Page 30 of A Simple Mistake (Deadly Mistakes #1)

THIRTY

Gabriel

Present

“I’m… Liam, I’m so sorry,” I say, voice soft.

“You don’t have to apologize. It happened a long time ago,” Liam responds, as though time could just brush off something so horrific. I can’t fathom having to see my parents killed in front of me. I can’t imagine being stuck in the same room with my mom’s body. And now I know why he understood what it felt like to be at someone else’s mercy.

“Time doesn’t make it all disappear. And you don’t have to pretend that everything is fine.”

“Will you comfort me if I say it’s not?” he asks with a teasing tone.

Of course he’s trying to breeze past all of it with a joke. “Liam.”

His smirk drops and he watches me for a moment before leaning back. “It… was pretty fucked up, and I was pretty fucked up for a while after. I’m not going to say it paved the path for me. I’m not going to claim I never had fucked-up thoughts before it happened. But without them in my life, it was like that darker part of me that I’d ignored so well blossomed and flourished. I had killed the one guy when I stabbed him in the throat. The other had chased me out into the field where he disappeared after I’d crawled out into the road.

“The police were obviously able to identify the dead man, but there was nothing tying him to the two others. The people he worked with at one of my father’s restaurants all showed up to work on time and were definitely not suffering from any wounds.”

I look at him in surprise. “The man still had a job? I guess I was under the impression that they were pissed about something… and my mind immediately went to them having been fired or something.”

“Right? That’s the route the police went as well. They assumed the same thing and dug deep into all the people who’d been laid off or fired. But the thing was… no one had been fired or laid off in months. The last person who was fired was a woman who had just been hired in and hadn’t shown up even once on time. It was a literal dead end.

“I was hospitalized for a while, then shoved through therapy and foster care. I remember people commenting how well I was doing and how well I was adjusting, but it was all this… act. Because in my mind, all I could focus on was how much I wanted to kill the one who got away. Of course I didn’t act on it; I assumed the police would find him and make him pay.

“One day I woke up after dreaming about burying that fucking glass into the neck of the man who got away and something possessed me to leave the place where I was staying and wander back home. I couldn’t get myself to go inside. I stood outside the house and stared at it like I thought that maybe the door would open, and my mom would go, ‘Liam, what are you doing out there? Aren’t you cold?’ And I remember being really fucking cold. I dropped to my knees, and I sobbed until I couldn’t cry anymore. Then I got up and walked around back, trying to find that piece of glass. I tore down the bricks around the porch and crawled around under the porch, knowing it was there.

“I spent all night looking for that glass. I honestly didn’t even know what I’d do with it when I found it. Did I want it to protect myself? Did I want it to kill him? I was fucking obsessed.

“I couldn’t understand where it could have gone, but I finally found it wedged between the wood flooring and the support beams. By the time I found it, it was light out. I knew the home I was staying at would be well aware that I was missing, but I didn’t even care. I remember being unable to look away from it. It had been protected from the weather, so the blood was still smeared across it. But what caught me more than anything was this single fingerprint in the middle. It wasn’t mine… my fingerprints are all loops.” He reaches out and grabs my hand before kissing the tips of my fingers. “And you have tented arches, which are quite rare. I think it just highlights how special you are.”

With my free hand, I grab one of his and look at his fingers. I’m well aware how important fingerprints can be, but I’m not sure I’ve ever paid any attention to my own. My fingers slide over the tips of his and then down to his palm where he has a deep scar that races across his skin. I know now that it’s from the glass he’d held on to so tightly… the glass that saved his life.

“Were they able to identify him from the fingerprint?”

“Yes and no. It was smudged. They narrowed it down… and then nothing ever came of it. To me, it seemed like they’d given up or forgotten about it. I don’t know if they actually had or not… but to me, it felt like no one cared. And I was thrown back into life, expected to keep moving as the world continued on around me. I was expected to fit into a foster home, go to school, keep up my grades. Pretend like everything was normal. I became obsessed. I painted the picture of being a perfect child while my thoughts spun and twisted into unhealthy obsessions. I planned how I’d find him, how I’d kill him, how I’d get rid of the body. I researched ways to dispose of his body and narrowed down the possible suspects until I was certain who it was.

“Every day he rode a bus, so I started waiting at the bus stop with him. The first time he saw me, I could see the look in his eyes, but he played it off like he didn’t know a fucking thing. I watched him, observed him, and when I was positive that it was the right man, I turned to him and said something like ‘I can’t wait to drag you down to hell.’”

Liam is staring outside the car window as he speaks. “I remember him catching my eyes and laughing. Just laughing as he got onto the bus, so fucking confident and cocky that nothing would ever happen to a man like him. And while the bus stopped at every stop between there and his house, I got into the car I’d borrowed and parked it down the street from his house. I broke in and waited for him to come home. I had to wait longer than I thought I would; he must have stopped for drinks because he smelled like alcohol when I got close enough to kill him.

“It wasn’t pretty. It was barely successful… but the… relief I felt. It was like the weight that had been crushing my body just… went away. So there you go. Maybe you can use it as an excuse for the way I am. Maybe not. I really don’t care. I just care whether or not you like me.”

I don’t know what to say to him for a long moment, and in that time, he kisses the tips of my fingers again.

“You have such beautiful fingers,” he murmurs.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t even know if that’s the right thing to say. I don’t know what the right thing to say is. I just… no one should have to go through all of that.”

“Like I said, it happened many years ago.”

“Time makes things better… but it doesn’t fix everything. It doesn’t change the fact that you still have to live with what happened to you. And for that, I’m sorry,” I say as I lean forward and cup his face before pressing my forehead against his. “I’m sorry you’ve dealt with and continue to deal with so much. I’m sorry everything is so hard to deal with.”

“Nothing is hard when you’re around…” Liam hesitates and then a grin explodes across his face as he comprehends what he’s just said.

“Don’t say it,” I warn with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m trying not to. I’m trying to keep it sweet like I planned. But… I’m just… Gabriel… I can’t not say it.”

“No, keep it sweet. Its intended purpose was quite sweet.”

“There’s one thing?—”

I clamp my hand over his mouth. “Sweet words are quite lovely. Thank you.”

Liam just kisses the hand over his mouth in response. Then he melts across the seat so he’s lying on my lap while cradling my hand.

“Is any part of that comfortable? The middle console has to be jabbing you in the back.”

“Your presence makes the pain worth it.”

“I’m not sure it does,” I say as I reach down and slowly run my fingers through his hair. “Do you still have to kill?”

“Some people deserve to die.”

I don’t know the right response to that. How do you tell a man who watched his mother’s head get bashed into a wall that people don’t deserve to die? It’s quite clear the two men weren’t in it for just the money. They wanted to fuck over his father, and for what purpose? Do men like that truly deserve to live?

“Enough of that nonsense. They reply about the hand yet?”

I look down at my phone and realize that they had, but I missed it while he was telling his story. “It is Jeffers’ hand.”

“Interesting. I mean… I guess it depends how dedicated to her work she is,” he says.

“I doubt she’s dedicated enough to cut her hand off. Wouldn’t you cut like a finger off or something?”

“I can help. I’m good at cutting fingers off.”

I glower at him. “Don’t remind me, Mr. I Didn’t Know How Else to Open the Phone.”

He’s grinning. He knows what he’s done. He’s a very smart man.

“So we need to be one step ahead of this asshole. Where, oh where, would he keep a person?” Liam muses.

“The place he kept me was just some random rental right in the middle of the city.”

“Sometimes the hardest thing to find is something right in front of you all along if you’re not looking in the correct spot.”

“I guess… what I’m most confused about is why Tobias didn’t have any wounds from the night you attacked him,” I say.

“Because it wasn’t him. It threw me a bit because the mannerisms and speech patterns were similar, but I think the tone was different. It was either a man who was being told what to do and say or a man who has spent so much time with Tobias that he’s mimicking him.”

“You don’t think it’s the other way around?” I ask. “That Tobias is mimicking someone else?”

“What do you think? You’re the one most likely to have interacted with both of them.”

I close my eyes and drop myself back into that room. I try to think about the way he talked to me, the way he interacted with me, and it makes my stomach tighten just doing so. “If there were two men, they were quite similar. I did notice that sometimes he liked to sit and stare at us… take photographs of us… talk with us. Other times he was more standoffish. But that doesn’t mean it was two different people. I only saw the man you were fighting from a distance. I don’t think I even heard him clearly speak. If that was the second man, he might not have ever interacted with me.”

“Very true.”

From where Liam is still lying on my lap, he calls Michaels and puts him on speaker when he answers. “Michaels, Gabriel and I firmly believe that while Tobias is under the watch of his father, something is going to happen. I don’t think it’s going to happen to Jeffers. He wants to keep her as leverage. But I think everyone in the department needs to be wary and careful.”

“Are you harassing Tobias and the chief?”

“Harassing is a bit much, wouldn’t you say?” Liam asks.

“You live to harass, so I think not.”

“You live to be the sunshine in my life.”

Michaels scoffs, and I decide I need to redeem this conversation before he simply hangs up.

“Sir, I really think someone’s life might be at risk as we speak. We firmly believe there are two acting participants, and while Tobias is under strict watch, the other will do something to draw the attention off him. Please keep an eye on everyone and don’t let anyone go out alone.”

“I know the location of everyone at the moment besides you two.”

“We’re sitting outside of the chief’s house stalking his son,” Liam states.

“I swear to god. I thought you were joking when I asked if you were harassing them,” Michaels says, sounding flustered. “Why are you harassing them when we’re confident it’s not him?”

“Why are you so confident?” I ask.

Michaels hesitates, probably because he’s used to dismissing whatever Liam says but not me. It’s weird how Liam is almost always right or knows the correct answer, but his delivery makes people not listen as well as they should. I’ll have to bring this up with him just so I can make fun of him some more.

“We need more evidence,” Michaels finally says.

“Right… so how can we get more evidence if we’re prohibited from looking into him? If Tobias was anyone else, would you stop us from looking into them?” I ask.

Michaels sighs. “You can look into him, but please don’t harass him. At this point there is nothing besides Paige’s speculation that leads you to believe that he’s involved. Yes, he lives in the area the body was found, but he wasn’t living there when the woman was murdered.”

“But he moved closer to be near her,” Liam says.

“Or he just coincidentally moved into a house near a body and a man who turned out to be an abuser who would eventually kill his family before he ended up murdered himself.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.”

“Paige… just be aware that the chief is not pleased by this. We pulled some strings to get you back in and have looked the other way on a few things. Don’t give him a reason to fire you.”

“Ah, that’ll look super good. Fire the person who figured out your son is a serial killer. Bet the papers will have a blast with that.”

I clear my throat. “To get back to the earlier question. Were you able to do a district-wide meeting to verify that people understand how important it is for them to be careful and not be alone?”

“Yeah, everyone but you two were there. You two were off causing trouble. Most of the team is still here. A few went home, including Robinson and Fields.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

Michaels just grumbles some more before hanging up, and I notice that Liam looks especially pleased when Michaels is especially annoyed.

“I bet Chris is the accomplice. And that’s why he went home,” he says as Lucille jumps from the back seat onto his chest. She flicks her tail back and forth, obviously wanting some scratches. I reach out to pet her as I glance at Liam.

“I bet you’re hating on Chris because he was gracious enough to open his home to me, and by doing so, put himself in great danger.”

“Maybe.”

“ Why ?”

“I don’t know, Gabriel. I’m a horrible person. I think we’ve already come to an understanding about this.”

“You’re not a horrible person. Maybe you’re easily jealous and possessive, though,” I say as I trail a finger over his forehead before hesitating. “Why the hell would Robinson go home?”

“Right? He knows that he should be at my beck and call. He owes me his entire life.”

“No, his wife and kids are out of town, so he said he was coming in late and working into the evening to make up for it.”

“It always fascinates me that you know things about people.”

“You were there when he told us!”

“Was I? I feel like you’re making that up. Anyway, if he’s foolish enough to fall for the same trick twice, then he deserves whatever is coming to him,” Liam says, until he gets a good look at my face. “And by that I mean, please hold while I don my Superman suit and rush to his rescue. It’s been proven I can rush faster if I get a kiss.”

I lean down and kiss him as he pushes up to meet me partway. Since his head is upside down with the way he’s lying, it’s a bit awkward, but he still apparently deems it good enough. Lucille looks put off that I didn’t kiss her instead, so I lean forward and kiss her as she bumps her nose against me.

“I need a second kiss now that you wiped my kiss off on the cat.”

“We’re in a hurry,” I remind him.

“I forgot. I forgot,” he says as I pull Lucille off him, and he sits up to start the car. “You better not kiss that cat again.”

I kiss her three more times as I look him in the eyes.

“Dammit, the cat wins again.”

“She’s not winning .”

“She’s definitely winning something,” he mutters as he calls Robinson.

There’s no answer, so Liam begins driving.

I feel a bit anxious about the whole situation. “I should call it in, right? Or maybe he’s just in the shower or something and we end up wasting resources on him when they need to be focused on Jeffers? But what if we’re a second too late?”

“No, don’t call it in,” Liam says.

“And your reasoning? Because I’m positive you care very little about wasting outside resources.”

“I’m sure that’s true. It’s because I want to catch whoever is helping him.”

“Right… but if we send the police there, they could also catch them. It would be a more sure-fire way to catch them.”

“I want Tobias to think he can get back the person helping him. If the police catch the person helping Tobias, he’s going to remain quiet and draw back. There’s no sense in showing himself if there’s nothing to gain from it.”

“We would be going against protocol,” I say.

“Do you want to keep more people from dying or do you want to follow the law and know that every second we fuck off is a second someone could die?”

“What if it won’t stand in court because we’ve done something wrong?”

“Then I’ll kill him. Simple as that.”

Simple, my ass. “We’re just checking up on Robinson,” I say, like I have to give myself a reason to go against what we should do.

I don’t quite know where Robinson lives but Liam seems to. It doesn’t take us long to get there and find a spot to park on the side of the road. Leaving Lucille in the back seat, we get out and head toward the house.

“Your cat is probably going to shit in my car,” Liam decides.

“She might.”

“You’d probably still tell her she did a good job and kiss her.”

“I probably would,” I say with plenty of sarcasm.

“And then there I am, promising to burn the world down for you, and I only get one kiss.”

“You’ll get more when we know that Robinson is okay,” I say.

He heads toward the back of the house, hesitates, looks at me, then hesitates some more.

“Yes?”

“I’ve changed my mind. I’d like you to wait in the car with the windows locked. Maybe the trunk so no one even knows you’re in the car. That work for you?”

“Weirdly, it does not. Why don’t I go knock on the front door, and you stand at the back?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And if they run out the front door?”

“I’m fast as fuck. I’ll catch them.”

“I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen you run. You saunter cockily.”

“Thank you.”

“Not sure that was a compliment,” I mutter.

“I’m like the killer in horror movies where the victims run as hard as they can, and the killer just walks after them and still reaches them.”

I just sigh.

“If you’re insistent on going with me, we’re both going in the back door.”

“Knocking, you mean?” I ask a moment before he fucking kicks it as hard as he can.

“What the hell, Liam? What if he’s perfectly fine?”

“Then I’m probably going to beat him up a bit for wasting my time,” he says, as if Robinson asked us to come over here. Honestly, I think he’s still quite pissy about Robinson attacking me. I mean… I’m not quite thrilled about it. But the man thought his family’s lives were at stake.

There’s really no sense in reminding Liam of this. He knows quite well.

“Let’s at least check if the door is locked and… oh, you’re just going to pick the lock… did that hurt your foot, kicking it like a mule?”

“No… my foot is phenomenal. I just wanted to show you my kicking skills and my lockpicking skills.”

I try to pretend that it doesn’t impress me in the slightest as he lets himself into the house.

Liam stops so suddenly that I slam into him.

“Don’t step on the blood,” he says. And nothing else. No “Oh no, there’s blood!” or “Robinson could be hurt!” Just a casual, “Don’t step on the blood.” I feel like he’d have had more emotion to his voice if there was a worm in my path. Or maybe he’s trying to be quiet and say as little as he can.

“Honestly, who’s this sloppy?” he asks, tossing the previous idea of him trying to remain quiet right out the window.

I have my gun out, held tightly in my hand as I follow close behind him when he steps into the next room. Robinson is strapped down on the table, arms and legs bound to the table legs. I can’t tell whether he’s dead or unconscious, but I’m afraid to reach for him until we know where the killer is. Just when I think he might be dead, I see the rise and fall of his chest.

But Liam isn’t looking at him at all; his eyes are fixated on the man sitting in the corner. The moment I see the white clothes and mask, my stomach clenches, like someone’s grabbed each end of it and decided to wring it out. I feel nauseous and the air in my lungs seems to have been knocked out of me.

Even though Liam can’t possibly see me, he reaches behind himself and snags my arm, pulling me in close. The feeling of his fingers against my skin soothes me and reminds me that I can breathe.

“I have to cut off the head,” the man in white says. “I’ll cut off your head too. And yours. You weren’t supposed to get away.”

“I’m not a doctor, but I think you cut the wrong area to be trying to remove the head,” Liam says as he eyes Robinson who is bleeding from a cut on his arm and what looks like a hit to the head.

The man seems to be fixated on Liam, although it’s a little hard to tell with the mask. His voice and movements are extremely similar to Tobias’s. Is it mimicked to throw us? Are they related?

“You’re not a killer, are you?” Liam asks. “That’s Tobias’s job, isn’t it? He sent you here to cut off the head but you’re not a killer. You do the other work, don’t you?”

The man jumps up and rushes toward the door, but Liam cuts him off. The man swings a knife, trying his hardest to catch Liam as I pull my gun up and aim it at him, but Liam’s in the way.

“Get the fuck out of my way,” the man snaps.

“Where are you going?” Liam asks. “Don’t you want to be with Tobias?”

He rocks back on his heels and turns his attention to me. “I’ll destroy you both for what you’ve done.”

“What exactly have we done?” Liam asks as he steps in closer. “Explain this so I can better understand what we’ve done?”

The man is like a cornered animal, prepared to fight, but I’m not quite sure he knows what he’s fighting for.

“What you’ve done is taken the man I love and tortured him and terrified him, and the only outcome you have at the end of this is lying on that table with your fucking head cut off,” Liam continues.

“You’re all monsters. All of you deserve to die. You’re all going to die, and Tobias is going to save us from the monsters,” the man says. “And I will save him… he’s forgiven me, even though I’m a monster too. I’m a monster just like my father.”

“I sure as fuck haven’t forgiven you,” Liam growls, and I realize letting him loose with this man was a horrible idea. He had all these plans to use him, but now, all I see is a predator’s attention fixated on their prey.

If it weren’t, I think he’d be hit with the same realization that I am.

“You’re not,” I say as I reach out to Liam while speaking to the man. “You’re not like your father. Your father killed someone he loved deeply. And yet you can’t even kill a man you don’t even know… you’re William, right? We tried so hard to find you. We did everything we could to figure out what happened to you.”

He’s staring at me now. “No… no… you were going to hurt me. You still want to hurt me.”

“No, we want to end this,” I assure him.

William rocks back on his heels as his grip tightens on the knife. Liam doesn’t care if he turns out to be a fucking saint; he’s prepared to kill him.

“Liam. We had a plan.”

“I have a new plan,” he says.

“No, you don’t. You promised me, and if you won’t keep that fucking promise, I’m going to turn around right now and walk out and you will never speak to me again,” I snarl.

He hesitates before slipping behind William and ripping the knife out of his hand. He wraps an arm around his neck while the other slips into William’s pocket.

“You don’t want to move or you’ll never see Tobias again,” Liam growls. He pulls the phone out and scrolls through it before turning it to face William. I see that he’s FaceTiming someone and discover who as Tobias answers the phone.

“What the fuck are you doing—” He freezes as he sees Liam.

“He llo , Tobias,” Liam says, sounding far too excited.

The expression on Tobias’s face shifts into something sinister. “Let him go.”

“Sure, sure, of course. I would love to, but instead of fucking off, you’ve continually made my life harder and threatened to take what is most precious to me away.”

“I will hand deliver this fucking album of yours to the police,” he growls.

“You think that’s more important than William here?” Liam asks as he tips William’s mask off and drops it onto the floor.

Tobias’s expression twists into some kind of cruel smile. “You would risk everything?—”

“You’re asking if I would face prison time to keep Gabriel safe? I would do much worse to keep him safe. So much worse. You don’t even want to know what I’d do. But if you’d like to test how far I’d go, just say the word.”

“You are a fucking detective. You…” He grits his teeth.

“What? You have the album, don’t you? You know what I can do.”

Tobias hesitates as he seems to gather his thoughts—or maybe his threats. “I will stop targeting them. I will tell you where that bitch is, and I will never look at Gabriel again if you let me have him.”

Liam laughs. “You think that’s enough?”

“Liam, please, take it,” I urge. I’m well aware that whether or not Liam takes it is all on him, but I think this might be our only opportunity to get Jeffers back to us.

“Fine, we’ll do a simple trade,” Liam says.

“Where?”

“The woods behind your house.”

“Fine. I will know if you call the police. There’s absolutely no way my father wouldn’t be alerted if you do. If you make a single fucking mistake, I will deliver Jeffers with her head unattached,” he snarls. “Meet me there in ten minutes. I’m going to cut off a piece of her for every minute you’re late. Don’t fuck with me.”

“I think I already did,” Liam says as he hangs up the phone.

“Did you screen record all of that?”

Liam freezes before giving me a big smile, like that’ll make everything better. “Gabriel… sometimes… when I’m angry, I don’t always think right… and weirdly, this is one of those times.”

“But you have a plan now?” I ask as William just stands there. He doesn’t fight. He doesn’t move. He just stands there.

“We meet him and make the exchange.”

“We’ll call the police first, right? Just make sure it’s very clear how careful they have to be to not tip him off that they know.”

Liam looks less than pleased by this idea but gives me a curt nod. “Fine, fine. Robinson, are you still among the living?”

I hurry over to Robinson, who isn’t moving. “We need to call an ambulance.”

“Yes, but if he’s not in the process of dying, we’re going to call them as we leave. Any delay and Tobias will have time to plan some more shit or start dicing. We can’t wait here with him if he’s stable.”

I give Robinson a gentle touch and he jerks awake. Fear crosses his face before relief takes over when he sees that it’s us.

“Oh fuck… oh fuck…” he mutters as he starts shaking.

“Robinson, buddy, pal. We’re going to untie you and you’re going to patiently wait for an ambulance, got it?” Liam says.

Robinson looks alarmed by that. “Please don’t leave me!”

“We have to move quickly to save Jeffers,” I say apologetically as I hurriedly work at cutting his binds while Liam drags William out the door.