Page 27 of Wrath

“It’s open.” His voice growls from inside, and when I slowly push it open I choke on the stench of tobacco.

“Should ya be smokin’?” I flick my eyes toward the oxygen tank he’s got beside his armchair as I step inside.

“I’m as good as dead anyway, might as well enjoy the finer things in life.” He lowers his pipe then uses his teeth to pull the stopper from a bottle of scotch so he can knock it back.

“I’m touched that you care so much about my health, but I’m assumin’ it ain’t why ya here.’Specially, since I told ya never to show your face in front of me again.” He hangs his drinking arm loosely off the chair and waits for my response.

“I need your help.” I take a seat in the armchair opposite him.

“You wantmyhelp?” He shakes his head and laughs, before erupting into a coughing fit that turns him purple.

“Eden’s back.”

“Eden’s dead.” His face turns stern real quick.

“Yeah, well, it turns out Jimmer had a lot of secrets. He helped her deceive us all.” I watch him for a reaction, one of the first lessons he ever taught me as a boy was never to lie to someone you care about. I’ve never lied to him, which is how I know I’m gonna win this stare-off.

Eventually, he shifts his eyes from mine to look out the window and now it’s my turn to laugh.

“But you knew that, didn't ya?” I think back to the conversation I had with Stacey in my office a few weeks ago. The one where she informed me that he was the person who contacted Jimmer for help.

“You let me down, Logan.” He shrugs his shoulders as if it ain’t a big deal and I have to clamp down my back teeth to stop me from kicking the shit outta him.

“You letherdown?—”

“I didn’t come here to talk about that,” I interrupt him when I let frustration start to override my senses. “I need you to?—”

“You can thank that fancy piece of ass you used to hang out the back end of, for the fact Eden’s safe.” He tokes back on his pipe and sniggers at me.

“Stacey?”

“That’s the one, she got hold of me after you got outta jail, told me how angry you were. She also told me what a mess my little girl was in. So, I spoke to a man who could do somethin’ about it.”

“Then youbothlied to me. She never told me she’d made contact with you. She made it sound like she was surprised to see Jimmer that night he saved them. And when I told you that I knew about Eden, you were surprised.”

“I’m sure everythin’ happened exactly how Stacey told it.” He laughs as if all this is one big joke.

“Vex, Ithoughtmy sister had killed herself. I spent ten years blamin’ myself for that, and Aar–”

“Don’t you ever mention that boy’s name in front of me again! I may be slow these days, but I still know of a thousand ways to fuckin’ kill ya.” His eyes turn to slits and I feel his hatred seep inside my soul.

“Was that my punishment for not takin’ care of her?” I stand up and shake my head. “You’re a sick fuckin’ bastard.” I wanna wrap my hand around his throat and squeeze the last of his weak, fragile life right outta him.

“I was doin’ whatever I could, you’d proved you couldn’t take care of her and Cliff was still out ther?—”

“Cliff’s out there now,” I interrupt him. “ And like I said, Eden is back. We got murdered girls rockin’ up on our beach and I need your help.”

I hate having to say those words and believe me, if I wasn’t so desperate, I’d much rather be choking on ‘em.

“Now, ain’t that funny?” He sniggers at me.

“If you hate me so much why did ya give Jimmer your Dirty Dozen ring, and tell him to give it to me?” I divert the conversation from why I’m here, to get a few of my own questions answered.

“Because it’s rightfully yours.” The clever-ass smile fades from his face before he takes another swig from his bottle.

“You told me last time you saw me that I ain’t no son to ya. You sendin’ me this ring contradicts that.” I hold up my hand and show him that I’m wearing it.

“So whatdoesit mean, Logan?” He raises his eyebrows.

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