O’Toole House Chapter 27
“So we won’t know if that solved it until the deadline passes,” Gabriella repeated to Amelia back at headquarters a little while later. “But that’s really all we can do, right? Even Father McEnerney said so.”
“He’d know best,” Amelia said through a yawn. “I know it’s like, how do we say it’s complete when all we can do is wait? But if Father McEnerney cleansed the house yet again and the demon doesn’t come back, then the original case is solved. And if it doesn’t work out and this guy gets taken…I mean, I feel for him. I really feel for him. His classmate tricked him with the contract, even if it wouldn’t hold up. He didn’t know that. But there were options. And I feel like he kept going for the one that seemed the most immediately secure, but then wasn’t if you thought about it for more than a minute.”
Gabriella didn’t like it, but she didn’t have any other solution. Amelia groaned. “Whatever,” she said. “We’ll consider it done and move on, I guess. Father McEnerney has it now.”
She looked at her watch. “Madelyn’s flight gets in in a few hours, so I’m going to head out. Do you need anything from me?”
Gabriella shook her head. “I’m good.”
“And you’re going to be alright with just you and Elliot here? I’m so sorry, I didn’t plan it like that, I swear. But we needed someone else for the evening with you and everyone else is working at their branches. I can-”
“It’s fine,” Gabriella said, even though her stomach had been twisting with unease and anticipation since Amelia had asked if she was okay with that. Even Bradley had offered to switch shifts with her before he left a few minutes ago. So had Graham. But it was fine. She was going to finish up the evening shift, leave Elliot to the overnight shift, and then go spend one more night at James’s house instead of going home.
There were three days left of James’s official leave and he still hadn’t mentioned anything about his plans to her. She knew Graham had talked to him too. From what he said, he’d kind of gently reminded James that he didn’t need to go back to the Foundation if he stayed in Massachusetts. And just like James had told them all last year, no one would blame him if he quit. Gabriella knew she wouldn’t. She could even see herself being happy for him that he got away from this shit job. Yeah, the job market was tough, but he’d find something else eventually.
Even though she selfishly wanted him back here.
The front door opened and Elliot walked in, kicking off his shoes, then coming up the stairs. He smiled awkwardly at Gabriella. “Hey.”
She nodded at him, making herself appear as placid as possible. “Hey.”
Amelia looked from one to the other, then turned back to Gabriella. “I’ll be in Boston to get Madelyn, but then I’ll be coming straight back to Leominster. So just call me if you need anything. If it’s an emergency, I guess call Bradley, he can get here faster. I think he said he was planning to go home after he checked in with James, so he’d be here in fifteen minutes.”
“We’ll be fine,” Gabriella said. “Good luck.”
Amelia left a few minutes later, leaving them in a silence even more awkward than she anticipated. “How are you?” Elliot asked as he sat down at one of the computers.
“Fine,” Gabriella said, then looked back at her own screen.
“Did you finish the restaurant?”
“What? Oh, yeah. It was the necklace. The salt kept the energy contained, so we removed it after a few days and cleansed it. No big deal.”
“Good. Um, any cases tonight?”
“Nothing major. We have a house nearby that needs the cameras checked and then prep work for three cases starting tomorrow. I’m only here a few more hours, but I’ll be doing that most of the night after you and I finish the cameras. I’ll go do those and you stay here on comms.”
“I can go do it.”
“I put the cameras up in the first place.”
“Right.”
Gabriella looked around for her coat, carefully avoiding meeting Elliot’s eye. “I’ll go do that now, actually,” she said. “You take comms?”
“Sure. Gabriella-”
“We don’t really technically need comms, but I know Bradley would come back here and kill us if we don’t.”
“No, it’s safest. Gabriella-”
“Elliot, no,” Gabriella said, pushing her hair out of her face before grabbing her coat. “No, I don’t want to do this again. I really like you, but I don’t want to be friends. You, I don’t know, used me to try to get over your crush on your captain and that’s not cool. I didn’t consent to any of that. If you’d wanted to just be casual or just hook up, you need to tell me that shit.”
“But we weren’t dating.”
“I didn’t realize you needed a signed contract before you could treat me with basic respect,” Gabriella snapped.
Elliot reared back. “I didn’t-”
“You literally told me you didn’t think we should date right now,” Gabriella said. “Less than twenty-four hours after we slept together. And now you’re acting like it was unreasonable of me to think maybe we were, possibly, leading up to dating again. How am I supposed to take any of that?”
“You’re right,” Elliot admitted. “I should have actually talked to you.”
“Yeah.”
“Can we still…”
“No,” she said, gripping her coat as she forced the words out. “No, I’m not staying in this cycle. You’re great, Elliot. I mean it, you’re a great guy. But I’m done. So let’s just get this finished. We’re both professionals.”
He seemed a little stunned, like maybe he’d expected her to just agree again to be friends because it was easier. Or maybe because that was her role in his story. “I’ll get comms set up when I get there,” Gabriella said. “It’ll take me about fifteen minutes to drive over.”
“Okay.”
“If there’s an emergency before I get there, call me and then call Bradley.”
“What?”
She grabbed her keys and headed out the door without another word. As she got in the car, she wasn’t sure what possessed her, but she pulled out her phone and texted Bradley.
GABRIELLA
I didn’t say yes this time
***
The next few hours passed in awkward silence, but finally her shift ended. Gabriella knew that Bradley had stopped by James’s house after work to talk to him, but that had been a few hours ago and Graham had offered her the couch again if she didn’t feel like staying at Headquarters or going home. So Gabriella was hopeful that James would talk to her tonight. If he was dead set on not going back to work at the Foundation, she would support him. But he had to see that Ohio was a terrible idea before it was too late.
She stopped by the Ecuadorian takeout place a few blocks over and picked up an order of chicken and rice. James liked that place, she knew that. And maybe he’d feel okay knowing that it was a small family-run place and the two guys that were always there had made the food. She’d watched them grill the chicken herself. It was worth a shot at least.
When she got back into the neighborhood, she pulled up outside of James’s apartment and got out of her car. Graham was gone for the night, he was going to go meet Madelyn back at her apartment when she and Amelia got home. And Amelia had said something about going back to work after, but Gabriella really hoped she wouldn’t. Elliot was fine. He had their numbers if he needed anything.
When James didn’t answer the door, she let herself into the quiet apartment. At first she didn’t hear anything as she set the takeout container on the counter. Now that it was in here, she doubted he’d eat it. She was about to knock on the bedroom door, which was nearly closed, when she heard laughter coming from behind it. It was James laughing and as she knocked, he called for her to come in.
“Gabs!” James greeted her from where he was sitting on his bed, his back against the headboard.
He wore a heavy sweatshirt, track pants, and thick socks, leaving very little except his hands and face exposed. The room was hazy with smoke and reeked of weed while James grinned at her like nothing had happened to him. She could tell he was stoned as hell, but it was good to see him look so happy.
“Hey,” she said, his smile contagious even as she tried not to choke on the smoke.
Then she glanced over and noticed that Bradley was still there. He was sitting on the rug with a joint in his hand, leaning back against James’s bed. He nodded at her, took a drag, then handed the joint up to James.
“What’s up?” James asked. “Are you staying over?”
“If you’re alright with it,” she said. “I got you some takeout if you want it. You don’t have to…”
Or maybe she should be encouraging him. God, why was she so awkward?
“Thanks,” he said, though he sounded a little less enthusiastic now. “Want some?”
He held the joint out to her and she shook her head, though she was a little tempted since she didn’t have to go home after this.
She looked at Bradley. “We finished with the Rossi paperwork after you left,” she said, for lack of anything else to say. “Then I fixed his stupid cameras.”
She remembered their rule against talking about work with James a second too late, but Bradley didn’t seem to notice. “God, fuck that guy,” he muttered, leaning his head back against the side of the mattress and closing his eyes. “Gonna let him get eaten next time, I don’t care.”
James laughed, then stopped and looked like he might cry, just for a second. He took another drag off the joint, the smell of which was making Gabriella’s eyes water. “McManus, are those glow in the dark stars on your ceiling?” Bradley asked, squinting upwards through the haze. “Are you seven?”
“Are you judging my stars when you have a fucking lava lamp in your room?” James demanded. “The stars were there when I moved in. That lava lamp sure as fuck wasn’t.”
“Oh, that reminds me, I forgot,” Bradley said to Gabriella. “I’m so fucking angry at this asshole.”
Great, exactly what James needed. They were going to start fighting and it was going to be Gabriella’s problem. But James turned to look down as Bradley was craning his neck to look awkwardly up at him. And then they both started laughing. Gabriella watched in fascination as the fight she expected didn’t even spark. Instead, they were both howling with laughter that just seemed to build on itself. Eventually, one of them would come close to stopping, then they’d catch each other’s eye and that would set them right back off again.
Gabriella had no idea what was going on, but if James was actually happy right now, she wasn’t going to interfere.
“What else is new?” James said a good five minutes later, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. “I think we already fought about this. Did we? Or did I just dream about it?”
“What did you do?” Gabriella asked, stepping in a little further and closing the door, locking it to keep it shut. She was going to regret this, she knew it, but poor Graham didn’t need to come home tomorrow to the whole place reeking of weed if she could help it.
“Here, Gabs, let me get the window,” James said, fumbling with the joint as he stood on his bed to pull up the old window behind him. He nearly dropped it, then stuck it between his teeth as he worked. After a few false starts, the window creaked open. “Oh, and what did I do?” he asked around the joint.
“You never reported the fucking…the vampire thing,” Bradley said, then turned to Gabriella. “He’s all ‘Oh, I have to go through official channels and take whatever punishment they have.’ And one.” He counted off on his fingers. “They didn’t have one.”
“They were gonna,” James cut in as he sat back down.
“Maybe,” Bradley said, flopping back against the side of the bed. “Maybe they thought they would if they tried hard enough. But I was at that meeting. They didn’t have shit.”
“Thanks for going,” James said quietly.
“Yeah, sure,” Bradley said. “But my whole fucking argument was that if I didn’t get punished for getting caught by a vampire, then he shouldn’t be punished either.”
“Makes sense,” Gabriella said, as though she totally knew about this whole vampire thing.
“And I’m about to tell them that, when fucking Amelia cuts in. She cuts me off completely, won’t let me talk. Kicks me so hard under the table that I have a bruise. And I realize,” Bradley jabbed a finger up at James, whose shoulders shook with silent laughter as he covered his eyes with his hand. “He never told them.”
“Why would I?”
And then they were off again, screeching with stoned laughter while Gabriella almost wished she’d taken James up on his offer.
“Scariest night of my fucking life,” James said finally, stubbing out the spent joint.
They were quiet for a moment. Gabriella had never heard this story, but apparently it was common knowledge on the team. Bradley looked up at her with a shrug. “We were on a case a while back. I wasn’t quick enough to get away from a vampire and it glamoured me to protect itself.”
James didn’t say anything and she looked over to see him about to light up a fresh joint. Jesus. But before he actually did, he stopped, letting his hands rest on his lap. “What was it like?”
“Hmm?”
“What was it like for you?”
Bradley laughed, a shade of bitterness in it, and looked up toward James. “Give me that,” he said, gesturing for the joint. “I’m not high enough for this conversation.”
James handed down the new joint and the lighter. Bradley lit it, the spark of the lighter jolting Gabriella slightly as she stood by the door. He took a long drag, held it, then let it out silently as he stared up at the ceiling. Then he immediately took another.
“Well?” James asked.
“What did I just say? Give me a minute.”
After another moment of communing with the old plastic stars on James’s bedroom ceiling, Bradley looked at both of them, then back at the joint burning in his hand. “You know how they say it’s hypnosis?” he asked softly. “Like, a vampire’s power?”
“Yeah,” James said.
“I guess it’s kind of like that. The illusion, the suggestibility, that’s all the same. But this was so much more forceful. You don’t have any control. If it wants you gone, you’re gone.”
He toyed with the joint for a second. “I wasn’t scared,” he said. “But I wasn’t me anymore either. It was like he reached into me and just flipped a switch. Like everything that made me me was just gone and I had only been made to do whatever he told me to do next, even if it killed me. I don’t really remember everything too clearly, but I know I went after you and Amelia. I’m sorry.”
Gabriella had never heard any of this, but it also didn’t seem like something they were intentionally keeping secret within the team. James’s hand moved as though to touch the top of Bradley’s head where it was almost level with his mattress, but then he pulled back. “Not your fault.”
Bradley caught Gabriella’s gaze and rolled his eyes silently, nodding back at James. “How’d you fix it?” Gabriella asked.
“I put a stake through his heart,” James said. “The vampire, not Bradley. But don’t tempt me.”
He sighed and closed his eyes. “Would you trust me to come back?”
“Like you trusted me?” Bradley asked.
“That was different.”
“No it wasn’t, shit head.”
“But it was,” James insisted. “Mine was, like, three days and we didn’t know. I was really dangerous and it took so much to get rid of. And yours was ten minutes and an illusion, even if it was a really strong one. You snapped out of it as soon as I killed the vampire.”
“Oh, as soon as you killed the vampire?” Bradley asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Is that all you had to do? Oh, no big deal, let me just kill this vampire real quick while my teammate tries to kill us.”
He held the joint up and James took it. “I tried to kill you too,” Bradley said. “Remember? Why would I hold that against you?”
“But it was only ten minutes and then you were you again. I know how fucked up it was for you, but we knew what was happening the whole time and you didn’t put us in danger after those ten minutes.”
They seemed to have forgotten Gabriella was here. “But you were in danger,” Bradley said. “I would have killed you. And Amelia. Sometimes I still dream about waking up alone in the woods because I killed you both. Or because you left, because why wouldn’t you leave someone who tried to kill you?”
“I wouldn’t leave.”
If Bradley had been a little less stoned, he’d probably be strangling James right now. And Gabriella was tempted. “Stop having that nightmare,” James said. “I wouldn’t do that. You and your goddamn dreams…”
“I’m so sorry, I’ll run my fucking dreams past you in the future.”
James laughed slightly, but he seemed already half-asleep as he looked up at Gabriella. Bradley pulled himself to his feet, took the joint out of James’s hand, and took one last drag before holding it out to her. She shook her head, so he stubbed out the ember in a small cup on James’s bedside table. “I’m gonna head out,” he said.
“Hey, take the couch if you want. Gabs can take my bed.”
Gabriella wasn’t about to kick him out of his bed. If Bradley decided to stay, maybe she’d suck it up and go home. It was safe there, probably. And even if it wasn’t, it beat going back to headquarters and sleeping in one of the bedrooms with Elliot just down the hall.
Bradley gave James a vague wave without answering. “See you at work Tuesday,” he said instead as he walked out of the bedroom.
Gabriella didn’t know if that was just wishful thinking on his part as she followed him out to the living room. Maybe they’d had a conversation, but she wasn’t going to ask either of them right now.
“Want that?” she asked instead, motioning toward the takeout cooling on the kitchen counter. “He’s not going to eat it.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Are you staying here tonight?”
“Nah.”
Oh, thank God. “Want a ride home?” she asked.
“No, I’m just going to go back and sleep on his fuck ugly office sofa.”
“Elliot’s on the overnight shift.”
Bradley started laughing again, the sound looser and more relaxed than anything she’d ever heard from him. He pulled on his coat, then considered her for a second before clapping her on the shoulder. “You’re a good cousin,” he said. “I wish I had a cousin who gave a shit like you do. Have a good night.”
He walked out, leaving her alone in the living room. She stayed there a few seconds, looking over at the food sitting on the neat counter. Then she went over to James’s room and knocked on the door.
“James?”
He didn’t answer and she pushed the door open a little more. He looked like he was asleep, but as she stepped in, he opened his eyes.
“Hey, Gabs.”
“Hey, do you want some dinner?”
“Nah, I’m not hungry. Did Bradley leave?”
“Yeah, he said he’s going to go sleep on your office couch.”
“That motherfucker…”
He closed his eyes again. “Don’t leave,” Gabriella said. “Please. Quit the Foundation if you want to, just please don’t leave.”
It was his decision to make, she knew that. But the plea was out before she could soften it up or decide not to say it at all. James looked up at her, his eyes red. He nodded, then climbed under the blankets.
“Love you,” Gabriella said, moving toward the door.
He didn’t answer as she flipped off the lights.
