Keeper of the Peace (Graveyard Guardians #2) (20 page)

“Sorry, Jack.”

“No worries, you just sit tight and keep
ahold of your soap.”

She shook her head. Only Jack would be able
to make jokes about her incarceration. “On second thought, maybe
you should work on getting yourself a bitch. Throw your soap on the
floor and make one of the others pick it up for you.”

Aside from avoiding the community showering
for as long as she possibly could, that scenario was one that she
was pretty sure was never going to happen. “Shut up, Jack. Just
tell the others and get here when you can.”

“Roger that.”

“Goodbye Jack.”

“Bye.” He clicked off before she did and she
was met with an empty silence which spoke volumes. This was now her
life … and it sucked.

The deputy walked her back to the cell where
she immediately went to her bunk and told herself not to cry. She
was supposed to act tough so that no one would fuck with her. She
would have been fine being left alone, but for some reason Sophie
still wanted to chat with her. She sat on the edge of the bunk and
peppered Hannah with more questions.

Finally, Hannah had enough and leaned
forward. “Look, I know you mean well, but I need some quiet time to
think.”

Sophie managed to put a super offended
expression on her face and jump up off the bed. “Sure, whatever,”
she muttered, stalking off to chat with the other women in the
cell. None of the others even tried to speak with her, and she was
totally all right with that.

Where was David? She knew he had to keep his
distance, but he had said that he wouldn’t be long. Maybe he
decided that he couldn’t love a criminal after all. The thought
brought tears to her eyes, so she lay down on the bunk and turned
toward the wall. She didn’t want the other women to see that she
was crying.

“Estmond!”

Hannah’s eyes fluttered open and she
realized that she must have fallen asleep. Too bad this whole thing
wasn’t a bad dream.

“Estmond.” The same deputy who took her to
her phone call was there again. “Come on.”

She didn’t ask where they were going. She
simply rose from the bunk and made her way over to where the deputy
stood just inside the door. “All right,” she told him when she got
close enough. “Let’s go.”

“Moving with Estmond.” He said into the
little mic attached to his ear piece. Only a second later the
interior lock clicked, freeing the heavy door. He moved aside and
let Hannah walk in front of him as he directed her toward the
interrogation rooms.

The inside of the interrogation room was
just like the ones you saw in the movies. There was a table with
two chairs on one side and one chair on the other. The side with
one chair faced the mirror, which everyone knew was a two way
mirror that was used to look at the person being interrogated.

“Wait here,” the deputy told her, leaving
her inside the room by herself. She wasn’t dumb, she knew this was
a tactic too. Leave the prisoner alone to stew for a little bit
before coming in to ask questions, it shook them up.

With nothing else to do she pulled out the
chair and sat down. She tried to avoid looking at her reflection in
the mirror, but it was basically impossible since the mirror was so
damn big. She had only been here for a few hours and she already
looked haggard.

“Dammit,” she whispered to her
reflection.

After a few more minutes, which felt more
like hours to Hannah, the door opened and a dark haired detective
entered the room. “Hello, Hannah.” He pulled out one of the other
two chairs and sat down across from her. “I am Detective Jonah
Avery.”

Hannah smiled sweetly, “Hello
Detective.”

“I am the detective in charge of this case
and I need you to answer a few questions for me.”

Hannah leaned forward. “Where’s David?”

Jonah flicked his eyes up toward the mirror.
“We … he has been removed from your case because of your history
together.”

Boy, this guy wasn’t very good at hiding his
emotions. She knew right away that he didn’t expect her to ask that
question and he didn’t know how to answer it.

“Now.” He set a folder on the table in front
of him and flipped it open. “Let’s get to it.”

Hannah shook her head. “You know that I’m
not supposed to talk to anyone without my lawyer present.”

Jonah raised an eyebrow. “Well, we are here
now, so why don’t you answer a basic questions.”

“Sorry.” Hannah shook her head again.

He leaned back in his chair and stared at
her. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’m not stupid you know.”

“Well,” he closed the folder, “that’s all
right because we’re still trying to track down your paperwork.
Foster took it with him when he left.”

Ah, a well-executed statement to let her
know that David wasn’t here and possibly shake her up. “That won’t
work on me, Detective. Now you better take me back to my cell until
my lawyer arrives.”

Reluctantly, he took her back to the cell
and left her there. Sophie glanced at her when she entered but
didn’t try to approach her. Hannah nodded acknowledgment and then
went to her bunk. She lay down on top of the covers and stared at
the bottom of the bed above her. Even if her family got here
tonight, they weren’t going to be able to do anything since they
probably had some kind of visiting hours at the jail. So, there
wasn’t much else she could do but go back to sleep.

And she did sleep, surprisingly better than
she had thought she would. It was breakfast when she woke. A
different deputy than the night before stood just inside the door
with a cart that held the breakfast trays. Each of the trays held a
small portion of scrambled eggs, toast and oatmeal.

Mechanically, Hannah rose from the bunk and
walked slowly to the cart to accept her tray. The pod had a small
rectangular table with benches on either side. The benches were
bolted to the floor, but at least there was a table where they
could sit and comfortably eat their food. After she had her tray,
she approached the bench and chose a spot on the end beside
Brandy.

It was an awkward breakfast, at best. No one
spoke at all. Sophie acted like she wanted to, but the other women
just stared down into their food and ate slowly. As they ate,
Hannah wondered what each of them had done to be in jail. She
already knew Sophie’s story, but the others were still a
mystery.

After breakfast, a deputy arrived to tell
her that her lawyer was here and wanted a meeting. So, again, she
was directed out of the cell and taken to a room much like the
interrogation room, but this one was for lawyers and clients to
speak privately.

She entered and saw a friendly looking gray
haired man, who was also surrounded by a shimmering silver aura,
waiting for her at the table. He rose when she entered and waited
for the deputy to leave before shaking her hand. “Hello, Hannah. My
name is Andrew Ainsworth, and I am to be your lawyer.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Ainsworth. Did
my family call you?”

He nodded and sat back down in his chair,
gesturing for her to take the seat across from him. “Yes, your
brother Greg, to be exact.”

“Do I have a chance?” she asked in a low
voice.

Mr. Ainsworth nodded emphatically. “Yes, of
course you do. It won’t be hard at all to prove that this was
self-defense. But, our first order of business is getting you out
of here. You are going before the judge in about two hours and a
bond should be posted then.”

Hannah looked down. “It’s going to be a lot.
I can stay here, it’s no problem.”

He shook his head. “Your family has informed
me that no matter the cost, they have it covered.”

She smiled weakly. Of course they would say
that, because that is exactly what she would say if it were one of
her sisters or brothers in here. “All right, then. Tell me what I
need to do.”

Mr. Ainsworth leaned forward, “I know the
whole story about the Reaper and also the story we are sticking
with, what I need from you is for you to repeat to me what
happened. We have to make sure that every detail is covered.”

“Thank you Mr. Ainsworth.”

“No problem at all, this is my job. Someone
has to make sure that the innocent don’t pay for the problems
caused by Reapers.”

Hannah nodded in total agreement. “I wish my
family was here with me.”

Ainsworth looked up from the paperwork in
front of him. “Well, they are, sort of. They are all out in the
lobby. They’ve been there all night, but it’s not visiting hours so
no one will let them in.”

Hannah smiled. “Really, they’ve been out
there all night?”

He grinned back at her. “Did you really
expect them to do anything else?”

She shook her head. Of course she didn’t.
They were the Estmonds and what happened to one of them, happened
to all of them.

“Now, Miss Hannah, let’s get down to
business.”

CHAPTER

19

AIDEN

Aiden couldn’t sleep. He lay under the
sheets in only his boxer briefs, staring up at the ceiling in the
darkness. In all his life he’d never had so much on his mind that
he couldn’t sleep. Normally, he was a straight to the point kind of
guy who dealt with things the same way. He took orders, fulfilled
the mission, had a drink, got laid … lather, rinse, repeat.

Now… now he wanted out of the Reaper world
simply to have a life at all. If he stayed with the Empress, he
would be her lap dog for the rest of his life and he had too much
respect for himself to do that.

His cell lit up on the night stand as it
jangled the tone that wasn’t designated to anyone in particular.
His eyes flicked to the clock before he picked up the phone. Almost
midnight. Whoever was calling at this time of night had better have
a damn good reason.

“Hello?”

“Aiden?”

“Jack?”

“Yeah man,” Jack responded. “Look, I don’t
know if you can … or will help, but we need a favor.”

Aiden flung the sheet away and sat up on the
bed. “What kind of favor?”

“Hannah, Lucy’s sister has been arrested.
One of my mom’s men attacked her and she killed him. She freaked
and didn’t take care of the body. It was found by the authorities
and now Hannah has been arrested for murder. We can’t make a case
that she didn’t do it, because she clearly did. But, we can have a
witness come forward who can claim he saw the whole thing go
down.”

“You want me to tell them she was fighting
for her life and ended up killing him?” Aiden rose from the bed and
turned on the lamp beside the bed.

“Yeah. You think you can do it?”

“I can, yeah, but the question is, why the
fuck would I want to? The Empress will have my head on a platter
for something like that.”

“I spoke with the family, we will offer you
full protection. You will come live here until we can fully extract
you from the Reaper society.”

“Fuck.” Aiden shook his head. He knew he
wanted out, but he didn’t realize it was going to be like five
seconds from the original thought. “Who was the Reaper?”

“You know Jeffery Myers?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, one of our not so finest Reapers. The
good thing is he’s part of the Guard, so he isn’t in any system.
You know how it goes, these guys are born and bred for this, so
there won’t be much on them anywhere and nothing will lead the
authorities back to the Reapers.”

“Aiden, will you do it?”

He went silent before he answered. He knew
why none of them could come forward as a witness, they were all too
close to Hannah. But, he … he was a stranger and would have perfect
reason for not coming forward immediately.

“This could free her of murder charges
Aiden. You know it wasn’t her fault.”

“Yeah, I just don’t understand why I’m
supposed to give a fuck.”

Jack laughed through the receiver. “Because,
you shithead … because you care about me.”

Well, he did have a point there.

“And I care about Lucy, which in turn makes
her family my main priority since it hurts her to see her sister in
jail.”

“All right!” Aiden almost shouted into the
phone. “I’ll fucking do it. Just shut up already.”

“Thanks man.” Jack let out what sounded like
a sigh of relief.

Before Aiden hung up the phone they hashed
out the smaller details of the situation like where to go and what
to say, that kind of shit.

When, he was finally able to hang up, he
headed straight for the shower. As he scrubbed, he silently cursed
himself. Why did he tell Jack he would do this for a Keeper? Man,
this was probably one of the dumbest things he’d ever done.

But, he was still going to do it.

Mother fucker.

He shut off the shower and headed into the
bedroom where he slid on his jeans and a dark blue tee shirt. After
he laced up his boots and threw a hoodie on over his tee shirt, he
packed up his bag and headed out the door.

Instead of taking the SUV from the garage,
he called a cab to pick him up. When the taxi arrived, the driver
hopped out to take Aiden’s bag and throw it in the trunk. “Where
you headed sir?” he asked, slipping behind the wheel.

In the back seat, Aiden fastened his seat
belt and then leaned forward. “Summer Hollow.” The cab driver
turned and shot him a surprised look, “Serious? That’s quite a
distance.”

“It’s not that far, and I’m good for it,”
Aiden assured him.

The guy looked up at the mansion looming
before them and then back to Aiden. The size of the estate must
have convinced him because he simply started the meter and then hit
the gas. “All right, then. Let’s go.”

As they drove off into the darkness, Aiden
couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing the right thing. But, then
again, what the hell was the right thing these days. This was
certainly better than some of the shit he’d done in his
lifetime.