Page 61 of The Dearly Departed

“Well, of course. Who else would I be talking to? Is there anyone else in here I’m not aware of?”

“No.” I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, shaking my head. “I want no part in whatever game you play here.”

From behind Gerald, I saw Dean’s brow furrow. It was my turn to be scrutinized. I guessed it was bound to happen sooner or later.

“Oh, but you’re already a part of it,” Gerald replied, like it should’ve been obvious. “You were here. You’ve witnessed too much.”

I tipped my head, playing it cool and calm, while internally, my heart sped up, and my gut tightened with nerves and fear.

Come to think of it, I probably felt a whole lot like that guy over there, being held back by those two thugs.

“Did you set me up?”

Gerald shook his head, lifting a dismissive hand. “No, no. A setup would’ve been intentional. This whole thing …” He groaned with disgust. “No. Why would I want to ruin my own birthday party? Come on. Don’t be silly. But …” He tipped his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets before offering a shrug. “Unfortunately, it did happen, and you, my boy, are a witness.”

“So, what? It’s either I play along or end up like this asshole?” I gestured toward the guy, looking in his direction just in time to watch the crotch of his slacks darken as he pissed himself.

Gerald looked over his shoulder, following my gaze, and tsk-tsked. “What a fucking mess,” he grumbled. “And right on my Persian rug too.”

He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, as if this whole ordeal was nothing but an annoying inconvenience, and shook his head. Then he looked back at me with an exhausted expression blanketing his face.

“Look, son. This young man took someone from you, didn’t he?”

I continued to watch that guy in the doorway, his widened, terrified eyes now on my mask. And I could only imagine how horrifying that looked in this moment. The blank expression of a plague doctor mask, lingering in the distance, staring him down.

I must look like the embodiment of death itself.

Gerald came to stand beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Leonard was someone you loved. Someone who meant the entire world.”

He wasn’t wrong. God, of course he wasn’t.

Leonard hadn’t just been a father or a mentor to my brothers and me.

He was a savior. Not much different at all from the God he himself had worshipped.

We owed him everything.

“All you have done has revolved around that man. Your job. Your home. You have devoted years to him. You have devoted your life … as you should have,” Gerald went on, his hand gripping my shoulder tightly, soothingly. “And now he’s dead, all because of this maggot of a man—if we can call him a man at all.”

My upper lip twitched; my fist clenched against my side.

“How will you honor Leonard Llewellyn now? How will you avenge him?”

My jaw worked from side to side as I stared at that trembling, baby-faced man, wrenching and wriggling against his restraints. Tears streaked his face; snot smeared beneath his nose. He shook his head and uttered muffled protests behind the straining strip of tape. And suddenly …

It felt like such bullshit that he’d been given a warning. He knew he was about to die. He had the opportunity to beg, to plead for forgiveness. But what had he given Leonard? He hadn’t been given any warning. He hadn’t known. He’d been innocent.

Fuck, if only we could all be as good and righteous as Leonard Llewellyn, the world would be a much more peaceful and beautiful place, but no. Lowlife pieces of shit like this guy and Gerald Crowley must exist to prey upon men like him.

And I’m just like them.

Leonard had been poisoned the moment I entered his funeral home.

And the least I could do was take revenge on the man who had stolen his last breath.

I stepped away from the window ledge and Gerald’s touch and crossed the room in slow, even strides. A panicked squeal emitted from the throat of the man being held in the doorway as I approached. He pulled and pulled against the grip of the two thugs, and they groaned in unison and tightened their hold.

He really was a scrawny little thing, I realized, coming to stand before him. About as tall as Leonard but skinnier.