VOLKO

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Will drove silently until we reached the house. I didn't miss the way Will and Chase hung out, the pair got along well and that made me happy. For one it meant Will was willing to spend more time 'watching' over me, and I enjoyed hearing them laugh.

Robert's house lacked laughter.

As the door shut behind us, Will joined Chase in the living room, whilst I gave Jay a questioning look. He sat on the second from bottom step with a very sobering expression.

Overall, Jay was an intense person. Much like his father, when Jay got sucked into a project it became his obsession. There were tell signs to look for, lack of hair product, biting of the nails, bloodshot eyes, leg jigging. All of which Jay currently displayed.

"Hey, how was your visit?" He said in a rush, getting the formalities out of the way first.

"It was okay." I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it.

"You didn't go in did you?" Jay didn't miss a beat. He'd make a great detective one day.

"I made it to her floor, I even saw her through the window. But I realised, I don't need her to apologise. It won't change what happened or how I feel. My real family is here."

The end of Jay's lips upturned, easing the tension in his face.

"I'm glad you think of us like family, cause that's how we see you." Standing up, Jay reached for my hand hesitantly. I watched the inner battle he was having with himself. The tension in his body returned, telling me he'd made his decision. "Talking about family, do you mind if I show you something?"

I nodded as Jay led me into his room, looking around I grasped how much his obsession had gotten out of hand. The smell hit my nose with blunt force, burning my nostrils.

Not caring if I offended Jay, I hastily opened the window. It did little to help with the smell but at least I felt less suffocated.

"Jay, what the fuck. It reeks here." I looked around for the source of the ghastly smell, for my eyes to land upon stacks of paper, some news articles, others legal documents. All with my fathers names on somewhere. "What is this?" Pointing to the stack as I asked Jay.

He didn't need to answer, I already knew the question. How had I been so stupid to actually believe Jay would leave it be? What annoyed me more, was Jay's blatant disregard for me. He had no right looking into my family, and going behind my back.

Sensing my anger, Jay's tired eyes sharpened into focus at the task in hand. "After what you told me happened, I did some digging. You're as much of a sister to me as Gemma is, and if someone wants to hurt you, well I'm sure going to do whatever I can to stop them." Jay explained quickly.

"Jay the police already caught them."

"Did they?" I wished Jay stopped pacing around the room, his movement was wafting the smell around. "Just hear me out. My dad had his police friends around the other night, I asked them about it and they knew nothing."

"Jay, my father lives two hours away. I highly doubt they share that kind of information around. And anyway, why are you looking into this? Just leave it, I don't want to think or talk about it okay." My hand yanked at the door handle, to discover Jay's hand holding it shut. I gave him a pointed look.

Taking three deep breaths I attempted to calm the stewing anger inside of me before it blew. Tugging the door with all my might, I sighed as the door didn't budge an inch.

"Just look at what I found and then I'll drop it." Moving away from Jay and the door, I indicated for Jay to continue with a deadpan look. "Look at those articles, one after another, after another." Jay handed me the papers, there were no headlines. All the articles were less than a page each, column fillers. "Look at all those people who'd been sentenced that have worked for your father. And their crimes. Kidnap, torture, murder." To Jay's credit not only had he found articles on them all, he'd obtained the legal documents of their cases. He did nothing to my halves, I had to admit. "Your father is the head of some dodgy business Meg."