62. Jasper

Jasper

“ I hate cleaning up blood. It takes forever,” Tyson mutters under his breath.

It’s the day after Rueben killed Senator Deymar.

We are still at Alekos’ cabin since we have to clean it, or else Alekos will kick our asses or worse.

After months of planning, of Cirro trying to infiltrate a spy in his team, it has finally ended. If I had known Hannah was the key to getting to the senator, we would have gotten to her first, but her security was just as tight as her husband’s. The only thing I regret is that the senator died too fast. He should have suffered for a long time for all the damage he caused, but Rueben has always been a bit impatient.

Jon and Khloe left with Hannah right after Rueben blew off Senator Deymar’s entire face. Rueben was not happy about it and even wanted to kill Hannah, but Jon promised us Hannah wouldn’t say a word about what happened. I don’t trust Hannah—not after abusing Olivia for years and letting her husband and son do the same. But I trust Jon. He might be a Duke, but he is one of the best men I know. Meeting him was a privilege.

Getting rid of Senator Ross proved to be a little trickier since he decided to show up with two well-trained bodyguards, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle.

Once we gathered the bodies, we had to move them and set up a scene that would fool the police and the Dukes into believing the two senators and the bodyguards killed each other. Then we contacted Inspector Raphael and told him everything. Since he is a Lord, he promised to make sure no clue will lead back to us. It’s not the first time he's manipulated evidence. While it is not ethical or moral to do so, he only does so when Dukes are involved in crimes.

Rueben flips Tyson the bird before taking a bite from his burger. “You are the one who let Hannah kill Malaky. So stop bitching about it.”

“Can you stop arguing? I can’t concentrate on counting the money,” Ansel snaps at Tyson and Rueben.

Tyson asking for a ransom in exchange for Malaky’s life was a bluff. We have never asked for money before. Other Lords, sure. But we never needed dirty money from Dukes.

Imagine our surprise when Senator Ross showed up with several bags full of money. I’ve never seen so much money before. Ansel and Rueben have taken the responsibility of checking each bill and making sure none are marked.

“Why? You want to make sure the entire sum is there?” I ask.

Ansel shrugs. “Yeah. Why not?”

Tyson throws more bleach on the hard wood floor. I want to warn him that he’s only destroying the floor by doing so, but he starts rubbing it hard with the wirebrush, so I let him be.

“What are you going to do with all the money?” I wonder.

“Retire to some tropical island,” Ansel says.

I know he’s not being serious, but even so, I ask, “And what are we supposed to do there? Get tanned all day long while we sip cocktails?”

Rueben arches an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound bad.”

Tyson snorts. “Right. You do realize prolonged exposure to the sun will lead to skin cancer?”

“Did you forget Olivia can heal?” Rueben inquires.

Tyson stops cleaning the floor. “She can also resurrect people, but that doesn’t mean she has to use her powers every time we have a paper cut.”

“Paper cuts hurt like hell,” Ansel says. “Besides, Olivia loves to use us as guinea pigs for her powers.”

“That’s not the point,” Tyson growls. “This is fucking useless,” he says and throws the brush to the side. “We are changing the entire floor and painting the room,” he says and goes to Ansel grabbing a couple of bills from his hands.

“I’m not done counting!”

Tyson shrugs. “Who cares how much money is in there? We are not keeping it.”

Rueben takes another bite from his sandwich. After he swallows, he says, “And what are we going to do with it? Burn it? Besides, with a baby on the way and a five-year-old, our expenses have basically doubled.”

“What the fuck do you mean by that!?” Tyson snarls.

Rueben puts his palms in the air, “Calm your tits! I didn’t mean anything bad, just pointing out the obvious. We need to set up college funds unless we want our kids to struggle in life. Children need lots of things. Food, clothes, toys, and the list goes on. I don’t want Spencer, the baby, and any of our future children to lack anything.”

“They won’t!” Tyson promises.

“Maybe we can keep part of it. There are still plenty of things we need to do around the house, and we are still figuring out numbers,” Ansel reminds us.

Tyson folds his arms across his chest. “Fine. We will keep half of it. It’s more than enough to cover expenses with the baby and other urgent payments we need to make. The rest we will donate to an organization that helps women and children escape abusive situations.”

“Sounds good to me,” I agree with Tyson.

“Good. Now, let’s go buy what we need to replace the floor,” Tyson says.

Rueben finishes his sandwich. “Don’t forget about the walls.”

“Yeah. Yeah. We’ll get white paint,” Tyson says.

Ansel chuckles. “Are you trying to turn this place into a hospital?”

“An asylum because you all drive me crazy,” Tyson mutters.

“Even me?” I ask.

Tyson gives me a heated look. “Especially you.”

It’s dark outside when we finally make it back home. Only the porch light is turned on, letting us know everyone else is asleep.

“I’ll go grab Mose. You all wait for us close to the barn,” Tyson says.

“Alright,” I say before Rueben, Ansel, and I head to the barn.

No one says a word. There’s no need, not when we are going to have a serious talk with Mose. While I hate that it’s come to this, I hate even more that I can’t trust him. If he had come to me with his doubts about Ansel, things would have been different. We would not feel like we have to walk on eggshells around him.

It doesn’t take long for Tyson and Mose to appear. From the look on Mose’s face, he already knows what’s about to happen.

“Are you going to kill me?” he asks.

Rueben leans his back against a tree. “Trust me, we debated doing just that, but Olivia cares about you, so you get to live.”

“But we are going to beat the living shit out of you so that you’ll never air our dirty laundry in public again. And if you wonder why we aren't angry with Ansel, it's because he proved he’s loyal.”

Mose nods. “I know. I’m not making any excuses for what I did, but after three months of being trapped inside my body, during which I listened to Ansel and my demon talking and saw them becoming friends, I felt I couldn’t trust either of them. Not only is Ansel a Nephilim, but my demon is Azael’s twin.”

I expected Mose to beg for forgiveness not to reveal that bomb about his demon.

Mose keeps talking. “Before you all go crazy on me, my demon hates Azael. He won’t rest until Azael is defeated.”

“How can we trust a word coming out of your mouth?” Rueben asks what we all think.

“Because Olivia trusts my demon. And because he is the one who almost ripped off Azael’s wings. To this day, they have never fully healed.”

“Did you tell your parents about your demon?” Tyson asks.

Mose winces. “Yeah. But that’s all. Olivia read the email I sent to my parents. You can ask her if I’m telling the truth or not.”

Tyson punches Mose in the stomach hard. “If not for your demon, I would have killed you. You know how much I hate fucking traitors.”

“I’m not a traitor!” Mose defends himself.

“It will take a long time to prove you aren’t one. The next mistake you make will be your last one,” Tyson warns him.