Into This River I Drown (44 page)

“A friend,” Cal snaps. He is getting riled up, and I can tell it has more to do with the oncoming car than the archangel standing in front of us.

“Who is this?” Michael asks with a frown. “I do not have eyes in this little place. The threads. I can’t see them.”

“What threads is he talking about?” Christie asks. “Why is everyone standing in the doorway? Move! I want to see!”

Cal begins to growl, and I know who it is even before I see the decal on the side, the lights on top of the car.

Griggs.

old bones

“A welcoming
party?” Griggs asks with a sardonic nod of his head as he steps out of the cruiser. “How wonderful.”

“Sheriff?” Christie asks, her voice going cold. “What are you doing here? None of us called you out here.”

He shrugs easily, averting his eyes. “Thought I’d stop by and check things out for myself.”

“Check what out, George?” my mother asks.

Griggs ignores her and looks up at Michael. “Haven’t seen you around before, friend.”

“I don’t suppose you have,” Michael says slowly. “I’m not exactly from around here.”

“Could tell by your clothes. Pretty fancy.”

“How kind of you, Sheriff.”

“Got a name?”

“I do.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

Griggs’s mouth stretches to a thin line. “What is your name, friend?”

“Michael.”

“Got a last name, Michael?”

“Oh, I’m sure I do, but none I feel at this very moment needs to be shared with you.” He pauses, considering. “Friend.”

The sheriff’s eyes narrow. “You friends with Cal Blue here?”

They glance at each other. “You could say that,” Michael allows. “More like… business associates.”

“Oh? And what line of business would that be?”

“Security.” No hesitation. It would have been funny had it not been between a high-ranking angel and a man I’m pretty sure is a sadist.

Griggs arches an eyebrow. “Security? And what are you supposed to be guarding?”

Michael laughs. “Now
that’s
an amusing question.”

“Wasn’t meant to be funny,” Griggs says with a frown.

“It was,” Michael assures him.

“Cal Blue?”

“Yes?” Cal says. His lips are almost twisted into a sneer.

“There’s no one in the state of California named Calliel Blue. Trust me on that; I looked.”

“That doesn’t mean a thing, Sheriff,” Abe says. “You should know that better than anyone. I assume that to be elected into your position you have at least
some
knowledge of the law. Well, not that I voted for you, anyway.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, old-timer,” Griggs says coldly. “You’ll know if I am. You can trust me on that.”

I am angry. “You got a problem, Sheriff? Ever since Cal came to town, you’ve had a bug up your ass about him. What the fuck do you want?”

“Benji!” my mother snaps.

Griggs smiles but it never reaches his eyes. “What do I want?” he asks. “What
I
want is to know why your little boyfriend here is lying about who he is. I want to know how he came to be in Roseland out of the blue. My problem, Benji, is I want to know who the
fuck
he is.”

“I don’t see how that concerns you,” Michael says, cocking his head. He seems curious about the sheriff.

“That’s because it doesn’t,” I say, unsure if I should be agreeing with him. “Cal hasn’t done a damn thing wrong. As a matter of fact, he’s probably done more right for this town than you ever have.”

“Might be a good idea for you to shut your mouth, kid,” the sheriff growls.

I take a step toward him. “And why is that, Griggs?” I say, keeping my voice hushed so the others on the porch can’t hear me. “Am I going to have an accident? End up in the river? Get a bullet in the back of my head?” He’s good. He doesn’t even flinch. “I know what you’ve done. And one way or another, I swear on all that I have that I will make you suffer.”

His eyes glitter as he twitches his lips. “Boy, you have no idea the unholy mess you are walking into.”

“I think I know plenty,” I tell him. “You will pay and
everyone
will know what you’ve done.”

He laughs loudly, raising his voice. “Threatening an officer of the law? Benji, I expected you to be smarter than that. But then, the apple never did fall far from the tree, now did it?” Cal grabs my arm before I can launch myself at the bastard who dared to insult my father. I want to tear him to pieces and split his bones while he screams for me to stop.

“That’s…
enough
,” my mother says, her voice quaking. She comes down the steps, surprising us all with the ferocity in her voice. She pushes past me, almost knocking me over. Cal grabs me as I stumble and pulls me against him, putting his arm across my chest protectively. I am very aware of Michael watching us closely.

“Lola,” Griggs warns, “this is none of your concern. You stay out of this.”

“I am
done
with you,” she snarls at him. “Unless you have probable cause to be on my property, I suggest you leave. The less you do for this family, the better.”

He glances over my mother’s shoulder at the rest of the family standing there, as if looking for something. He must not find what he’s looking for, because he takes a step back toward his patrol car. “I will find out what you’re hiding,” he says to Cal. “I know it’s something, and as long as you are in my town, I won’t stop until I find it out.”

“Now
that’s
an interesting use of taxpayer money,” Abe says. “I wonder what the town would think of such things, Sheriff? You know, the people who elected you? Maybe you should ask
them
what they think about Cal here before you misappropriate your department’s time and energy. It’d be interesting to see how quickly one could gather enough signatures to petition for a recall election for a sheriff using bias and intimidation to get what he wants, wouldn’t you say? Especially in front of so many witnesses.”

The scowl on the sheriff’s face deepens. The hatred in his eyes is plain as he looks at each of us in turn, but never more than when he glares at Cal and me. I stand firm, not diverting my gaze, attempting to show I will not be cowed by this man. Not now. Not at my home. He points his finger at me. “You
will
—”

“Enough,” Christie interrupts in a hard voice. “It’s time for you to get back into your car, George. This has gone on long enough. We’ll be in touch if we require your services any further.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be,” Griggs says. “After all I’ve done for your family over the years. Who knew it would have come to this?” His petulance is almost laughable, but I can’t rein in an angry desire to attack him.

Griggs turns to move back to his car, but is stopped when Michael says his name. I’d almost forgotten the archangel was even there. He walks over to the sheriff, his long legs making quick work of the distance between them. He moves with such fluid grace it almost seems like he’s floating. If you didn’t know what he was, you’d have thought he might have been a dancer at one point in his life. If you
did
know what he was, you could almost imagine his wings carrying him over.

He has several inches on Griggs as he stands before him, and for a moment the sheriff’s perpetual sneer falters as he looks into the angel’s eyes. I don’t know what he sees, and I don’t know if I want to. If everything I’ve heard about the angel hierarchy is correct, then Michael is almost the top of the top, just under Metatron, the one Cal said had disappeared long ago. That alone is enough to intimidate.

“What do you want?” Griggs asks. “You better take a step back.”

“I try not to involve myself in little things,” Michael says softly, though his voice still carries back to where we stand. “There are matters of greater consequence that always seem to demand my full attention. However, the fact that I am here should be enough to convey the importance of the situation.” He glances back at Cal as he says this last before returning his attention to the sheriff. “Since I
am
here, I must admit to being a bit curious about you. We are not meant to interfere, much as we sometimes want to. Our Father has dictated as such. But even still….”

Michael flashes his hand up and presses his palm flat against Griggs’s chest. The sheriff’s head falls back and his mouth opens in a yawning gape, but no sound comes out. The cords in his neck stand out as his hands twitch lightly at his sides. It’s over in a matter of seconds, and the sheriff gasps as Michael frowns and takes a step back from him. “Ah, Sheriff,” Michael says as he shakes his head. “If you only knew…. No matter. Leave this place. I have no desire to look upon your face any longer.”

Griggs looks confused and angry but obeys almost immediately. We stand watch as he starts the car and the headlights come on. I can see him watching Michael through the windshield before he turns the car and peels out down the driveway, the engine a fading roar.

“What in the hell is going on?” Christie snaps. “Who is that man?”

“He
is
kind of scary,” Mary says. “Did you see the look on George’s face? I thought he was going to piss himself, to be honest.”

“Bad word,” Nina intones quietly.

“Calliel,” Michael says, still facing the way the sheriff has gone. “To me, please.” His tone leaves no room for argument.

But that doesn’t stop me from trying. I grab Cal’s arm as he starts toward Michael. Cal pauses for a moment, then looks back and shakes his head, his eyes resolute. “I must go, Benji.”

“You’re leaving?” I ask, hating the way I sound.

His eyes widen and he pulls me into him. “No,” he says harshly in my ear. “No, I am not leaving you. I will never leave you. I need to find out what he needs, and then we can go home, okay?”

I clutch at him.

“We’ll go home,” he whispers, kissing my forehead.

“Now, Calliel,” Michael says.

“Okay,” I mumble and let him go. He holds his head up high and squares his shoulders as he crosses over to Michael. As much as I strain to listen, I can’t hear a thing beyond the murmur of deep voices. A hand falls on my shoulder and I feel a breath on my neck. I almost cringe until I realize it’s my mother. She wraps her arm around my shoulders, and soon we are surrounded by the rest of our family, Nina leaning against me on my other side, Mary and Christie at my back, Abe standing next to my mother, a hand on her shoulder.

From what I can see in the dark, Michael does most of the talking, though his words seem to be few. He does not punctuate anything with movement, keeping his hands folded behind him as if he stands at parade rest. Cal stands next to him, head bowed. One might think it was a defeated pose, but I can see that Cal is merely listening to Michael’s voice.

“This turned out to be a weird night,” Christie mutters.

“I enjoyed myself,” Nina says with a smile. “So many people!”

“Certainly unexpected,” Mary agrees. “Security, huh? At least they
look
the part. All that man flesh. Michael, is it? Don’t suppose he’s a queen like Cal?”

“He’s not your type,” my mother sighs as Abe snorts. “Trust me.”

“You need to be careful of Griggs,” Abe says. “I’ve told you that before, Benji. But he’s got his eye on you, and he might have….” He trails off, seeming hesitant to say the rest.

And I realize this is a moment, an opportunity for someone to say aloud what I had thought and what I am sure the others had thought about my father. I could tell them all I know, but I don’t, simply because I want to distance the danger from my family as much as possible. I can’t bear the thought of one of them getting hurt because of me. Corwin’s death has weighed heavily on my mind, dragging my guilt to the forefront for all to see, even if they don’t know what they’re looking at. I would not survive if I caused the death of another person, especially one of the people standing near me. My conscience would not allow it. But here? Now? There is this
moment
where it seems like we have stepped to the edge of a precipice and all held our breaths, waiting for one person to have the courage to finish Abe’s sentence. It needs to be me. It needs to be me because I have had the thoughts every day. It needs to be me because I am my father’s son and I will not rest until I am sure
he
can rest.

“And he might have been the one who killed Big Eddie,” I say.

Michael stops speaking and looks out into the dark again. Cal turns neatly on his heel and comes back to me, stopping a few feet from where we stand huddled as if trying to protect each other from a gathering storm. He watches us for a moment, but I can’t make out the expression on his face. Is he resigned? Defiant? I don’t know.

He holds out his hand to me.

I don’t hesitate and step from my family and grab the rough familiarity of his hand. “Michael would speak with you, if you’d allow it,” he tells me quietly as he pulls me against his chest. “He says he has words for only you to hear.”

“What did he tell you?” I all but demand, sure that he is forcing Cal to return to On High.

“Nothing I didn’t already know,” Cal says. “That I am wrong for being here, that it is killing me. That he’ll return to collect me when the time is right. That he’s sure Father is testing me, though he doesn’t know how.” He sighs as he rubs my back. “He’s seen the knot in my head, how the pieces are all tangled and not making sense. He saw something in Griggs, but he will not tell me what.”

“Why not?”

Cal chuckles ruefully. “Michael’s always been a stickler for the rules. Since he is sure this is a test, he does not want to interfere.”

“But he
is
interfering,” I remind him. “He’s trying to make you leave.”

“He’s conflicted,” Cal says. “He doesn’t understand what Father wants, and only knows what he’s been told in the past. It’s confusing him. He’s frustrated.”

“He can go fuck himself,” I hiss angrily. “Tell him to go away and leave us alone. Or better yet, I’ll do it myself. He wants to talk to me, right? I’ll make him go away and never come back.”

I can’t help but notice the way Cal quirks his lips at the sides, like he’s trying to stay serious but can’t help but be amused by the tiny human in front of him who wants to go kick an archangel’s ass clear across the county. I try to scowl at him, but don’t succeed.