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“Down Viper Spring.”
I can’t hear what’s being said on the other side of the phone call, but I’m certain it’s the same set of words that were said to him in the car when I was with him, and I’m doubting more and more the accuracy and truth behind Crow’s alleged connection to some tech guy that he claims this person to be.
“He was right about Liam. He left a note saying he had evidence but not to act yet.”
Who is it he was talking to exactly and what on earth had Liam done to warrant both Crow and Gray knowing enough about him to want me to back away? I know and feel that he has been acting unusually with me, but I didn’t assume there was something more than him being a bloody oddball.
“I trust him. Yep, I’m about to tell her now. Both. Down Viper Spring.”
I wait anxiously as he hangs up and turns to face me, his eyes filled with hesitance and concern.
“Right, so there’s a few things I need you to know and a few things you can’t know. You’re going to be mad at me, but I need you to trust me. You got it?” It sounds rehearsed, his words, as if he’d practised this very speech a thousand times.
Do I trust Crow? Yes. Even if he is keeping things from me? Yes. I don’t like it but that doesn’t change the fact that I do trust him entirely.
“OK. I want as much of the truth as you’re able to give me, though, Crow. I’m so fed up of all of this,” I tell him, feeling my heart clammer and my stomach give way. I feel defeated, as if I’ve lost a war I didn’t even know I was fighting.
His eyes soften and his face falls, my words bringing out the pain in him. He knows how much I hate being lied to and kept away from things. He knows how much it hurts me to have the person I’m closest to in the world do that, and yet I can also see the determination in his steadfast nod as he takes a breath and begins unravelling the lies that have been told to me.
“Do you know why Liam went to prison?” Crow starts.
That much I do know.
“Yeah, he told me about me and the other kids that were going to be taken by the men he killed,” I tell him confidently.
Crow lets out a dark and sarcastic huff as he shakes his head at me.
“Officially, yes. But truthfully - not quite. Gray had suspected for a long time that there was more to that story than Liam had told everyone so he told me and we did some digging. We had spoken to one person who had told us a story that we weren’t sure was true. He caught a lead and went solo to find out more but disappeared before I ever got hold of him to ask what he found, to find out if the story we had been told was true. That letter is confirmation that it was,” he tells me with a sigh as he runs his hand through his hair before pinning his eyes on me again.
“Liam killed those men, that is true, but the reasoning behind it isn’t. He didn’t kill them because they were going to take you or anyone else. He killed them to cover up the fact thathewas working with them and was going to take you too.”
I can practically hear my mind whizzing and spinning, trying to make sense of the words leaving Crow’s mouth. I almost wish that I doubted him but I don’t. Not one part of me questions what I am being told. I wholeheartedly believe it to be the truth and that guts me completely.
“What’s the rest?” I ask as I continue to absorb the information I’ve been given, feeling so vulnerable and dirty at the mere thought of the man I shared so many hours and days with as a child being not only willing and capable but actively part of a scheme to take children from their homes and do God knows what with.
“The guy I just called. He’s not who I told you he was.” I roll my eyes as he says this, having guessed that only moments ago.
“If you ever need someone and I’m not around, you call Kenny on your phone and say Down Viper Swing and tell them who you are. They’ll protect you,” he tells me seriously as I bring my phone out and check the contacts, realising that Crow must have added the number at some point without me realising.
“Char, look at me.” I bring my eyes up to his, my own the shapes of orbs in the reflection of his deepening gaze.
“Do you understand what I just said, Char?”
“Yes, yeah, I understand, but who is it? Who’s the person you ring every time something happens?” I inquire, looking at Crow in a whole new light knowing for certain now that he’s a part of something I have no idea about.
“That’s the part I can’t tell you. For your own safety. I don’t ever plan on letting someone get a hold of you but if anyone ever did, the less you know, the better.” He stands from his bed and lifts me to encourage me to do the same.
“We need to go to Gray’s room now. I’ll explain more later but for now, we need to see what we can find in there.” I nod my head at him and watch as his gaze turns from serious and business-like to soft and nurturing.
He brings his arms around me and tucks me beneath him, sighing and rubbing his hand against my hair gently.
“What’s happening, Crow? I feel like everything is falling apart.” I nearly sob into his chest.
“All I want you to concentrate on right now is you and me, you understand that?” he says, his voice a husky whisper in my ear. He lifts my chin gently with his finger and places a gentle kiss on my forehead, followed by one on my cheek and another next to my lips.
Before I have time to overthink and change my mind, I reach my hands around the back of his neck and bring his head down to my own, smashing our lips together in an undeniably and earth shattering kiss.
This kiss feels like the sun is rising, the earth is melting, the floor beneath my feet is shaking. It feels like the very molecules that make up every atom of my insides is roaring to life in both the anguish and passion that is consuming me.
