Jack weighed up his options here, then opted for a shrug. “Kind of hoping that if I start to watch enough of them, the shit will start to skip us by.”
Jan watched him for a moment, saying nothing, then he cupped Jack’s neck and pulled him down for the gentlest ofkisses before offering a cheeky wink up. “You get me, you finally, finally get me, Jack.”
Jack laughed softly and shoved at Jan’s shoulder again to get him back watching the movie. Jan still didn’t talk much about Chris, but that was okay. Jack didn’t expect forgiveness or understanding, but Jan, he was still here, still willing to watch a movie with him, and that’s all he could ask for. He’d spoken to Gray about ways to compensate Chris, but Gray had denied him any say. Jack understood it, how any extra money thrown Chris’s way could help point a finger back his way. So the guilt hit more with how Jan had been the one to take Chris’s workload. Beyond keeping him fed and watered, Jack couldn’t even help him there. There should have been some repercussion. He swore he saw that in Jan’s look, and he didn’t blame him one bit.
Jack set the lounge lights to off, then mumbled under his breath when it left him struggling to find the volume. “Seriously?” Now he had to find the button for the lights again and only managed it after the third try.
A click of the front door came through, and Jan lifted his head off Jack’s lap as a sharp draught of cold eventually intruded on the warmth.
Jan frowned Jack’s way. “Security check?”
Jack shrugged. Daily walk-arounds by Ray and his team ran like clockwork, and this wasn’t a registered one if it was. It also wasn’t Gray. A call would have come up from the gate. Jan eased up, forcing Jack to sit up as well, and this was what really ate into Jack’s skin about Ray: him and his security checks got in the way of home without apology or regret.
And there: this was the really shite side to living in a home that needed top-notch security, how there were never any reallypersonal moments without a schedule put in place. It was why he was loving Wales more and more.
True to form, Ray came into the reception hall, head down, taken with something on the floor as he turned his head this way, that.
“Ray. What…?” Jan eased slowly to his feet, and Jack was right there with him.
Mud stained Ray’s feet, knees, hands, almost if he’d been crawling in the undergrowth at some point, leaving his hair wild with the rummage, but…
Naked.
Ray stood in the reception hall, stark-bollocking naked all but for the gun gripped in his hand.
For Ray to be here outside of hours, for him to be here, naked,andcarrying a gun? Something had to be seriously, seriously wrong.
Jan’s look shot to the floor-to-ceiling windows, but the blinds were drawn, blocking any view of a threat outside. As Ray shadowed the doorway, still following something on the floor, Jack reached to grab Jan back, away from the window and give Ray lead over whatever the fuck it was out there that got him naked and holding a guninhere.
“Fucking don’t.” The gun levelled Jack’s way, and life ran so damn still, so damn fast for Jack.
“Why… whyher, you bastard?” A tear slipped down Ray’s cheek. “Why not me? Someone who can fight back?”
“Ray.” Jan levelled a hand, but Jack grabbed his arm, quickly shaking his head.
Ray started to step this way, that, his look back on the floor, face creased as if he tried his hardest not to step in something. “So much… so much fucking red….”
The floor was clean but for muddy footprints, and Jack tried to pull Jan behind him in that moment, a very bad feeling twisting his gut.
“I said fucking don’t, you cunt.” Ray focused in on him with the gun. “Jan…” He roughed a tear away from his cheek, then called Jan over with a nod of his head. “Get here, son. Make it fast. Move away from him.”
“Ray, I… I.” Jan shrugged. “I don’t under—”
“Fucking move.”
Jan jolted, and Jack triggered the silent panic button system hooked up to the remote, sickness biting at his insides with how he was the threat in Ray’s eyes, how if the panic button was ever hit, Ray should be the one to answer it, only—
“Now,” snarled Ray.
Jack quickly steadied a hand Ray’s way as well. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said quickly, quietly. “He’s coming. Right, Jan? Go on.”
“What?” Jan shot him a look, and Jack gave a sharp nod, then focused back on Ray.
“See, no trouble. We… I want no trouble.”
Ray laughed, hard, and more tears fell free as Jan inched his way over to him. “Cause the shit, but never answer for it, do you, maggot? That’s you. Everything swept under the carpet, a good goddamn wage packet thrown my way to buy my tongue.” Ray’s hold on the gun steadied. “My silence cost me fucking Shelley.”
Shelley? What?Jack frowned, as thrown as Jan with trying to sort this out, then as Jan reached Ray, Ray caught hold of his shirt cuff and tugged him to the side.