All Acts Of Pleasure: A Rowan Gant Investigation (26 page)

“Here, hold this on it for a while.”

“If I do, will you stop mothering me?”

“No.”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could
really say in response, so I sighed again and held the icepack
against the lower half of my mouth as I mumbled, “Okay. Fine. If it
makes you happy.”

“Well isn’t that just a pretty picture then,”
Austin grumbled. “Just couldn’t wait, could you, ya’ bastard?”

“Hey,” Ben barked. “What did…”

“No, Ben,” I snapped, cutting him off. “Let
him say what’s on his mind.”

“Aye, I suspect you don’t want to be hearin’
that, now do you,” my brother-in-law responded with an angry
snort.

“Keep it civil,” Ben instructed, taking a
half step to the side, so we could see one another. “Both of
ya’.”

“Actually, yes. I do want to hear it,
Austin,” I replied. “Just what couldn’t I wait for?”

“Her,” he snipped. “Felicity’s in jail,
and you’ve already got yourself a
cailín
here in her house…”

“A what?”

“Are ya’ daft?” he spat, thrusting his chin
toward Constance. “Your girlfriend there.”

“Gods, Austin, get a clue. She’s an FBI
agent,” I returned incredulously. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

Constance slipped out her badge case and
flipped it open as she stepped toward him. “I’ve already identified
myself as a federal officer, here’s my ID,” she told him coolly.
“And, he’s telling the truth. I’m not his girlfriend.”

He simply harrumphed in return, giving her
credentials only a cursory glance.

“So, are you trying to tell me everything was
just fine until you saw Constance standing there at the door, and
that’s why you decided to take a swing at me? Because, I hate to
tell you this, but I have trouble believing that.”

“Aye, I was planning to hit you anyway,
that’s a fact.”

“Yeah, no shit. Want to give me a clue as to
why?”

As an answer he simply repeated his earlier
question. “What have you done to my sister?”

“I haven’t done a thing. Just what the hell
makes you think I did something to her?”

“She’s in jail, ya’ bastard.”

“Dammit, Austin, you think I don’t know that?
I didn’t put her there, you idiot, but I’m trying my damndest to
get her out!”

“That’s not what I’ve been told.”

“By who? Shamus?”

“Aye.”

“Yeah, well why am I not surprised by that?
What does get me though is that you believed him.”

“Well, you might as well get used to it,
then.”

“Really? So when did you all of a sudden
start taking his side?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yeah, I think maybe it does. What the hell
did he tell you, Austin?”

“The truth.”

“The
truth,
or
his
truth? Because we both
know they aren’t the same thing.”

“Says you.”

“Gods,” I muttered, worry filling my voice.
“What the hell did he say to you, Austin?”

“He told me the things you’ve forced my
sister to do.”

“He what?”

“The devil worship. The sacrifices.
Everything.”

“Gods, Austin, give me a break, will you?
You, of all people, know better than that. Hell, you’ve been one of
the first to defend me when he’s started in on that crap
before.”

“Aye, but that was before I knew the real
truth.”

My frustration was starting to get the better
of me. “Real truth? What real truth? What are you talking
about?”

“Stop lying, you bastard. He still has the
letters.”

The only thing keeping my irritation from
reaching a volatile flashpoint was the sudden dousing of confusion
applied by his words. “Letters? Dammit, Austin. Just spit it out.
What the hell are you talking about?”

“The letters Felicity sent, begging him to
help her escape from you,” he growled.

“The what?” I snapped back at him,
incredulity tightly wrapped about the words. “Give me a break. He
doesn’t have any such thing and you know it.”

“Aye, but I do. I’ve seen them. And, they’re
written in her own hand, by God.”

The only thing I truly remember hearing on
the heels of Austin’s retort was Ben’s voice as he all but spat the
word “bullshit” into the room. If my brother-in-law responded to it
verbally, either I didn’t hear him, or his words simply weren’t
registering because I was no longer paying attention to his
rhetoric.

In fact, I wasn’t paying attention to
anyone.

Of course, even if I had been able to blurt
my own objection, once again there was no need, because Ben
delivered the comment with enough disdain for the both of us.
Besides that, the single word summed everything up in a neat and
wholly unambiguous package. There was nothing for me to add.

It took a moment for me to notice that all
normal sound had been replaced by a loud ringing as my blood raged
through my body. My ears and face began to feel hot, and the room
seemed to waver as an emotional claustrophobia swaddled me in an
ever-tightening blanket of anguish. I couldn’t even describe what I
was feeling as blind anger, because it went so far beyond that.

It was a good thing Shamus wasn’t the one in
the chair because this was all simply too much. I’d finally had
everything I could possibly take, and the fragile self-control I’d
maintained thus far was a rapidly fading memory. I couldn’t say for
certain what I would have done had it actually been him sitting
there, but it’s a good bet that an ambulance and some manner of
charges being filed against me would have been a big part of the
aftermath.

I stood there, unmoving. I didn’t even utter
a sound as Austin’s words replayed in my head. I simply stared back
at him while every painful event in my recently shattered life
joined together and came to a dangerous climax. Then, just as I
felt myself pitching over that precipice toward a violent eruption,
something far more frightening happened.

Calm swept over me in a comfortable
shroud.

Cold, emotionless, calm, and with it came a
strange sense of clarity. It was, however, a form of lucidity that
I couldn’t readily identify. I knew full well that while it could
in fact be reality, it could just as easily be the edge of
insanity. But, at this point, it simply didn’t matter one way or
the other.

Thoughts ricocheted around the inside of my
skull, and I inspected them with mild interest, still remaining
staunchly silent.

There wasn’t even the most miniscule thread
of doubt in my mind that what Austin had professed was exactly what
Ben had said it was—pure, high-grade fertilizer. There could be
absolutely no truth to it whatsoever, and that was simple fact. On
top of that, it was fresh ordure. It simply stank too much not to
be. But, unfortunately, I also knew that right now, Austin firmly
believed every word of the steaming pile he had just shoveled.

Given the conversations I’d had with Shamus
in the past twenty-four hours, it really didn’t come as a shock
that he would fabricate something to help prop up his plan to have
Felicity deprogrammed. The simple fact that he claimed to have
contacted an “exit counselor” was enough to tell me that much.

When it came right down to it, even though
Felicity had said she was certain her mother would shut him down,
in the back of my mind I had been just as certain that she
couldn’t. Not this time. I’d hoped that maybe I would be wrong, but
the evidence at hand said otherwise.

Still, all I had truly expected from my
father-in-law were a couple of fictional diatribes. A few easily
discountable rants spewed forth by a man who wasn’t willing to
accept anything other than the narrow vision he stubbornly saw as
truth. I hadn’t begun to imagine that he would go as far as trying
to produce some form of bogus documentation to lend credence to his
accusations. Obviously, even with my belief that he wouldn’t back
down from his threat, I had still underestimated his conviction. It
seemed that every time the man stepped over a line, he would just
go find a new one to cross. This line, however, was final. There
were none beyond it, not where I was concerned anyway.

The sad thing was, in reality, we were both
heading toward the same end—that being the safety and sanctity of
Felicity. He was just approaching from a diametrically opposed
direction. Unfortunately, one of the important points on his
roadmap called for sacrificing me in order to arrive at that final
destination.

In a sense I suppose I couldn’t blame him. I
had to admit I was more than willing to fall upon my own sword if I
believed it would help my wife in the least. But, it wouldn’t and I
knew that, especially not the way Shamus was trying to make it
happen. In fact, if he kept this up, which was plainly his
intention, I wasn’t going to be his only victim. He was going to
end up helping put away his daughter as well.

“Hey, Row?” Ben prodded. “You okay?”

The ringing in my ears had died away. When, I
didn’t know, but it had been replaced by the ambient noise of the
room. I just still wasn’t paying attention to that noise. Words
being directed toward me, however, seemed to break that
barrier.

Ben’s query served to alert me to the fact
that I must have been staring in silence for longer than I’d
realized. It took a moment for his voice to register, but when it
did I set aside the random thoughts which had been occupying my
conscious brain and tried to focus on the world around me. I became
suddenly aware that the side of my thigh was wet and cold where the
makeshift icepack in my hand was resting against it. But, instead
of moving the dripping object, I simply clung to it, trying to use
the physical sensation to draw me out of the bizarre catatonia.

I felt a bit like a voyeur, as if I was
standing before a window watching something transpire in front of
me, all the while hidden from the players in the act. At the same
time I felt like I was at the center of it all and that nothing
could continue without me.

I began to wonder if what I was experiencing
truly was calm, or if it was nothing more than confusion. Of
course, blithering insanity was always an option as well, and I
can’t say that it was all that unattractive at the moment because
this particular reality had been doing its best to kill me.

I briefly considered trying to find my voice;
but after a half-hearted search, I decided it was hidden too well.
My head didn’t seem overly interested in moving either, so I was
unable to even look toward my friend to acknowledge hearing his
question. Of course, none of these things really mattered to me. Be
it calm, confusion, or flat out insanity that had come over me, I
was comfortable for the first time in two weeks, and right now I
saw no compelling reason to disturb that feeling. Taking the easy
way out, I simply remained focused on Austin.

With no response coming from me for several
beats, my brother-in-law drew his own hasty conclusion and cast his
eyes toward Ben as he proceeded to gloat. “Aye, the bastard’s got
nothing he can say to that.”

It was obvious from the tone of his voice
that he was clearly delighted with himself over what he saw as a
victory. Since he was still cuffed, he glanced back in my direction
and thrust his chin out sharply, directing his next comment to me
personally. “Do you, then, Rowan?”

His belligerence had no effect. My tongue
continued to lie dormant, and waited. But, it didn’t matter because
for some reason I didn’t feel the need to respond. Not to him,
anyway.

“Rowan?” Constance made her own attempt to
return my attention to the room. Her words fell into the same scrap
bucket as everyone else’s, instantly disregarded even as they were
heard. It wasn’t until she reached out and laid her hand on my arm
that my two worlds once again fully merged.

I suddenly found myself looking down at her
hand, regarding the appendage with mild curiosity. As the seconds
ticked by, I eventually brought my gaze back up to her face.

“Yeah,” I finally said, finding my voice once
again, though I’m certain it would have preferred to remain
hidden.

“Don’t listen to him,” she offered.

“I’m not,” I told her.

“You go
Twilight Zone
, white man?” Ben called
out.

“I honestly don’t know,” I said.

Constance continued, “Rowan, I’m sure
Felicity didn’t write any such letters.”

“She did!” Austin insisted.

“No, she didn’t,” I announced calmly,
rotating my head to bring my unblinking eyes back to bear on
him.

“I’ve seen them,” he countered.

“Them,” I repeated. “As in more than
one?”

“Aye. I saw them with my own eyes.”

“Yes, I’m sure you did,” I replied with a
nod, still keeping my voice even. “But, let me ask you a question.
Are you just drunk, or did you suddenly get stupid too?”

“Fek tú,
” he
snipped bitterly.

“I’m serious, Austin,” I said, ignoring his
insult entirely. “You know your sister well enough to realize she
isn’t going to be forced into anything against her will.”

“Aye, but if…”

“No,” I cut him off. “There is
no
but if
. They don’t come any
more stubborn than Felicity and you know it.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” he objected.
“You found a way to coerce her.”

“Row…” Ben interjected hesitantly. “Just drop
it. You’re just wastin’ your breath on ‘im.”

“No,” I replied. “He needs to understand that
he’s the only one being coerced here and that it’s not being done
by me.”

“Talk all you want, Rowan,” Austin huffed. “I
won’t be believin’ your lies anymore.”

I thought about that for a moment. Both of
the men were probably correct. Everything I’d been saying was for
all intents and purposes being wasted on someone who had already
made up his mind that whatever came out of my mouth was one
hundred-eighty degrees opposite of the truth.