Guardian Of The Grove Read Free Page A

throat, but I couldn’t do that with ten cameras in my face. I wondered just how well she would be able to ask these questions with my foot planted firmly up her ass. That thought brought my smile back out. I shoved my hatred for them aside and got down to business.
    I gave the camera a cool stare but kept the smile. “The Fairfields were cleared of any wrongdoing in the arson investigation. Not only by the police but by the county fire inspector and the private investigator sent in by the Fairfield’s insurance company. It would be a stretch to tie these two tragic events together. During the impending investigation into their deaths, we will pursue any and all leads. If we find evidence of any correlation between the fire and the murders, I will let you know. Until such a time as that evidence present itself, it would be unwise to draw any correlation between the two events. We will go where the evidence leads us, and not jump into the realm of wild speculation. Thank you for your time.”
    I turned away as the media continued to hurl questions at my back. I’d had enough of their bullshit to last me a lifetime, and I had been out there for less than five minutes. I climbed into the passenger seat of the car, and we headed out of the driveway.
    “Where to, Detective?”
    “I’d like to stop somewhere and grab some beer, and then you can take me home.”
    “This is going to be a rough one, huh?”
    “You could say that.”
    “If you need anything besides a driver, let me know.”
    “I’ll do that, Officer. For now, though, just a quick stop at any convenience store and then back to my house.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    The car sped along the deserted late-night streets. I was ready to get home and relax. This would probably be the last night that I would be afforded that opportunity for a long time. Once I started in on a case, I knew that I wouldn’t stop until I had all the answers. The lieutenant knew it, too, which is why he had assigned me to this clusterfuck of a case to begin with.

Chapter 2
Jackson, Present
    I had the dream so many times. The dream where I catch the man with the scar on his face and kill him. Sometimes it’s in the room where my parents died. Other times it’s after it happened, as if I woke up this morning and just knew where he was. That one act fulfilled my lust for revenge, but it also sent me into a downward spiral. Each night my dream lasted a little bit longer, and I watched the horrors I committed play out as if they were a movie. Something was driving my decisions, the worst part of me, my dark passenger. Tonight the dream was different.
    I knew my parents were waiting for me in the kitchen, but I didn’t really want to go down there. The talk we were about to have was going to be awkward, and I wasn’t sure that I was ready for the answers they might have. Sure, I had demanded the truth, but did I really want to hear it? Finding out the people you thought of as your parents weren’t actually your biological parents was a shock. I had lived with them for eighteen years and never even had a clue. They had always treated me as their own, and I loved them more than anything in the world. Once I learned what it meant, there would be no way to put it back into the box.
    I clutched at my new necklace and felt the strength that it gave me. It seemed to fill me with determination. A gift from my biological father, maybe, a gift he hadn’t been alive to give me in person. There was nothing to do now but face the music. The cat was out of the bag, and I had to put on my big boy pants and man up. They were waiting for me, and there was no stopping the conversation we were about to have.
    I started down the stairs and knew instantly that something was wrong. There was no sound coming from the kitchen. It was like the kitchen was wrapped in a bubble, or had somehow been sound proofed. There was no sound coming from the kitchens TV, and as far as I could tell no one was cooking. My parents