Chapter Forty-Four

Bryce and Heather

Dan

The officer behind the front desk at the police station finally tore his eyes away from his magazine to look up at me with a blank expression through the glass.

When he didn't say a word, I tried to fix my charming smile on my face. I was still tense though, so I was pretty sure it wasn't all that charming. More like I was just baring my teeth at him.

"Hey there. I'm here to see Officers Banner and Hopkins."

He heaved a huge sigh, like I was really inconveniencing him, and dragged the desk phone closer. "Name?"

"Dan Ewen."

"Reason?"

"I got flashed in the park by a clown," I told him smoothly. "They asked me to come in and talk to the sketch artist."

It was the secret code used by supernaturals in this town when we wanted to talk to the cops about something humans couldn't know. Officers Banner and Hopkins were both supernaturals—an incubus and a succubus—so they'd know what it really meant.

Plus, they were regulars at Goliaths. Big fans, actually.

The officer's bushy brows slowly rose as he eyed me. "You got flashed by a clown."

"Yep."

"So what'll you be describing to the sketch artist?" His mouth twitched into a little smirk. He clearly thought he was hilarious. "His big red nose, or…"

I forced out a terse laugh. "Good one."

He finally lifted the phone to his ear and dialled. I glanced around, drumming my fingers impatiently on the counter as he spoke in a low, bored voice.

"Take a seat," he said flatly as he hung up. "They'll be down in a minute."

"Thanks." I wandered over to the seating area and perched on the edge of a chair, still tense.

I wondered how Rafe was feeling and if he'd had to deal with many people seeing his eye and asking what had happened.

I stiffened and my knee started bouncing when a thought suddenly popped into my head. What if Frank and Beans had been waiting for him in the parking lot at work to mug him again? Or threaten him?

My heart giving a mighty thud, I yanked my phone out of my pocket and hurriedly sent him a text.

Are you okay?

I stared down at my phone until he replied thirty seconds later.

Yep, fine. Seriously. I promise.

"Mr. Ewen?"

My head snapped up and I saw Officers Banner and Hopkins walking toward me. They were in their human skins, obviously, but I still recognised them.

"Thanks for coming in." Banner shook my hand when I stood up, while Hopkins shot me a tiny grin from behind him. "If you'd like to come with us…"

"Let's catch that clown bastard," Hopkins added, slapping me on the back as I followed Banner to the door.

None of us spoke as they led me through the station to an interview room. While Hopkins closed the door, Banner turned off the cameras. Then they both turned to look at me.

"Dullahan Daaan!" Banner whooped, stepping forward to slap my palm and pull me into a bro hug. "How's it going, buddy?"

"Uh yeah. Not bad, thanks, Bryce," I said as I did the same to Hopkins. "Good to see you, Heather."

"Saw your match the other week," Bryce told me eagerly. "When the Horseman's Steed teamed up with the Rolling Rimmer to take you down. Man, I wanted to knock his block off for double-crossing you like that."

It's scripted, Bryce.

I managed a chuckle, shrugging. "Made for a good show though, right?"

"Oh yeah, fucking fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat," Heather said. "But I hope you and the Steed make up soon. I love your usual entrance, riding down the walkway on a unicorn. It's not the same without it."

"Pretty entertaining to see a unicorn on roller skates though," Bryce piped up, leaning back in a chair and kicking his feet up onto the table.

I huffed in amusement. Since Chris—who was known to fans as the Horseman's Steed—had ‘double-crossed' me and teamed up with Vince, I'd been walking in my arena entrance instead of riding on his back like I usually did. And because Chris was now, temporarily, teamed up with the Rolling Rimmer, he'd been skating down the walkway. As a unicorn. In roller skates.

Holt had tried to stop him, terrified of what would happen to his insurance premiums if Chris broke a leg on Goliaths property, but Chris had insisted. The crowd loved it.

"So, buddy," Heather asked cheerfully as she sat beside Bryce and gestured at the chair on the other side of the table. "What can we do for you?"

I sat down and cleared my throat, lacing my fingers together on the table. "Well, I was wondering… have you ever had any run-ins with Frank and Beans?"

Bryce's brows shot up, before he smoothed out his expression and crossed his arms, watching me appraisingly. "Why's that?"

"They've stopped performing at Goliaths, is that right?" Heather asked, giving me the same look as she sat forward, leaning her forearms on the table. "Very recently, in fact."

I didn't want to go into the whole thing, so I tried to sum it up as succinctly as possible. "They kept stealing my head, so Holt was about to fire them, but they vanished."

"I see." Heather drummed her fingers on the table, then glanced at Bryce and shrugged after a few seconds. "We've responded to a few noise complaints at their residence, but nothing major."

"They kept stealing your head?" Bryce asked with a frown. "We could book them for assault if you file an official report."

"No, I don't care about that." I shook my head quickly. "But I was wondering… if you could give me their address."

Bryce and Heather shared a long look.

"You know, it's technically our duty to tell you that vigilante justice is never a good idea, bud," Bryce said, sounding like he didn't really mean it.

"It's not about the head thing," I said impatiently, scrubbing a hand down my face. "It's… I just want to talk to them."

It was clear neither of them believed me.

"You know we can't give you their address, Dan," Heather said blankly.

"Look." I leaned in and lowered my voice. "I know officially you can't , but they hurt my… friend. I just want to talk to them. Make sure they apologise."

"They assaulted your friend?" Bryce asked. "So just have him come in and file a report. We'll arrest them."

I gritted my teeth. No. This was something I wanted to do.

Needed to do. For Rafe.

"He won't," I told them. "He's saying it's fine and isn't a big deal."

Bryce and Heather glanced at each other again, before Heather shrugged. "Well, if he won't come in, there isn't much we can do."

"So give me their address."

Bryce's brow rose at my impatient tone, so I forced myself to take a breath and calm down. Try a different tack.

"We've got a weekend of cage matches coming up soon," I said lightly. "Haven't had one for a while. Should be pretty good."

They both straightened, Bryce's feet thudding onto the floor as they slipped off the table.

I shrugged, examining my fingernails. "I could score you free tickets. Every night that week, if you wanted."

Bryce and Heather exchanged another long look before Bryce looked back at me with narrowed eyes.

"Premium seats?"

"Front row. Right next to a walkway. And the drinks would be on me, too."

Heather glanced at Bryce quickly. "Those new signature cocktails are really good."

"I could even try to arrange a little meet-and-greet with some of the Goliaths after the show one night." I shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe B. Were, Lady Victoria Venom, the Silent Scream…" I paused for dramatic effect. "The Tasselled Tussler."

Bryce gasped, then hastily tried to cover it with a cough. The pair of them had another silent conversation while I casually leaned back and waited.

Finally, Bryce gave me a tiny nod as he rose from his seat. "I'll see what I can do."

A wide, evil grin stretched my mouth. "Fantastic."

—

"Are you going to tell me what we're doing at some point?" Vince asked dryly as we sat in my car that night, parked on a street I'd never been down before.

When I'd turned up at his place after work and asked if he'd help me with something, he'd agreed without question and got in the car with me. Vince was a good buddy like that. I obviously wasn't planning on killing Frank and Beans, but if I had been, he'd have helped me cover it up without a second thought. And he was a little rough around the edges, in a good way, so he probably knew a guy who'd be able to get rid of the bodies. Or he'd find a remote spot and dig the holes himself.

Not that I was actually here to commit murder. Honestly, I didn't really know what I was going to do, I just needed to do something. They'd hurt Rafe. And scared him.

"Are we on a stakeout?" Vince asked when I didn't answer.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and reached for my pack of smokes on the dash. I wasn't a big smoker, but I indulged every now and then. Tonight, I definitely needed them. "Kind of."

"Give me one." Vince held out his hand.

I tapped out two cigarettes and passed one over with the lighter. Once he'd sparked up and handed it back, I lit mine and we both rolled down our windows.

"So who are we staking out?" he asked with interest.

"Frank and Beans," I muttered around the cigarette, staring at the small house on the other side of the street. It was dark, no lights on. They weren't home yet.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Vince glance at me sharply.

"Okay," he said steadily. "Because of what they did at work?"

"No." My lip curled. "Because they hurt Rafe."

"Rafe?" Vince echoed, sounding a little confused. "The IT guy?"

"Yes."

"What did they do?"

"Tried to mug him." I exhaled cigarette smoke through my nostrils. "Gave him a black eye."

"The fuck?" Vince sounded disgusted. When I didn't say anything, he looked over at me again and cautiously asked, "So are you two… friends?"

After a few seconds, I muttered again, "Kind of."

Vince snorted. "So that means you're fucking, right?"

I bristled. "It's not just that."

He shot me a surprised look. "It's not?"

"I mean—" I huffed and rubbed my face. "I guess right now it is, but I…"

When I trailed off, Vince stared at me in stunned silence, then let out an incredulous laugh.

"Holy shit." He reached over and squeezed my shoulder. "Dan Ewen's in love ."

"Shut up," I muttered, slouching lower in my seat as my face heated.

"I didn't think I'd ever see the day." He chuckled, giving my shoulder a gentle shake. "Congrats, man."

"I don't know if I'm in love with him," I mumbled self-consciously, but I wasn't sure how true the statement was, and that was a little pants-shittingly terrifying. "But I… want him."

So much. In a weirdly desperate kind of way I'd never experienced before.

"What the hell, man? Why didn't you tell me you had a thing with the IT guy at work?" Vince asked with a laugh.

I huffed and admitted, "He's also my neighbour."

"What?" Vince cackled. "The guy you said would always complain to you about every little thing?"

A fond smile tilted my mouth. "Yeah, well, he doesn't do that anymore. And I was a pretty terrible neighbour for a while."

"Damn, that's kind of hot." Vince peered out the windshield at the dark house we were watching. "So we're here to get vengeance for your man? Cool. I'm down with that."

"He doesn't know I'm here," I admitted sheepishly. "He said it wasn't a big deal, but it is. They pretended they had a gun. And Beans elbowed him in the face."

"Fuckers." Vince narrowed his eyes at the house, then exhaled and looked at me. "Okay. So what's the plan?"

"Uh, I don't know." I rubbed my cheek. "I'm just so fucking angry about it."

"Fair." Vince nodded, then cocked his head. "Well, if you do want to go full unhinged dark romance boyfriend, I know a guy who could get rid of—"

"Is that them?" I straightened when I saw a tandem bicycle heading toward us down the street.

Vince peered out, then snorted. "Has to be. Who else is going to be riding that thing?"

We watched in silence as they cycled over their unkempt lawn to the front porch, then dismounted and carried the bike up the steps before disappearing inside. A few moments later, a light turned on in a downstairs window, blocked by what might have been a curtain but looked more like an old raggedy towel. Then Alpine folk music began to blare from the house, so loud I could feel it reverberating under my ass.

"Jesus, I'm so glad they don't work at Goliaths anymore," Vince muttered, rubbing his eyes, then chucked his cigarette butt out the window and looked at me as he cracked his knuckles. "Okay. Ready? I'll just follow your lead."

"Yes." I was even more fired up after seeing those two assholes.

We climbed out of my car and crossed the street in silence, both of us glancing around to make sure no one was out here. It looked like the houses on either side were empty, which made complete sense. The hideously loud yodelling coming from inside muffled the sound of our boots on the front porch. Vince glanced around with a bewildered expression, because it was covered in creepy stick figures tied together with twine. There was a pile of hubcaps in the corner, and a gigantic bag of dog kibble.

"Jesus," Vince muttered again, stretching his neck and shaking out his hands. "If they have a poor dog in there, I'm taking it with me."

I had to hammer on the door in the hopes of being heard over the yodelling. After several long seconds, there was a click before it slowly swung inward with a loud, ominous creak.