AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You are summoned,” Emory said with another smile.
Jesse looked at Anton. His face looked tired, but the haunted look that had become part of his eyes had gone. “Go, little brother,” he said. “Enjoy. Just…” He winced. “Watch out for Olly, yeah? And that little girl. And yourself, while you’re at it.”
“Always, mate,” he said, squeezing his brother’s shoulder. “Always.”
Jesse hurried to where the children were waiting with Emory.
“You’re coming on, too, right?” Jesse said as the children scampered off toward the Ferris wheel.
“If you want me to,” Emory said, eyeing the ride a little warily.
“I think we all want you to,” Jesse said, as Dimity called to both of them to hurry.
Emory smiled and held out his hand. “Then lead the way.”
Jesse wondered whether it was possible to actually explode from happiness as he and Emory followed Oliver and Dimity to the Ferris wheel, arm-in-arm. He was aware of the interested looks the adults and some of the children gave them as they passed, but nothing made him look away from Emory’s content face.
Apart from when someone with electric-blue hair stepped out of the shadows… Jesse dropped Emory’s arm and strode over, ignoring Oliver calling him back. Trixy watched him approach with a blank expression.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, that’s nice,” Trixy said, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t I get any credit for helping you win your case?”
“Helping?”
“Jesus, Jesse,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t you read the internet anymore?”
“The last few weeks have sort of put me off it.”
Her smile was thin. “My YouTube video about you guys went viral.”
“I’m bloody aware of that.”
“It’s actually influenced how people think of the baron, you idiot,” she quipped. “Don’t you see? I always knew people wanted to know the truth.” She glanced over Jesse’s shoulder to where Emory was watching them. Her face paled, but she carried on. “Okay, so maybe I was a tiny bit off the mark about which truth was important, but haemophiles as breathing, sexual beings?” She grinned. “The internet fucking loves it. The whole world is shipping you two—and all the other high-profile vamps, for that matter.”
“You really are on another bloody planet, aren’t you?”
“I helped you,” she said, prodding his coat. “The least you could do is return the favor.”
“How?” he asked suspiciously.
“I still want that interview—with both of you, as a couple. Then I’ll write a book. It’s already funded. And publishers are emailing me figures bigger than my YouTube revenue.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I’m not. I’m realistic. You want people to think of you as a real couple? Let me do this.”
“Wearea real couple,” Jesse argued. “I don’t need the world’s approval for that to be true.”
Trixy rolled her eyes. “Then do it for all those other odd couples—people the world don’t think belong together. Lord Aviemore and Terje Kristiansen started the ball rolling. You could launch it into space. Promote equal rights, Jesse. Hashtag ‘love is love,’ right?”
Jesse stared at her, torn between fury and amusement. He shook his head then looked at the floor. “I tracked down the dickholes that made that prison rape video, by the way,” he said softly. He looked up. Her jaw had tightened. “I was going to report them to the cops…after I’d talked to you. But I didn’t want to speak to you.” He let out an impatient sigh. “I was still mad. But I’ll do it.”
“Thanks, Jesse,” she said, her voice catching. “I appreciate that. Tell me who they are.”
“Let the police handle it, Trix.”
“I can do a far better job eviscerating them than the police ever could. I just need their names.”
