Page 3 of Six for Gold (The Magpie Rhyme #6)

T he whole drive back home, Chad sat ramrod straight behind the wheel. Romeo watched from the backseat, sun visor pulled across both back windows to ensure no one saw him.

“No unnecessary risks,” Chad told him.

It was an over-the-top precaution, but Chad insisted on Romeo traveling in the backseat in darkness. Mercutio struggled to settle in the back of the car until Romeo swung an arm over the seats to pet him on the head, then he laid down in the tightest ball he could manage.

That got a smile out of Chad and a soft look in the mirror.

“Home,” Chad said, turning onto their track road. He exhaled a slow breath. There were no cars outside, but litter, cans, and packets, were noticeable in their field.

The car bounced and juddered along, and Mercutio sat up with a whimper.

“It looks okay.” Chad said, coming to a stop.

Romeo raised an eyebrow. “What were you expecting, the place to be burned to the ground?”

Chad climbed out of the car instead of answering. He moved towards the trunk and flipped the lid for Mercutio to jump down.

It was midafternoon on a grey dreary day.

Romeo ran his gaze along the top of the outhouse as he heaved himself from the car. As far as he could tell, the raven wasn’t there. He listened, but there were no birds at all, only the whistle of wind rushing around the buildings, but regardless of the raven’s no-show, Romeo’s nape still prickled.

It was there.

It was watching.

“Maybe if you try summoning it like a demon,” Chad said.

Romeo glared his way. “You’re not funny.”

Chad patted his thigh and Mercutio glued himself to him as he strode to the front door. Romeo scanned the top of the outbuilding one last time before joining Chad and Mercutio.

They stepped inside. Chad paused as if listening until Romeo gave him an encouraging push. The hallway and the kitchen were exactly how they’d left them, but the living room curtains billowed, and glass sparkled on the rug and the top of the coffee table.

Some had even showered Mercutio’s bed.

“Shit,” Chad gasped, before ushering Mercutio into the kitchen and shutting the door.

Romeo gripped Chad’s hips. “Stay.”

“What?”

“Stay right there.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to check the upstairs in case someone is unfortunate enough to be here,” Romeo squinted. “But don’t worry, if there is someone up there, I’ll drag them downstairs and kill them in front of you so we can both enjoy it.”

“Romeo,” Chad growled in warning.

Romeo released him and rushed upstairs to check no one was in their house.

Chad was still waiting where Romeo had left him when he returned empty handed.

“Disappointed?” Chad asked.

“A little.” Romeo winked. “I know you are too.”

Chad ignored the remark.

“Come on, let’s sort the living room.”

Romeo retrieved the dustpan and brush from beneath the stairs.

Chad crouched down, finding the rock that had been thrown at the window. A piece of paper had been wrapped around it, secured with elastic bands.

“Don’t,” Romeo warned.

Chad didn’t listen, and revealed the note meant for him. “Her blood is on your hands,” he read, then he showed Romeo the black and white print out of Lucinda Hastings. “Oh, and for good measure...”

Chad held the rock out for Romeo to see.

The word monster had been painted on one side of it.

“You’re not a monster.” Romeo whispered. “And I know monsters.”

Chad shook his head, slapping a hand to his hip as he assessed the damage. “At least it only looks like the one window has been smashed.”

Romeo pointed to the empty space the TV usually occupied. “I’ll order another one in a bit.”

Chad did a double take, gawping at the missing TV. “I didn’t even notice.”

Despite having more money than either of them knew what to do with, they didn’t splash out on unnecessary things. The TV was the most expensive thing in the house, and Romeo’s gym was the most expensive thing in the outhouse.

Romeo made a mental note to check the outhouse hadn’t been broken into once they’d cleaned up the mess.

He swept up the glass and snatched the note from the coffee table when Chad wasn’t looking. He didn’t know where the rock had gone but didn’t want to draw attention back to it by asking.

Chad’s phone buzzed, startling him. He clutched his chest as he retrieved it from his pocket. “It’s Josh.”

He glanced at Romeo like he was asking for permission.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?”

Chad shot him a small smile and turned his back as he answered the call. He strode out of the living room, choosing to chat with Josh in the hallway. Romeo searched for the rock, running his hands along the edges of the sofa and the armchair before getting to his knees and checking the floor.

He even peeked out of the smashed window, thinking Chad might’ve thrown it out when he wasn’t looking, but he couldn’t find it.

Chad returned looking pale. The dark smudges beneath his eyes appeared darker, and he shivered.

“What’s happened?” Romeo asked.

Chad blinked. “Nothing. He wants to catch up, that’s all.”

“Right ... and you look like you’re about the pass out because...?”

“What if he knows something,” Chad’s gaze flicked to the window in the direction of the outhouse, the other car and the field of bodies.

“He doesn’t know anything,” Romeo said. “If he did, the police would be screeching up that track road.”

Chad pursed his lips and blew out a breath. “That’s not the most comforting thought. And as the qualified police person here, that’s not how we’d do it unless absolutely necessary. We’d more likely try to lure the suspect into a trap rather than attempt to apprehend them in their own home when they’re potentially dangerous.”

Romeo mulled Chad’s words over. He smirked, “Thank you, detective.”

“I’m not a detective anymore.” Chad said softly.

Romeo almost punched himself. He grimaced. “You’re still qualified to be one.”

“I doubt some people would agree.”

Romeo frowned. “Did Josh sound ... suspicious?”

“No.” Chad rubbed his brow. “He was his usual happy self. He said we can get pizza, play a few games, and he’s desperate to tell me about his disaster date with Angel.”

“Disaster date?”

“Apparently he insulted her new haircut.”

Romeo widened his eyes. “What a bastard.”

“Insulted it by not mentioning it other than to say it looked shorter, apparently that’s an insult. He wants to know whether that only happens in straight relationships.”

Romeo folded his arms. “Remember your reaction when I cut my own hair. You said one word. Wow .”

“I meant wow in a good way.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Chad chuckled. “You’ve gotten much better at cutting your hair.”

“You cut my hair.”

“Exactly.” Chad grinned, but it soon faded.

Romeo studied him. “If you’re not up for it, call him back, cancel.”

Chad took a deep breath. “I want to see him,” he winced, as if expecting Romeo’s jealousy to take over, but he held it in check. He wanted to be Chad’s everything, but the fact was, he couldn’t be. He was missing certain ... traits of the human condition. “And I need to know if he’s made any progress in these missing people’s case.”

“You mean our victims.”

“Yes,” Chad whispered, ducking his head. “We need to be a step ahead, that way I can...”

“Lead him in the wrong direction.”

Chad looked glum as he nodded. He fished his keys from his pocket before crunching them in his fist. “Are you going to be all right?

Romeo smiled. “I’ve got this window to board up, and then I’m going to hit the gym,” he flexed his arm. “I can see the muscle wastage already.”

Chad snorted, “You look handsome as hell like always,” He strode closer. “See you later.”

He slipped his arms around Romeo, and Romeo embraced him back. Romeo closed his eyes at the kiss Chad pressed to his cheek. He let go first, but Chad clung to him for a few seconds longer.

Before Romeo could question it, Chad was backing away.

He left the room, and a few minutes later, Romeo heard the engine of Chad’s car start from the smashed window, then heard it judder up the dirt track.

Romeo eased out a long breath and continued sorting out the living room.

A whimper gave him pause. He frowned and went to let Mercutio out of the kitchen. Mercutio stared longingly at the door.

“Next time.” Romeo murmured.

Despite stealing the TV, the thieves hadn’t found where Romeo had hidden his laptop away, in the bottom grill of his oven that hadn’t worked since they’d moved in, and he ordered a new TV to be delivered the next day.

He checked the other rooms for any signs of a break in, then the outhouse that remained just as he’d left it except a thin layer of dust had settled over the desk and gym equipment.

Romeo ordered shopping to arrive for the next day, boarded up the window with planks he found in the outhouse, did an hour session in the gym, then played fetch with Mercutio.

His eyes kept finding the patch in the field where they’d buried the bodies. Rocks marked their graves. It had been too long since he’d last killed someone.

The monster was restless, pacing at the back of Romeo’s skull. Too much had happened to even broach the subject with Chad.

He was consumed by guilt, worn down by failure and grieving the loss of his identity.

Romeo couldn’t shake a cold case in front of his face especially with Josh wising up to what they’d been doing, and he couldn’t go out and kill at random because of the compromise he’d made. That left him in limbo, with a throbbing head, and twitching fingers and an ever-growing need .

Chad distracted him. Chad gave him a purpose stronger than the need to kill, but without him there it ate away at him until he was running his nails over his hair, cursing his affliction. He hated his dark need, but at the same time loved it, the power, the sense of right . It was euphoric and addictive. Taking someone’s life, controlling their last breath and looking them in the eye as the light left them forever elevated Romeo to a god-like state.

He was meant to feel like that.

A god among men.

As uncomfortable as it was for Chad to accept, some people were made to be killers.

It was inevitable, fate.

But it had been too long.

He paused, fingers clutching his hair as he struggled to remember the last person he’d killed.

“Graham Brennan.”

That was it. Graham had killed his wife and her sister and admitted his guilt to a journal. Romeo had almost wept with relief when he found it while snooping around Graham’s house, proof he could present to Chad who let go of the metaphorical chain he had around him and let him kill.

Then Romeo’s mind had wandered with thoughts of Chad killing, of Chad’s hands around someone’s throat, and his eyes as dark as the night as he squeezed them tight enough for the air trapped in their lungs to turn toxic. Romeo had expected the monstrous part of him to gnash its teeth, hackles raised, growling me, me, me at the thought, but it hadn’t.

It really fucking hadn’t.

The monster had purred the words ours, ours, ours at the thought. Romeo didn’t know whether that part chanted at Chad, at the kill, or a combination of both.

Both.

Chad killing, relishing in it, it was the ultimate fantasy.

Romeo groaned and pushed the thought away before his body could react any more than it already had. He glanced back to the house to the place where Lucinda Hastings had died. Sure enough, it killed his hard on and shoved the monster firmly back in its cage.

Watching Chad be forced to kill hadn’t been arousing in the slightest.

Something had broken in him, and Romeo had seen it.

A snap of something behind his eyes.

And Romeo still didn’t know if he could fix it, or round off the edges, or make Chad accept it, he wasn’t wired in a way to understand that particular break which was why Chad needed Josh, Ally, and Keeley. It was also why Romeo hadn’t attempted to persuade Chad to leave their home and start somewhere new.

Chad believed Romeo learned different languages to distract himself, and it was partly true, but more than that, it was a piece of a bigger plan if ever Josh got too close to finding out the truth. There were other things Romeo had bought online from hidden sites, and dark webpages. Chad didn’t question how or where Romeo spent his money, and he’d put together a ‘Runaway kit’ for whenever the need arose.

Passports, fake birth certificates, cash.

He and Chad were not going to end in that county, in that village, in that house.

But Chad needed to heal before Romeo would even suggest them leaving.

The boarded-up window caught his eye. He sighed. That’s if the public backed off long enough for Chad to heal.

“Come on,” Romeo called over his shoulder. Mercutio picked up his ball and trotted behind Romeo as he went back into the house.

****

C had was late.

Romeo sat in the kitchen with his phone on the table.

He cracked his neck, but it did nothing to remove the tension in his bones.

The clock on the wall ticked away the time until Romeo had to get up and remove the battery before he smashed it into a million pieces.

He relied on his phone, prodding the screen every time it went dark.

His texts and calls had gone unanswered.

Which was extremely unlike Chad.

They had tracking on each other’s phones, and Romeo stared through narrowed eyes at the last location Chad’s phone had pinged. It was a house he didn’t recognize, before the dual carriageway that led into the city and Josh’s place.

Either Chad had stopped on his way back for some reason, or, far more sinisterly, he’d stopped on the way there and Romeo hadn’t known.

“Or he might not have stopped at all,” Romeo groaned.

Phone networks weren’t the most reliable, and that house’s location might just happen to be the last place Chad’s phone got a signal. Chad wasn’t replying to texts or calls because he was driving. It made perfect logical sense, yet Romeo’s nape prickled in warning.

Something wasn’t right.

Romeo snatched his phone off the table and tried Chad again.

He bounced his leg, expecting it to ring, but instead there was a message from the network provider that said the number could not be contacted at that time.

Romeo’s anxiety skyrocketed, and he pushed to his feet.

He strolled out of the room, checking the location of Chad’s phone again only to trip at the lack of one. The white dot, Chad’s pulsating initials inside of it, had gone.

“What the fuck,” Romeo muttered, shutting Mercutio in the kitchen.

He whined, but Romeo ignored him, snatching the keys for their secret car and the set for the outhouse double doors.

He rushed outside, but halfway across the concrete to get to the outhouse, Romeo’s phone buzzed, and he stopped dead. An unknown number flashed on the screen. That explained it, Romeo thought, Chad had broken down, his phone had just died but he’d borrowed someone else’s so he could call Romeo.

“Chad?” he asked, hating the spike of fear that penetrated his voice.

There was a beat of silence, and then a hesitant, “No, this isn’t Chad. My name’s Josh, I’m friends with Chad.”

Romeo pressed his lips in a firm line. The alarm bells were near deafening, but he just about managed to hear Josh.

“We’ve met once before, at a club, we were wearing masks—that’s not important right now—”

“How did you get my number?”

“Chad gave it to me a while ago in case anything ... happened to him.”

Romeo’s breath shook. “And has it?”

He knew, as the words left his lips, he knew.

That gut feeling, the sense of unease.

Romeo’s vision wavered. He crouched before he dropped, bracing one hand on the ground.

“Yes,” Josh said quietly. “Frank, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s ... there’s been an ... incident. Chad’s been taken to St Johns.”

Romeo panted a few breaths at the concrete.

“Is...” Romeo swallowed. He didn’t think he could get the words out. “Is he still alive?”

“Yes, but he’s in a bad way,” Josh’s voice cracked. “You need to get here. You need to get here fast.”

Romeo wanted to ask more, but he couldn’t. Pressure built in his chest, squeezing his lungs.

“Hurry, Frank.”

He ended the call to Josh, and went down on all fours, wheezing as he tried to slow his breathing. His heart thundered, rushing blood through his ears, and he didn’t know whether he was closer to passing out or throwing up, but he pressed his forehead to the ground, needing the cold and hard concrete to anchor him. They’d been here before. After Marc, Chad had been in bad way, but he was a survivor.

But Romeo had heard it.

The tone of devastation in Josh’s voice.

His insistence that he needed to get there fast, implying if he didn’t, he’d be too late.

Too late for what.

To say goodbye.

“No,” Romeo growled the ugly thought away. “There is no goodbye between us.”

He sat back on his heels as his breathing eased.

And that was when he saw it.

On the very edge of his vision, black wings fluttered as the raven disappeared onto the outhouse roof.

There was every chance he’d imagined it. It might not have been real, but it was there .

This shadow. This dark omen.

It was a monster, like him, a god in its own world, and it was there, watching him.

He got to his feet and unlocked the outhouse doors.

Chad was a survivor, Romeo told himself, whatever had happened, he’d make it through to the other side, and if he didn’t, Romeo wouldn’t wait long to join him.

He yanked off the sheet covering the car, pulled on a black hoodie and slipped on his gloves.

Romeo took off down the dirt track, adjusting his mirror so he could see the outhouse roof, but the raven, or what he’d thought was the raven, was invisible in the darkness.