“So you knew about Julie anyway?” I’d tried so hard to keep her away from them, and I’d failed. On an epic scale.
He shrugged a shoulder. “We knew you were staying somewhere away from your house. We knew the address. It’s registered to an elderly couple, so we figure the tenant is sub-letting, so we didn’t have details of who it was. We saw a petite dark-haired girl living there. She’s… fuck… she’s almost fucking child-sized.”
I groaned. My aching head was finally starting to make four, when I tried to add two and two.
“You thought she was a kid. And my text messages, which were private, by the fucking way, were sent to the same kid. You thought Little Angel was some pervy paedo name, for a child I was grooming. You fucking morons.”
Seb snarled at me, but Samuel held up a hand.
“With all due respect, bruv… if you go back over your texts, especially the most recent ones… it sounds like you’re coercing a little girl to wear her fluffy pyjamas, so you can sneak in and fuck her in them. Without mummy and daddy finding out. It’s pretty incriminating stuff.”
“And that shit is fucked up, no matter what her fucking age is. Pyjamas? Please.” Seb muttered, and Cass giggled. She actually fucking giggled.
“You people are fucking deranged. You make some fucking stupid judgement, based on a bunch of incorrect assumptions, and you were going to kill me? My god… I was minutes away from being murdered, for being something I wasn’t.”
Samuel nodded. “I’m very sorry about all of this, Butch. You have to know, pretty much the only thing that would push us to extremes like this, would be any kind of abuse to children. And the evidence was pretty damning. You’d never mentioned this woman to us. You’d never mentioned any connection between her and Cass. You’d never admitted to seeing anyone. You’d been sneaking around, hiding things.”
“What, like I’d tell you people anything personal about me? I’d say I’d rather die, but that prick might take it literally.” I glared at Seb as I spoke, and he grinned suddenly, making a face that said he agreed with my statement.
“Look… I admit, my messages with Julie might look a little suspicious, but I honestly thought they were private, just between the two of us. We had a… discussion this morning, where she thought she had to push me away, because, you see, I’ve had to lie to her about pretty much every fucking thing possible, thanks to you bastards. Julie… she’s… fragile. I don’t want anything bad to come anywhere near her. She needs safety, and security, and peace. I want to give her that.”
Cass sighed. “She… you said she’s cutting herself again.”
The brothers exchanged a look. “She needs help, you’ll get her help. We’ll cover it.”
Cass smiled at them, but she cried a little too.
My legs finally felt like they might hold me, so I tried pushing up from the hard tiled floor, and found myself being offered a hand. Seb. I frowned at it for a moment, and he laughed.
“It’s legit, bruv. We were wrong, and I’m really glad about that. I actually kind of like you.”
I let him pull me to my feet, and clutched my aching ribs after, because Jesus fuck they hurt.
“You’ll forgive me if that thought horrifies me beyond measure.” I muttered, taking a few steps back, because he was too close.
He shrugged. “If it helps, I’m really glad I didn’t cut your nads off, before we let you speak.”
Jesus. These guys were insane.
“You know… you guys might want to make sure you’re not completely fucking wrong before you attack people, and try to kill them. Just a thought. I figured you might know that shit by now.”
Seb actually looped my good arm over his shoulder, and let me lean on him as we walked out of the kill room that I never thought I’d leave, while consciousness remained in my body.
“So this bird of yours… she really as tiny as she looks? I mean… she looks young, bruv.”
I watched as Samuel led Cass out, hand in hand, just ahead of us.
“You’re the sick fuck, you know. And yes, she’s younger. She’s half my age, but she’s still a fucking adult, okay?”
He snorted, as we approached their car. “So it’s like a daddy thing? You tell her off, and send her to bed with no cookies? That kind of thing?”
“Does he have an off switch?” I asked Samuel, as we waited for him to help Cass into the front seat first. He laughed, turning to look at me.
“Look, genuinely, I’m sorry about this. We jumped to a sick conclusion, based on a whole lot of fucking information that it turns out, really didn’t add up. For the record, I’m glad we didn’t kill you.”
Seb opened the rear car door, and stepped aside, presumably for me to get in.
“Uh… don’t you have minions who can drive me back?”
He snorted. “Get in the fucking car, Butch. We’ll have the doc meet us at yours. You seem to have hurt your ribs again.”
“Why didn’t you people just ask me? Why didn’t you just fucking ask her? I have been killing myself, trying to live two lives, one with her, and a completely separate one as your fucking bitch, and doing whatever I could to stop the two crossing over. I didn’t want you to know about her. I didn’t want her on your ‘it’s easier to just kill them’ list, because I fucking need her.”
Seb practically shoved me in the car and slammed the door, walking around to the rear driver’s side, to get in, with Samuel getting in the driver’s seat.
As he stared at me, and then looked in the front of the car, he suddenly groaned, and kicked the back of Samuel’s seat. “You bastard. Cass should be back here with me.”
Samuel chuckled quietly, as he steered us out of the kill centre’s electric-fenced yard.