22. Chapter 22

22

T he hand on Rory’s throat vanished, and he peeled his eyes open.

Sebastian’s expression was stricken. His eyes were red. A frown dented his brow, and he cursed beneath his breath.

“You think I’m going to kill you?”

Rory blinked. “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

“No!” Sebastian took a step back. “Of course not—”

“The gloves, the plastic bag, the secluded area out of sight of the road.”

“I put the gloves on because it’s cold…”

Rory licked his dry lips. “You’ve brought me down here, out of sight.”

“There’s a bench over there, quiet, where we can talk.”

“The bag?”

“It’s been raining, Rory. The bench will be wet. I brought the bag so we could sit on it.”

“You keep asking to know the time?”

Sebastian scrunched up his nose. “And why do you think that is?”

Rory ducked his head. “So you know when the tide’s going out—”

“So I can what? Make sure it takes your body away? You think I’m going to strangle you, shove you in a bag, and throw you in the sea?”

“I don’t know—”

“Jesus Christ!” Sebastian clutched his hair. “Are you serious right now?”

“You hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.” Sebastian glanced at the sea. “You thought I was going to kill you, and you went along with it?”

Rory swallowed. “I don’t blame you for wanting me dead. I keep trying to apologize, to explain, but you cut me off.”

“I don’t want an apology.”

“Then what do you want?”

Sebastian cursed at the sky, then advanced on Rory. Rory stiffened, then stumbled forward when Sebastian snagged his wrist. He pulled Rory up the beach. “I want you to come with me so we can talk.”

Rory spotted the bench ahead. He blinked, thinking it might be a mirage, but it remained. “Talk?”

“For me to talk.” Sebastian sighed. “For me to explain.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s the problem.”

He pulled the plastic bag out of his pocket and covered part of the bench. “Now sit.”

Rory sat down and stared at his lap. “Why did you keep asking for the time?”

“You’ll see in a minute.”

Sebastian sat down, then yanked off his gloves. “Put these on.”

Rory frowned, then did as he was told. Sebastian’s gloves were warm and soft.

Sebastian turned to him.

“I’m sorry about your sister.”

Rory widened his eyes and pressed his back to the bench, then he remembered the letter he’d written. “You read the letter?”

“No.”

He frowned. “Then how do you know about Erica?”

Sebastian pursed his lips and exhaled. “Not yet. I need to tell you about Lester first.”

Rory swallowed the lump in his throat. “Lester? What about him?”

“I deserved every second of that sixteen years. I’m the only one in that prison who thinks their time was lenient, who thinks they deserved more.”

“You said he betrayed you.”

“He did. I hadn’t seen him for a year, and when he called me out of the blue, he sounded odd. He wanted me to help him with a scam, and fast, and I did what I do best…”

Rory frowned. “Which is?”

“I set up a con, but I had no idea I was being watched, followed, stabbed in the back by one of my dearest friends, and when I found out, I lost it. I couldn’t understand why he’d come back after a year and try to ruin me. And in a moment of anger, I killed him. I know you’ve listened to that recording…”

“How do you know—”

“I also know you didn’t hear all of it.”

“What do you mean?”

Sebastian took a deep breath. “I tried to bring him back, I called for help, phoned an ambulance and did everything they told me to, but it was too late. I’d done too much.”

Sebastian stared down at his hand and shook his head. “I went down for murder, I didn’t dispute it, I didn’t plead not-guilty or beg for leniency, I accepted it, but what I couldn’t accept was him turning on me. For years I’ve wondered why.” He lifted his head and stared past Rory. “William Hamish.”

“What?”

“He harassed Lester, put pressure on him, paid people to loiter outside his house and threaten him. He made Lester’s life hell for a year. His wife got fed up and left, and Lester started drinking, gambling and got himself into a shit load of debt. He was facing jail time for several charges until Hamish offered him a deal. The bastard that had put him in that state was offering to save him, bail him out. All he had to do was expose me for the con artist I was.”

Rory licked his lips. “You did deals on the dark web. Hamish gave me a file about you … You’ve sold bombs to terrorists, weapons to gangs—”

Sebastian shook his head. “I once sold a bottle of air to this guy for a hundred thousand pounds, convinced him it was full of this deadly gas, and another, a vial of pink liquid, told him it was so unstable, a single drop in water could make a nuclear explosion. I even had a gun that could vanish into thin air after a shooting; I called it the ghost gun. I’m a con man, and I conned arseholes, the lowest of the low.”

“How?”

“I was clever about it; I spent money, set up small experiments, faked video footage. Had meetings, I wined and dined and looked legit. I pushed people’s buttons, found out their weaknesses, their desires, convinced them I had the answer to all their problems.” Sebastian pointed at the pier. “The skills I learned here only got better. I seduce, I manipulate, I convince, I play people, but I don’t fund terrorists. I know that’s what Hamish told you.”

“How do you know Hamish told me that?”

“Not yet, Rory,” Sebastian continued. “I play people. I’m good at it, and I played you.”

Rory shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“I knew you were a police officer the second I saw you. Some young, attractive guy who thought he could con me, seduce me, manipulate me for Hamish, and at first I was angry, and I wanted you gone. I wanted you scared and thought I could get you to leave.”

Rory’s side prickled, and his breath caught in his chest. “You got someone to stab me?”

“Yes. And I didn’t know whether you were suicidal or just stupid, but you came back onto the wing the next morning like it was nothing. I thought I’d have fun with you, mess you about, and mess with Hamish’s head in the process, but the lines started to blur. I stopped pretending to like you and did like you. I stopped pretending to want you and did, and then I wondered whether you were actually playing me, whether you’d found my weak spots and you were just good at exploiting parts of me.” Sebastian shook his head. “And it all got so messy.”

Rory heard pebbles crunching behind him, someone walking up the beach, but he didn’t turn to them. Sebastian had a sad smile on his face, but he didn’t greet the stranger.

“How did you know about me?” Rory whispered.

Sebastian gestured to the person behind Rory. “Rory the Rat meet Morris the Mole.”

Rory turned, linked eyes with Morris, then leapt off the bench. Sebastian caught him around the middle, pinned his arms to his sides and hauled him back. Rory struggled, gaping in disbelief.

“Sorry,” Morris said, glancing down at her watch. “I’m fifteen minutes early…”

Sebastian snorted. “As long as you’re here.”

“Let go of me!” Rory thrashed, digging his heels into the stones.

“Wait,” Sebastian said, “hear us out.”

Morris stopped beside the bench. She took a deep breath, then looked at Rory. “Hi.”

“Don’t hi me! Who are you? Are you even a police officer?” Rory blurted, struggling with Sebastian.

“Yes, have been for twenty years, but I don’t say no to some extra money, especially when me and Sebastian go way back.”

Sebastian hushed in Rory’s ear. “Calm down, okay. Morris and I are friends. She used to warn me when the police were looking into me, getting too close. She told me about Lester, but I didn’t believe her. I didn’t believe that he’d do that, but then I saw him in William Hamish’s car.”

Morris raised her eyebrows. “And after that, you killed him.”

“It was in the heat of the moment, I didn’t… I didn’t plan to—”

“And I wanted nothing more to do with you,” Morris continued, “but you kept writing to me, phoning me, and all you wanted to know was why Lester betrayed you. One day I gave in, I did some digging, got close to Hamish, got him to open up to me. He was targeting Lester, using his power to make his life hell, and giving him only one way out. He thought he’d only put Sebastian away for a few years for the scam, but his anger gifted him sixteen.”

Sebastian rested his chin on Rory’s head and murmured, “I couldn’t take back what I did, but I could punish the guy that made Lester’s life crumble around him. On my last year, I wrote to Hamish. I said I’d make his life hell, the same way he made Lester’s. It was supposed to be an empty threat, stir him up, unsettle him.”

Morris nodded. “The letter got him paranoid, worried, and he asked me to work with him. He wanted to know what Sebastian was planning. That’s when he decided to send someone into the prison.” She directed a pained smile at Rory. “I didn’t know he was blackmailing you. I thought you were just some cocky new police officer who wanted to make a name for himself.”

“I didn’t want to be in there,” Rory whispered. “I never wanted to do undercover work.”

“I know that now, and after you stuck it out for a few weeks, Sebastian and I thought we could use you to get to Hamish, have some fun tormenting him.”

Sebastian clutched Rory tighter. “I tried to justify it, tell myself the end result would be worth it. I’d get revenge on Hamish, and you’d leave the prison, go back to being a police officer, put it behind you, but then it wasn’t a game anymore. We were…us. Then I got that call in the middle of the night from Morris. She told me about your sister, and I didn’t know what to do.”

“You knew?” Rory’s knees weakened. “You knew the whole time.”

“I avoided you, blocked you out, tried to go back to being indifferent, and waited for the governor to get you, to call you into his office, but he never did.”

Morris stepped closer. “I thought Hamish would tell you, I really did, but he sat there and kept saying how proud your dad would be, and I felt sick. I wanted to tell you—”

“But you didn’t, neither of you did. I found out when I read that newspaper. It was like someone had cut out my heart. I couldn’t… I still can’t…” He shook his head and struggled against Sebastian’s arms. “Let me go.”

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian whispered. “I didn’t want to keep that from you.”

“But you did!”

“I didn’t think you’d come back to the prison; I didn’t think I’d see you again. But you did and told me how you’ve got no one, you’re on your own, and it’s not true. I was going to tell you everything that night, but then you asked for a kiss, and I couldn’t resist.”

“You—you played me? The whole time you were playing me?”

“Yes, but I’m not now. I swear it. I won’t mess with your head or your heart again, and if you never want to see me again, or hear from me, I’ll understand. I’ll vanish if that’s what you want.”

Rory frowned. “I thought I’d be begging for your forgiveness today. Telling you that I loved you, but I understood why you had to kill me.”

“Kill you?” Morris mumbled. “What the hell is he talking about?”

Sebastian’s arms were iron around him. “He thought I was going to strangle him.”

Morris gasped. “Sebastian?”

“I know,” Sebastian snapped. “It’s a fucking huge mess, and it was me that caused it, and I’m sorr—”

“But Pauly,” Rory interrupted. “You denied what he said in the prison?”

“He was outing you in front of everyone. I knew you’d hate for Ollie and Captain to find out like that, so I provoked him.”

Rory stopped fighting and relaxed in Sebastian’s arms. His knees buckled, and he relied on Sebastian to keep him upright. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. It was easier when I thought you were going to kill me.”

“I’ll never kill you, and I’ll never hurt you again. I want to help, Rory. Let me help. Please. Because you need it. I know you do.”

“The farm…the barrels?”

“I’ll explain later,” Sebastian murmured. “For now, you need to sit. You need to process.”

Rory nodded. He was incapable of doing anything else, and it was only due to Sebastian’s arms he hadn’t fallen forward and landed in the pebbles.

“I’ll see you later, Morris,” Sebastian mumbled.

She went to walk away but stopped and turned back to Rory. “There’s something else…”

Rory closed his eyes. “I don’t think I can handle any more.”

“You didn’t fail.”

A bitter snort caught Rory by surprise. “I can confidently say I failed at being an undercover officer.”

Morris shook her head. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what?”

“Those police entrance exams, you didn’t fail any of them.”

“Yeah, I did, three times, Hamish—”

“Marked you down repeatedly. He failed you. You’re not the first person he’s done it to. He likes people to feel like they owe him. So he can use them. You’re not the first person he’s done this to, but I promise you, Rory, you will be the last.”

“I passed.”

Morris nodded. “Yeah…with ease, Rory. With ease.”

She turned away. They watched her walk back up the beach, then Rory shook his head. He felt heavy and tired down to his bones, and when Sebastian helped him over to the bench, he collapsed down on it. Sebastian sat beside him, rubbing a hand up Rory’s back as he stooped forward.

“You got dragged into mine and Hamish’s feud, one that started decades ago. It should’ve never turned out the way it did.”

“It doesn’t even matter. None of this does, not really.”

“It does matter. Let me help you. I can help you mend bridges with Captain and Ollie. I’ll be a support for you. I’ll take care of you. Let me, Rory.”

“You’re only saying it because you feel guilty, and even after you’ve told me all this, I still feel like I betrayed you. I still feel guilty. I fell for you, and I continued ratting you out to Hamish.”

“I fell for you, and I continued to lie to your face. We’re both as guilty as each other. But I want us to continue being… us .”

Rory stole a glance at Sebastian. His icy eyes shone with unshed tears.

“I thought you were going to kill me today,” Rory whispered.

“Never. Jesus, Rory.” Sebastian shuddered. “That makes me feel sick just thinking about it—”

“I wanted you to do it.”

Sebastian’s breath caught.

Rory raised his head and pressed his palm over his heart. It wasn’t an empty hole. It hurt and ached, but his heart was still there. Sebastian hesitated, then pressed his hand over the top.

“I thought I was going to die.” Rory swallowed. “I’d accepted it because I don’t have anyone to stay alive for.”

“You do, Rory. You have me. If you want me, I’m yours. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine.”

“Why?”

Sebastian lowered his gaze. “You know why. We…work. We fit. Give me the chance to take care of you, to love you. It’s going to be hard at first, but I promise it will get easier. We’ll take it one day at a time.”

“My sister’s dead,” he blurted.

Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut. He nodded. “She is.”

“She’s dead, Sebastian.”

Rory let Sebastian pull him close and pressed into his embrace. Sebastian shushed him, rubbing warmth up and down Rory’s arms. He paused to take off his jacket and encouraged Rory to lean forward so he could tuck it around his back. Sebastian tugged Rory close again and kissed his hair.

“You’re not on your own, I promise you that.”

When Sebastian asked him to drive to Jameson’s farm, Rory gave him a long stare, then programmed the address into the car. They didn’t speak, like they hadn’t for the hour they spent on the beach. Rory had let himself be held and even dozed off at one point to Sebastian’s soft reassurances.

The revelations spun in Rory’s head, gaining momentum until he feared they would destroy him, then he heard Sebastian’s pleading voice asking Rory to let him help him, and it was enough to slow the spinning but not to stop it completely.

The sky grew dark, and the houses fewer, until Rory squinted as he spotted the shabby-looking farmhouse in the distance.

“There it is,” Sebastian said. “Jameson’s farm.”

“I still don’t understand,” Rory murmured. “Why are we here?”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

Rory pulled up alongside the other cars and peered through the windscreen.

He could see a group of people.

“Friends of mine, eager to welcome me back,” Sebastian explained.

Rory forced a swallow, then nodded.

Sebastian squeezed his knee. “Relax, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Rory spotted Hamish amongst the crowd, and his heart rate accelerated.

“What’s going on?” Rory asked.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Looks like Hamish is trespassing on my land.”

“Your land?”

Sebastian snorted, then yanked on the handle. Rory followed him out of the car but kept a few metres’ distance between them as they approached the group.

He stayed in the shadows and leaned against the farmhouse wall.

“Problem?” Sebastian mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets. The group dispersed, revealing an irate Hamish.

Hamish shook a piece of paper in his hand. “This is my land.”

“Your land?”

“Yes, you are trespassing, and I’ve called the police.”

Sebastian folded his arms. “Let them come. They’ll see that you’re the one in the wrong.”

“I bought this farm.”

Sebastian whistled. “Yeah? How much for?”

“A lot.”

“The whole farm?”

“Yes.”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes—”

“You really should’ve read the small print before you signed.”

Hamish took an unsteady step back. “What?”

“You own a small patch, five metres by five metres,” Sebastian muttered before pointing into the distance. “Somewhere over there.”

“Liar.”

“I’m not lying. This place is mine. I own it.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Don’t tempt me… How’s life been treating you lately?”

Hamish sneered. “What?”

“Your wife’s left you, you’re in debt, being harassed, paranoid someone’s out to get you. You’re not looking well, Hamish.”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m glad you’re suffering, the same way you made Lester suffer.”

Hamish wagged his finger at Sebastian. “You murdered him.”

Sebastian hung his head. “I did, and I wish I could turn back time and change that, but I can’t. What I can do is make your life crumble, the same way you did to him, all to get him to set me up.”

“You helped terrorists, gangs, criminals, and you got rich off it. You’re the lowest of the low, and someone had to take you down. Someone had to stop you, and I’m proud that it was me.”

“I ended up inside because of my anger. My stupidity. Not because of your cunning. I’ve served my sentence, and I will regret what I did for the rest of my life, but I couldn’t let you get away with it.”

Rory turned when he heard a car. Morris got out, made her way through the crowd, then stood next to Sebastian.

Hamish gaped. “Wh…what are you doing?”

“Sebastian’s an old friend of mine,” Morris said, placing her hand on Sebastian’s shoulder.

Hamish shook his head. “No.”

“The things I do for my friends,” Morris mumbled before shuddering.

“I left my wife for you.”

Morris smiled. “And by the looks of her social media account, she’s loving every minute of her new-found freedom.”

“It was your idea I buy the farm.”

Sebastian raised his hand. “Actually, it was my idea. Morris made it happen. How much debt are you in now?”

“You bastard.”

“Takes one to know one.”

Hamish turned his attention back to Morris. “Your career is over—”

“My career? What about yours? You’ve fiddled with test scores on more than one occasion, and you didn’t have clearance to put Rory in that prison. You went rogue, and when the chief inspector finds out, it’s your career that’ll be finished.”

“I’ll take you down with me.”

“What evidence do you have? I thought it was legit, I thought it had been authorized, me and Rory were the unlucky ones that got used, and you can’t prove otherwise. We’ll probably get compensation.”

“You bitch…”

“Now if you don’t mind,” Sebastian muttered, “kindly get off my property. I apologize in advance for the noise tonight.”

One of the men watching the exchange passed Sebastian a bottle of champagne.

“See, I’m celebrating with a pop…”

The cork blasted into the air, and fizz bubbled from the top. Sebastian took a long glug, then sighed in pleasure. Rory frowned, then remembered Sebastian’s words when they were inside the prison. The last thing Hamish would hear before his world came crushing down would be a pop .

“And a big bang…” Sebastian added.

Rory knocked his head back into the house at the sound of the first firework. They went off like no display Rory had ever seen, hundreds of fireworks exploding into the sky. He thought of the barrels Sebastian had got his friend to store, the powders, the chemicals, and glanced back up at the sky.

The big bang wasn’t a bomb, but fireworks.

Hamish looked at the sky in dismay, then back at Sebastian. His gaze drifted, and he found Rory against the farmhouse. The sky lit up with sparkles of red, green and gold, flashing on Hamish’s face as he approached.

Rory couldn’t hear what words were growled his way, but Hamish’s face folded with angry lines, and his lips pulled back with his furious words. He marched at Rory, but Sebastian side-stepped in front of him, forcing him back.

Morris took the bottle from Sebastian, then turned back to the fireworks.

Sebastian and Hamish exchanged snarls, and angry expressions, and the strobe-lighting effect of the fireworks would’ve been amusing had Rory not been so physically and mentally worn down.

Hamish trudged away, throwing Rory one final glare before getting in his car. Sebastian watched him go, gave him a patronizing wave before jogging over to Rory.

He took Rory into his arms and whispered into his ear. “You okay?”

Rory shook his head, and Sebastian hugged him tighter. “I know, stupid question.”

Rory wasn’t okay, he was far from it, but with Sebastian holding him, and him clinging back, he thought maybe, one day, he could be.