Playing Dead: Book One of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 38

Garrick looked up and smiled broadly at us as we entered the room, where he was leaning forward, his hands resting on the table as he scoured a number of open books and documents scattered in front of him.

"Harper! Megan! So glad to have you both back!"

In a flash, Harper stalked over to him, grabbing him by the lapels of his coat and threw him against the bookcase, sending some of the old tomes tumbling to the floor around their feet and dust dancing in the air.

"You fucking snake!" he spat, with his face just inches from Garrick's and eyes blazing a deep inky blackness. "I should fucking kill you for what you did. You could have killed her sending her back there!"

"Well she looks very much alive to me," Garrick replied, raising an eyebrow and glancing over at me. "Just as I knew she would be."

"Only because you knew I would be there," growled Harper, slamming him hard against the shelves again.

I glanced around at Kale and Sergio who seemed quite relaxed considering Harper was roughing up their boss in front of them; Kale sat in one of the armchairs, one leg tossed over the arm of the chair as he slouched back in the seat and Sergio stood near the table and had actually moved out the way before Harper had barrelled him over too. On hearing the fracas, Blaine and Page soon appeared in the doorway behind me, but they too stood and watched, taking it all in as if they had seen this a million times before.

Gripping Harper's wrists, Garrick locked eyes with him, oozing arrogant calm in the face of his brother's unbridled rage. "You forced my hand. I needed that information and I needed you. Two birds, one rather irresistible stone. And besides, you underestimate her. She's quite the resourceful girl now that you have loosened that Varúlfur leash."

"Oh fuck you, Garrick," I sneered, shaking my head.

"Megan, I'm hurt. I thought we were friends?" he smirked, clearly not hurt at all.

"You heard her, she said fuck you," Harper said coldly, shoving him again before releasing him and stepping back. Garrick dusted down his jacket, straightening himself out and smoothing back his long Mohawk hair as he glanced over at us; Harper standing just a little in front of me. He smiled and let his eyes linger on me slightly longer than necessary before sighing and walking back over to the table.

"So now we have those pleasantries out of the way, I take it you have what I want?"

I reached inside my jacket and pulled out the USB, throwing it onto the table amongst the books and papers. "There you go. It's all on there. Client info, names, addresses, case files."

He stared at me, his dark eyes narrowing. "Anything else?"

I sauntered over to the table and leant on the other side, facing him. "Oh if you mean is the address of the compound on there, no it isn't." His face clouded over and he cursed a hiss under his breath. "But, I do have it up here," I smiled and tapped on the side of my head.

Garrick looked up sharply, his eyes widening. "You know where it is?"

"Gravestock House. A few years ago, my company was looking for locations for a press shoot and they chose Gravestock, only days before the shoot happened, Gravestock was sold and it took a great deal of negotiation to persuade the new owners to let us still use the site. We couldn't afford to delay the shoot and reluctantly they agreed as long as we didn't take any longer than the one day we had booked it for. It was perfect, suitably gothic and creepy with this amazing Victorian greenhouse. Only once it was done and the team came back, apparently the models had complained about some of the guys at the house; they said they had felt intimidated, threatened even. There was even a rumour about one of the girls being cornered by two of them when she went in to use the bathroom. Whatever happened there, I don't know, but I do know that it's definitely the place as I saw a picture of all of them, including Walter and Noble standing outside. I'd recognise it anywhere as we have a similar picture hanging in our reception at work, except without the demonic furry beasts on a family outing." I grinned and folded my arms across my chest, enjoying the surprise on his face.