AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The moment my feet touched the ground, Gareth picked up. “Bri. What is it?”
“We need to go home, now. We need to have a meeting with Alistair and Rick.” I didn’t want to get into the details of it now, over the phone. I’d much rather talk to them all at once so we could think up a plan, a way to counter Brett Banks and what he might do.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Just call Alistair and get to your car. I’m on my way there now.” I picked up the pace; I had a lot more ground to cover to reach the school and walk around it to get to the student parking, where Gareth’s car was in the furthest spot. “I’ll call Rick.” He started to ask again, but I hung up.
I had the feeling this was going to get bad. Very, very bad.
Chapter Eight – Alistair
We sat in my study. Wearing his sheriff’s uniform, Rick was pacing the length of the room, while I leaned against the wall. Brianna stood near Gareth, the latter of who’s jaw was clenched so tight I thought he might crack his teeth.
Brianna had just told us what happened, why she and Gareth had left school and needed to meet with us. Her mother was at the gallery, which was why we could all meet here.
“I say we kill him,” Gareth said, tearing his eyes off Brianna and glancing at us. He lifted a hand. “Who thinks we should find this asshole and kill him?” He waited for the others to raise their hands, and then he looked at Brianna and gave her a look that wordlessly asked why she wasn’t raising hers. “We kill him, we kill his parents. Fuck it, let’s just kill them all—”
“We can’t kill them all,” I told him with a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation. “If we killed them all every time you wanted to kill them all, Eastcreek would be a ghost town. Actions like that are not sustainable in the long-term.”
Gareth dropped his hand as Rick was slow to say, “I don’t agree that we should kill them all, but maybe just Brett. I remember him. He’d always come to Eastcreek in the summer. Though there’s twelve years in between, anywhere he went, he had Neo as a little sidekick.” He stopped pacing and set his hands on his hips. “As much as I hate agreeing with the kid, Alistair, I don’t think we can sit this one out and see how it plays out, first. We need to make a move.”
“How are the dental records coming along?” I asked.
“We got ‘em in this morning, as soon as the dentist office opened. Initial analysis says they’re a match, which we knew. I’m making the announcement this afternoon, at three,” Rick said. “I’m telling you, Alistair, we need to jump on this. The longer we wait, the more danger Brianna’s in—”
“No,” she cut in with a shake of her head. “He won’t come after me, first. He made it very clear he wants to make me suffer because I killed Neo. If he comes after anyone…” She puckered her lips, a cute frown tugging at them. “He’ll come after one of you. Or all of you.”
“What about your mom?” Gareth offered. “Or are we going to continue pretending she doesn’t exist?”
“I… may have set something up to get her out of the country for a while,” I said, causing all three pairs of eyes in the room to land on me. “She’ll be getting a call today from another gallery in Italy.”
Brianna chuckled. “She’s always wanted to go to Italy. She won’t say no. How are you going to get her to go alone? You’re not… you’re not going with her, are you?” Even though she sounded normal, I could hear the fear in her voice. She didn’t want me to leave.
Like hell I would with all this going on. “No,” I firmly told her. “I’m not going anywhere. When she gets home, she’ll go straight to packing. I’ll tell her that I’m too busy and I can’t go.”
Gareth squinted at me, the distrust plain on his face. “You set all this up before? Why?”
I turned away from Gareth, letting my eyes roam across the nearest bookshelf. My study was full of shelves, packed to the brim with hardcover spines. Most were nonfiction works, but there were a few shelves with the classics. I hardly ever touched any of it.
“I wanted her gone while we… figured out what’s next,” I finally said. “I have eyes on Neo’s parents. If they are involved, I’ll know. As of right now, however, we will operate under the assumption Brett is Neo’s only accomplice. We need to find him. I have the feeling if we find him, we might just find Erin and her parents.”
Bringing my gaze to Brianna, I said, “That means no going off alone, anywhere. No more meetings with Brett by yourself. You will either be at school or here in this house.” She opened her mouth to argue with me, so I took on a stern tone and added, “You will not change my mind on this, Brianna.”
She huffed, “And if he calls again? Do I answer? Or maybe you’d like to have control over my phone while I’m at home?” Her tone grew flippant and annoyed, bratty, almost. “This is Daddy’s house, after all.”
My jaw ground. Not just anyone could bring out emotions from me so easily, but Brianna had that superpower.
Gareth coughed awkwardly. “Okay, this is getting a little too weird for me. I’m out.” He started toward the door to my study. “When you find this guy, let me know. I’ll gladly kill him for all of us.”
The door slammed after he left, and Rick was busy glancing between Brianna and me, sensing something else was going on. It didn’t take a psychic to know that, though. The look on Brianna’s face was plain as day: she didn’t like being told what to do. She was like Gareth in that respect.
“I guess I should go, too,” Rick said. “Get back to the office, get ready to make the official announcement about Neo.” His green gaze lingered on Brianna, but she was too busy glaring at me to watch him leave.
He didn’t slam the door, so it creaked as it closed, and once Brianna and I were alone, she closed the distance between us and stopped when she stood a foot in front of me. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her hip cocked. She radiated attitude.
“I don’t like being told I’m grounded when we have a psycho to catch,” she hissed out, prickly. Her stormy gray eyes were angled up toward me, her pink and blue hair vibrant and fresh in hue, its length wavy.
The corners of my mouth tugged into a tiny smile, and I stepped toward her, my voice low as I replied, “And I don’t like you acting like a brat in front of everyone else. You know I’m only doing what’s best for us, for all of us. We need to be smart as we play this game, and that means no sudden moves.”
