Page 85 of Ashes to Ash’s

Jesus fuck. I dragged the kid into a tight hug. “That’s never gonna fucking happen, you hear me? Cross family is for life.”

I wanted him out of here, and fast. It was undoing all the good we’d done so far for the boy’s confidence and comfort. He was as subdued and afraid now as the day we’d rescued him. I pulled back and cupped his chin lightly.

“This is the end of your old life, so you can be happy and continue healing, okay? We’re your family now, and we’re not going anywhere. We’re yours, Ren. You’ll never be alone, never want for anything, never have to be afraid. We’ve got your back.”

I hugged him again as he released a choked sob, sounding every bit the child he was right now, when it was so easy to forget his age most of the time, because the poor thing had had to grow up way too fast.

A heavy thud upstairs made us pull apart, staring at the ceiling like it held the answers.

“CAL?? You okay?” I yelled, hesitating just long enough to hear his reply.

“Yeah. This prick just uh… fell…”

“And he says I’m the unhinged one.”

There. Finally, a little smile on our kid’s face. He was still in there, and we’d draw him back out again. It was a gift all Cross family members had.

Cal

The guy was a prick. Did he really think I was the weak one out of the two of us? I mean, maybe he wasn’t completely wrong, but trying to push me down the stairs was a pathetic attempt at freeing himself. I mean, one punch and he was on his knees, with terror on his face.

“Are you always such a pussy? Get the fucking papers.”

He dragged himself back up and staggered down the hall to a bedroom, opening the wardrobe, and lifting a box down from the top shelf.

I snatched it and walked over to the bed, emptying the contents out onto the prissy bedspread, while he tried to argue with me.

“That’s private!”

Huh. What an asshole. All of Ren’s paperwork was here, as well as a bundle of cash, and two burner phones? Who the fuck was this guy, and what did he need all this shit for?

“You a spy, Dennis?”

He blinked at me, wariness filling his pudgy features, as I held up the money and the phones.

“I… always be prepared, right?”

There was something really not right about this prick. I pocketed the cash and the phones, while he gasped and tried to lunge at me to take them. I shoved him back, watching him land on his ass this time, and then I grabbed everything that had Ren’s name on it. There was a stack of baby photos, and pics of Ren as a little kid.

“Are these all of Ren?”

He nodded warily, while I put together the fact that these photos were here, and yet there wasn’t a single fucking one on a wall that I’d seen. I pocketed those too, because Ren should decide what to do with them. They didn’t deserve physical reminders of the child they’d forsaken.

“Those are ours! They’re all we’ll have left!”

“You deserve to lose him completely. Dennis,” I reached into my pocket and dug out one of the phones, “if we check these and find out you were up to something disgusting and appalling, we’ll be back. We’ll tear the skin from your bones, and make your wife wear it, before we kill her too. You got me?”

“Jesus, save us!”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, that’d happen. I reached into the pile of stuff again, and lifted up the passport belonging to Dennis, who photographed even worse than he appeared in reality, and that was saying something.

“I’m keeping this too.”

“No! How can I travel? I need that!”

“Dennis, shut up and look at me. See my face? Remember it, because if I come back, you’re dead. You try to find Ren or us, and you die. You both do. You call the police about us, and you die. You turn out to be a fucking perv, and I come back and kill you. You’ll beg your god to save you, but he’ll ignore you, because you’re not worth his time. Oh.”

I hesitated, a grin stretching across my face.