life.