“We’re at the graveyard,” I go on. “Higham’s here, a forensics team, cops.”
Silence.
“We’ll find him, Danny,” Brad says, slumping back in his chair. “And when I find out who’s done this, I will cut their flesh away with a blade in wafer thin slices.”
I truly believe he will. If Danny doesn’t get to them first.
Silence.
Brad and I look at each other, all out of words. I can literally feel Danny’s bubbling anger dripping through the line. This is a message, like the call from The Bear, like the newspaper article, to entice us back to Miami. He can’t end us if he doesn’t know where we are. Now he’ll definitely know.
He’s in for the win. But does he know that moves like this only drive us harder? Stirs the beasts inside? Shakes up the darkness that’s dormant?
I can feel it rousing within me, and it’s not even my father’s grave. My teeth grit. My father couldn’t have a grave. There was nothing left of him. Or my mum. Or my sister. My fist clenches, and I wedge it into the door, pushing my weight through it before I put it through the windscreen.
My phone ringing saves the glass, and I try to clear the rage fogging my sight to focus on the screen. And when I see the number, I exhale slowly. “It’s him,” I say quietly. “Can you keep your mouth shut or does Brad need to hang up on you?”
Danny snarls in answer, and I go ahead and connect the call.
Silence.
We’re back to that game, me waiting, him waiting. I’ve got all the time in the fucking world. He, however, does not. Not if he doesn’t want me to trace him.
“James,” he says, the distorter making me wince.
“You have the pleasure of us all. Say hello to Danny and Brad.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have all come back on my account.”
He doesn’t need to know that Danny isn’t physically here. Something tells me he will be soon, anyway. “I,” Danny hisses, “am going to fucking kill you, and it will be the slowest I have ever killed a man, I promise you.”
He laughs, and it’s like blades across my skin. “We’ve already established that none of you are very good at killing me.”
“Where the fuck is my father’s body!” Danny bellows, losing his shit.
The Bear laughs harder, tormenting us all. “Oh, your father’s? My apologies. I thought you were looking for someone else’s remains.” He hangs up, and Brad looks at me, confused.
But I am far from confused.
What. The. Fuck?
“Beau,” I say quietly.
“Fucking hell,” Brad whispers.
“No,” Danny says, and I hear his deep inhale, along with Brad’s low curse.
I stare out of the window, my brain on the drag, my body seeming to fail me, nothing working, my mind refusing to give my hands the directions they need to call her.
“James!” Brad yells, and I look at him. “Wake up, man.”
I blink down at my mobile. I don’t dial Beau. I dial Fury instead, and he answers swiftly. “Where are you. Exactly?”
“Ten paces behind Beau. Walking into the churchyard.”
“Stop her,” I order, as Brad starts the car and skids off. “I don’t care how you do it, force if necessary, but do not let her get any closer.”
“Got it.”