Page 20

TWENTY

Gabriel

I see my cousin Tom enter and scowl at his presence. I really didn’t want him to come at all and have never liked him after he made fun of me as a teenager. But I’m a pushover who caved immediately when my grandma looked upset at the idea of not inviting him. Why couldn’t I be a bit more like Liam and stand up for myself?

Speaking of Liam… where is he?

“Layla, have you seen Liam?” I ask as she hands her toddler off to her husband.

“No, he was in the kitchen last I saw him.”

I start toward the kitchen, knowing that Liam wouldn’t go too far when he has stuff on the stove, but I run into Tom and his girlfriend before I get too far. The girlfriend, who I’ve known about six months, hugs me, but I always feel like it’s more of a show than anything.

“Happy Thanksgiving!” she says.

“Y-Yeah, happy Thanksgiving.”

“I didn’t realize you made enough money to afford a place like this,” Tom says.

“It’s nice, isn’t it? The instant we saw the house, we knew it had to be ours.”

Tom laughs snidely. “So it’s your boyfriend’s house? I momentarily thought it was yours.”

“Liam actually bought it for me,” I say with a smile. “Isn’t that sweet?”

“He… bought you a house?”

“He sure did. How sweet, right?” I ask before I quickly leave and hurry over to the kitchen island where I find Liam sitting behind it staring at Butter. “Hey,” I say as I approach. “You okay?”

“Of course. Margarine was being needy and annoying, so I kneeled down to whisper threats in his ear. I’ve already told him that he was unwanted, which I’m allowed to say since I also went into foster care.”

“Ah, okay… I’m not sure that’s called for at all, but we’ll pretend it is,” I say as I kneel next to him. “Is this too much for you? You’re always so… confident in crowds that I didn’t think anything of it.”

“I literally just came down here to threaten the cat. I told him that he better start pulling his own weight if he’s going to continue to get attention from you because every time you gaze at him is one less second that you gaze at me.”

I reach forward and slide my fingers through his hair before giving it a tug.

“What the fuck was the tug for?”

“For not being truthful. I shouldn’t have pushed you to do this. You’re kind of like the boy who cried wolf. You claim to never want to do anything, so I don’t know when you’re being serious. I’m sorry.”

Liam raises an eyebrow. “I’m not like that, and I’m totally fine doing all of this.” His timer goes off, so he stands up and heads over to the oven. “I promise.”

“Hmm… you’re telling me the truth?”

“Sure.”

“That was horribly unconvincing.”

“I’m not being scarred or something. I already told you, I don’t like hanging around people I can’t bully.”

“Well, you’re doing a good job at it,” I assure him before I glance out the window and see the grill smoking. “What’s on the grill?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says with a smile.

“That smile makes me a bit worried about it,” I admit as I watch him hurry out to it. When he comes back in, he’s covered whatever he pulled off it and slides it off to the side. I creep toward it, but he smacks me with a spatula.

“Nope.” Then he smacks me again before getting a thoughtful expression on his face. “Remind me to take this to bed tonight.”

I laugh as I push him away from me. “You’re ridiculous.”

He gives it a test swing and then nods approvingly. “We won’t let your mom know what we’re going to do with the spatula… although looking at the submissive man your father is, she might have some tricks up her sleeve.”

I make sure my face conveys how horrified I am over that thought. “Don’t ever speak to me again.”

Liam laughs as he draws me in for a quick kiss on my cheek. “I won’t. Now tell everyone that lunch is ready and then point out which one is Tom.”

“Why?” I ask nervously. I really shouldn’t have mentioned Tom to this man. Who the hell knows what he has planned?

He gives me the sweet smile that makes me oddly untrusting of him. “For not at all nefarious reasonings.”

“Well, I’m not telling you.”

Liam scrutinizes the people who are inching closer to the kitchen now that the smells are luring them in. “I’ve deduced that man in the blue is Tom because of the way you reacted to him entering the home. You’d never be a good liar.”

“I can lie just fine. I lied when I pretended I wasn’t intrigued by the idea of you smacking me with a spatula.”

Liam laughs before lifting my hand up so he can kiss my fingertips. “Oh, love, I already knew that was a lie.”

I watch as he swiftly dishes up things and slides them out onto the kitchen table that’s now laden down with all kinds of food. I’m not sure why anyone else even brought anything because it pales in comparison to Liam’s buffet.

“You realize you were just supposed to make the turkey, right?” I ask.

He pulls out a fork and scoops up some crab salad over rice that he aims toward my mouth. I take a bite and realize that I never want turkey on Thanksgiving again. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah?” he asks.

“Are there cucumbers in that? Why do they work perfectly?”

“Right?”

“And the radishes? Why do radishes go with this?”

I grab the entire bowl, deciding that it’s all for me.

“Hon, you need to share the food,” Mom scolds as the others start to line up.

“I don’t want to,” I whine as she pries it out of my arms and sets it out for the others.

“Mabel, please, you go first,” Liam says, suckering my mom some more.

She hurries over to the dishes as he leans in. “I’m going to be honest, she’s the only person besides your father and sister whose name I remember.”

“Want me to go through them again?”

“Not in the slightest,” he says as he hurries over to the plate that came off the grill, maybe remembering that he never put it out.

“Tom, right?” Liam asks as he looks at my cousin. “I made this one for you.”

He hands the plate over as I realize that I really should never have mentioned that Tom was a bully.

“Ha! Ha ha, no, Liam.” I rush over as Tom takes the lid off and looks down at a horrifically burned chunk on his plate and one single green bean.

Tom stares at it as everyone in the family also turns to see what’s so interesting. “What is this?” He seems almost mystified by what he’s been presented.

“This is what I personally made you for lunch,” Liam says as Matthew gives out a snorting laugh.

“Looks delish,” Jesse comments. “Was that once a slice of turkey?”

“It was . Blackened to perfection,” Liam responds with a grin on his face that tells me he’s just daring Tom to say something.

“Haha, such a kidder, my Liam. So funny,” I say as I try to take the plate back from Tom who is glowering at Liam. This man really has no fucking idea that he’s like a Chihuahua staring down a lion.

Liam hands Tom a fork. “I hope you enjoy.”

“What is this?” Tom repeats, clearly not impressed.

“This is your lunch,” Liam says.

“Are you saying shit about me again?” Tom asks as he looks over at me.

“Language, Tom!” Grandma chides.

“Yes, Tom. Language,” Liam says in a way that makes me want to drag him off to the bedroom to break it in… again. Why the fuck is him defending me so hot? I really shouldn’t find this so sexy.

I take the plate and fork before raising an eyebrow at Liam.

Liam hesitates, looking concerned that he did something wrong. He rushes over to where I’m scraping the blackened piece into the trash. It crumbles as it falls. “Gabriel, as I run things through my mind… I am now seeing that maybe… that was not the proper interaction. But if I’m perfectly honest, it was this or threatening that if he ever does it again, I will tear his life apart to find the shittiest sliver of information about him that I can find and then making him beg you for forgiveness.”

“What’s the powder on this?” I ask as I poke the green bean that’s nearly white with something I really doubt is garlic powder.

“I… uhhh… opened some laxatives and poured the powder onto it.”

“How long was this slice of turkey on the grill?”

“Not long, but at the temperature I had it at, it took very little time to dry out and become quite crisp. Are you mad at me?” Liam is watching me closely.

“Mad?”

“Yeah.”

My lips quirk. “That was really fucking sexy,” I whisper.

His worried expression evaporates. “Was it? I can make him eat it if you want.”

My sister rushes over before I can make sure Liam’s well aware I don’t want him to dig it out of the trash and make Tom eat it, even if he deserves it. “Oh. My. God,” Layla says. “Tom’s face. That was priceless. He’s such a dick. He used to make fun of me all the time too, but not as bad as he did with Gabriel. Oh… joyous day. Liam, I like you. You definitely get a stamp of approval from me.”

“Thank you,” he says, looking quite proud.

“Come on, you three, eat,” Mom urges. She looks like she’s about to say something about the incident before simply patting Liam on the back.

“I’m just worried you put something in his drink,” I tease.

Liam hesitates, like I’ve just given him a brilliant idea. “I have more laxatives.”

I grin but give him a playful push. “No! Be good!”

“I’m trying, Gabriel. I really am!” he says as I drag him over and put a plate in his hand now that everyone else has gone through the line. His attention shifts to showing me what he made. “You have to try this… and I made this knowing you’d like it.”

By the time he’s done pointing out everything he wants me to try, my plate is overflowing. I’m not quite sure how he expects me to eat all of this, but the smile on his face is reason enough for me to try.

“Oh nooo. There aren’t enough chairs. I guess I’ll have to sit with the cats,” Liam says.

“No, I saw you didn’t have enough chairs, and I had Layla bring one,” I assure him as I wave toward the two remaining chairs.

Liam’s expression falters a bit as he realizes that his plan clearly didn’t work. But I made sure he was going to be seated between me and Matthew, making me glad I asked him and Jesse to join since Liam seems most comfortable around them.

“This is amazing,” Mom says as soon as Liam sits down.

“Best meal I’ve ever had,” Grandma agrees.

Liam nods at them, not seeming to care. His eyes are fully on me as I realize that he’s waiting for my approval.

“Damn, Liam. No wonder Penny does anything you want when you bring her pie,” Matthew says.

“I’ll pretend to get along with you if you bring me food,” Jesse promises. “I’ll even close you in the dead person drawer like you wanted.”

“I’m listening,” Liam replies.

“Jesse, no,” I say, not sure why I have to state this. I take a bite and nod. “Oh my… it’s delicious.”

Liam’s all smiles. I mean… who gives a shit if my grandma says it’s the best meal she’s had in her eighty years of life; as long as I’m happy, that’s all that matters in his eyes. The noise of the family talking fills up the house as people chatter and eat.

“I really want you to start making my lunches,” Matthew decides.

“Matthew, I will make you nothing, seeing as you’ve added nothing to my life besides misery.”

“Maybe I’ll be less miserable to you if you feed me,” Matthew says. “Did you get any of what I made?”

“No. I purposefully avoided it out of fear you’d mistakenly think that it means I tolerate you,” Liam says as Matthew scoops up a spoonful and aims it toward Liam’s mouth.

“I would never eat off your spoon, even if you held the elixir of life in your hand,” Liam claims.

“Liam, try it, for me,” I say and watch as Liam eats right off Matthew’s spoon.

“How did you tame that man?” Jesse asks.

Matthew is nearly giddy with joy that Liam submitted to being fed by him. “Did you like it?”

Liam grunts a reply until he notices me eyeing him. “It… was… edible.”

“Fucking hell, it must be really good,” Jesse says as he takes a bite of it and nods. “That is good. Matthew, I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I can’t. This is the only thing I can make. I can show you if you come over to my house for dinner sometime.”

Jesse hesitates. “You… want to show me that you can’t cook by inviting me over? Weirdly… seems less inviting, but I’m game.”

“Well, we already know how Jesse’s going to leave the department,” Liam says.

“Are you saying I’m going to murder him with my cooking?” Matthew asks. “Why are we even friends?”

“I really don’t know,” Liam says. I see him look down at something, and when I look over at it, I realize he’s glancing at the GPS… but for what?

He notices me looking and quickly switches it over to a picture of Lucille, like he has this idea that I’m enough of a sucker to get sidetracked by a single picture of Lucille. As if that would work at all… but this… I’ve never seen this image…

“Is her tongue sticking out?”

“She was drinking water and looking so ridiculous that I knew you’d love it.”

“Send that to me. That’s my new favorite picture of her.”

“Honey,” Mom says. “Maybe don’t scare this one off with your obsession with your cat.”

“This one? Has he scared another one off with her?” Liam asks, appearing quite eager to know.

“I didn’t scare anyone off. My mom was trying to set me up with some guy who had a cat allergy … like I’d ever get rid of my Lucille for a man like that. Now Liam would do anything for Lucille, wouldn’t you?”

“Sure would, and we can pretend it’s for the cat and not for you.”

“Sure, sure,” I say. “You’re going to grow to love her.”

He doesn’t seem convinced but smiles anyway.

“Liam, was it?” my grandma asks. “What do you do?”

“I’m a detective as well,” Liam answers.

“You must have gotten your money from your parents, then,” Tom says with a laugh.

The look on Liam’s face tells me that he has something up his sleeve to wipe that smirk right off Tom’s face. I’m well aware that he refuses to share much about his life unless it can cause someone else to feel guilty.

“I did. I received all of my parents’ money after they were murdered. I would give every single cent of it away to have them back… to get to spend Thanksgiving with them like you get to spend with your family,” Liam says. I can see him eating up the expression on Tom’s face. He clearly needs to get his kicks from somewhere, even if it includes using his dead family.

Everyone at the table looks like they were punched in the gut while I’m fully aware that Liam is loving every minute of it. Matthew and Jesse both know Liam well enough to understand what’s happening here, but Matthew plays into it.

“It’s okay, buddy. I’m here,” he says as he grabs Liam in a hug.

Liam’s body gets stiff as Matthew squeezes him closer. “I will tie you up and toss you in a pit of spiders if you don’t let go of me,” Liam threatens, but quietly, so the rest of my family who is over there pitying him can’t hear it.

“That sounds really fun, actually,” Jesse whispers back. “They’re just so cute with their little eyes.”

“Ha… ha ha,” Matthew says as he lets go of Liam.

I see Grandma over there sternly talking to Tom as I realize that we are full-grown adults, enjoying all of this far too much.

After we finish eating, Liam decides to take a crazy amount of time to clean up, so I head over to pester him some more.

“What are you looking at on your phone?” I ask him now that the attention is off him and onto how much of a shit Tom is. And Jesse is busy telling Matthew about jumping spiders.

“Just pictures of your cat. Questioning how out of all the cats in the entire world, you got the cutest one,” he says.

“You’re such a liar.”

“I would never lie.”

I hold out my hand. “If you aren’t going to tell me, then let me see your phone.”

“I like it when you’re demanding,” he says as he hands his phone over. I grab him in a headlock so he can’t dodge the facial recognition and then click over to the GPS tracker he was watching. I stare at it for a bit while trying to figure out if I even know this area. It’s not in the same city as us; instead, it’s a city about thirty minutes away. What the hell is he watching… Oh…

He’s watching Caleb Hill. Why am I not even surprised? There’s a button at the bottom to stop tracking, and for a moment, I contemplate pushing it. It’s hard to even understand how I feel about any part of this, so I simply say, “I see,” and hand him his phone back.

Liam’s fixated on me, waiting to see if I’m upset, but I give him a smile to assure him everything is fine, and Mom pulls me away before I can do anything else. As people start to head out, and only a handful linger, Matthew and Jesse help Liam clean up the tables and chairs. When Tom doesn’t immediately choose to help, Grandma sends him over, and I get to watch Liam set six chairs in his arms. Tom nearly drops them but doesn’t want to look weak while Liam proceeds to try to throw out his back to show Tom that he can carry seven chairs.

It’s all quite ridiculous, yet I can’t help but stare and laugh as Liam then tries making Tom carry all of the tables himself. It’s quite enjoyable watching Tom look miserable.

As Jesse and Matthew head for the door, I hear Liam begging them to start a house fire to make the rest of my family leave. And when that doesn’t seem to work, he tries to bribe Jesse to allow him to leave in Jesse’s trunk.

Once they’re gone and no fires have been started, I notice him staring at Tom like he wants to throw him in his trunk and drive around the block a few times. And as my grandma continues to rattle on, I realize that she’s talking about how nice of a man Liam is, which for her means we should think about having kids—as though Liam and I didn’t start dating a little over a month ago.

Liam becomes increasingly fixated on his phone to the point that I take it from him to see what’s so interesting about Caleb Hill being near West Lake Avenue.

The man’s current location is different than where he was previously, but I can’t quite tell what’s of interest until Liam flicks to a report stating where Leanne Peters is currently residing:

3812 West Lake Avenue.

I grab Liam’s wrist as my grandma says something about how an estranged cousin of ours is pregnant and we should just take her child because she’s definitely not fit to have kids, like she thinks I’m fit with my serial killer boyfriend who is stalking some man he wants to murder.

I hurry him back into his bedroom and shut the door. “We need to call the police.”

Liam gives me a look of disbelief. “And tell them that I’m tracking him? That won’t look strange at all. I can’t fathom someone not questioning how or why I started tracking his whereabouts. And anyway, he’s not right outside her house, he’s in a parking lot at a mall that happens to be within sight of it. You said I could do this if I told you about it. This is me telling you about it.”

“What if he hurts her in the time it takes you to get there?” I ask.

“He won’t. He’s not going to walk into her grandparents’ house and give himself away. He’s going to wait until she leaves the house or is alone. Her grandparents have something at the church tonight; they’ll be gone then.”

“How do you know that?”

“Social media. Likely how he also knows it. In all the prior pictures, Leanne doesn’t go with them. So I doubt she will tonight.”

“They would leave a teenager home alone after what happened to her?” I ask.

“Her uncle lives in the house next door. She’ll probably go over there, but all Caleb has to do is wait for her to run over to her grandparents’ house for something she forgot and he’ll grab her. Gabriel, let me go.”

The idea of sending him off with a man who could brutally kill two people just because he has some sick fantasy running through his mind about this Leanne makes me anxious. “What if it’s not him?” I ask.

“You need more proof?”

“I want to hear him admit it,” I decide.

“I… I can record him but that’s risky. Even after deleting it, there could be traces of it left on my phone. I guess I can go get a burner?—”

“No, I want to hear him confess… in person.”

Liam stares at me like I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. “You… want to come… I’m sorry. You want to be… present ? Like in the room. Like you want me… to bring you into the same room as the killer?”

“I just want to hear him confess and then I’ll leave. I’m not saying I don’t trust you. I do. I am well aware that you’d never have the wrong guy; that didn’t even cross my mind. I just… I want to hear what he has to say… for some reason. I want to hear it…”

He continues staring at me like I’ve turned into an alien myself. “Gabriel… you don’t?—”

“Liam, you and I have been in so many rooms together when people have confessed. This is no different. But I just… I want to know what he has to say. Please? I’m not going to start… joining you on your… adventures. I just… want to hear his confession.”

He falls silent and I realize that it’s really quite rare for this man to be at a loss for words. Instead of jokes or humor or anything else he generally uses to exist, he seems anxious. “Gabriel… I’ll call it in anonymously. I’ll go call it in.”

Liam looks nervous. Twitchy. He’s back to staring at the phone like it has all the answers, but he doesn’t seem to know how to move.

“He will just claim he was at the mall if we send someone over. You can grab him, and I’ll meet you there. I will leave after I hear the answers,” I say.

“Yeah, and what happens when you don’t like what you see or hear? Me… telling you about it is completely different from you being there. What happens when you decide that you can’t do this?”

I grab his face in my hands and force him to look away from that phone and meet my eyes. “You are going to go get him and I’m going to meet you at the silo. Do you understand? This isn’t an ‘Oh, this is to make sure I trust you’ thing. This is a… a… something for me thing. I want to look the guy in the eyes. I want to know the man I’m going to hate. I want to be there when he tells you why he did it. Does that make sense? Do you understand?”

“I do, but?—”

“Hurry.”

Liam bites his lip. “I can’t lose you over this.”

“Then you follow what I’m asking you to do,” I say. “Simple as that.”

“Simple as that,” he repeats with a disbelieving laugh. “No part of this feels simple.”

“Life is never simple. I’ll be at the silo when you get there.”

“I’ll send you my location so you can track me and know when to arrive,” he says, and I know he’s wanting to show me that he trusts me enough to let me see where he is at any point in time, but he’s far more worried than he should be. I don’t distrust him—none of this is about that. This is about me feeling comfortable with him doing what he has to do.

Now, I just need to get my family to leave.