All the Inside Howling (Hollow Folk #2)(23)

At that moment, the door to the hall swung open. DeHaven Knight shrieked in disgust and released the jacket, retreating into the depths of his cell. Heart pounding, I stepped back from the bars as footsteps came towards my cell. Then, with the same speed that had surprised me earlier, DeHaven Knighty rushed to the gap between our cells. His Broadway smile flashed, that serial-killer smile, as thick and bright as whitewash covering rotten boards.

“I seen it, all of it, last night. I seen you at Jigger Boss. And I seen you with that girl. Pretty, pretty jay, preen all night, preen all day.”





The footsteps grew louder, and DeHaven Knight slipped out of sight. I already understood that DeHaven Knight hadn’t seen me. He had recognized the denim jacket; he had thought I was River. But the news that someone had seen River at Jigger Boss last night, even if that someone were DeHaven Knight, hit me like an electric charge. But what had the last part meant? What had DeHaven Knight meant by I seen you with that girl?

Before I had an answer, the footsteps reached my cell. I looked up, hoping it was Sheriff Hatcher and not Fred Fort. Instead, though, I looked into a pair of brown eyes, crinkled at the edges from a poorly concealed smile. Kaden Decosse leaned into the bars, arms folded over his chest, and cocked his head. He wore, as always, mismatched clothes that he managed to make stylish instead of shabby: a yellow t-shirt, one sleeve ripped to expose pale muscle, with a faded smiley-face decal; jeans that might have been black once but had been scrubbed down to a whitish gray; and a beat-up pair of Chucks, with the canvas coming away from the rubber to show the toe of a ragged sock. He was, or had been, one of Austin’s best friends, but he hadn’t been around much since Austin had come out.

“Well,” he said, and for a moment the smile tumbled loose and he wrestled with it before he managed to hide it again. Poorly. “Busy morning?”

“What are you doing here? Your uncle call you?” His uncle was Ed Hatcher, the sheriff.

That grin slipped free again. “Did you really tell him to, quote, ‘do his fucking job for once’?”

My cheeks heated. “It wasn’t—”

“And did you tell him that a guy went missing, maybe killed, and he ought to find him before he fucks up the whole thing all over again?”

Cheeks on fire, I shook my head. “I—”

“And did you tell him that Fred Fort is an ignorant, homophobic piece of shit, but just because he’s one, it doesn’t mean everybody in this town is?” The hidden smile left his face. “Fred was really on a tear when I got here. About you. About,” Kaden made scare quotes, “the faggots. When I finally got a chance to talk to my uncle alone, I told him maybe you had a reason for being pissy when he talked to you. Maybe there were extenuating circumstances.”

“I wasn’t pissy.”

Kaden shook his head slowly, like I was some special kind of stupid that needed gentle handling. “Dude.”

The heat lingered in my face, but Kaden was pretty good at waiting, and after a minute I said, “Yeah. Sorry.”

With a grin that lit up the cell, Kaden produced a set of keys. “How about early release for good behavior?”

I nodded. “Thanks, I—”

Kaden shook his head. “One condition.”

I grimaced. I should have seen it coming. Kaden was going to puff up his chest. That sunrise smile was going to dip back below the horizon, and he was going to lean into the bars and tell me to stay away from Austin, stay away for good, because I’d been the one, after all, who made his best friend a fag. Bracing myself, I nodded.

Kaden bit the inside of his cheek, and he was silent for a long time. Long enough that the silence was awkward, and then he broke it with a laugh that sounded forced. Very forced. “Jesus. Ok. This isn’t really my thing, I don’t—hell. You come to a party. That’s the condition. I let you out, my uncle says he’ll forget this morning, but you come to a party. At my house.”

“You want me to come to a party?”

This time, it was Kaden who flushed. “You and—you and Austin.”

“You want Austin and me to come to a party?”

“I know you don’t like me,” Kaden said. “Give me a chance to show you I’m not a complete asshole.”

“And Austin?”

“Austin’s convinced everyone hates him now. And that sucks, because Austin’s a great guy. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who are happy for him. Maybe he needs to know that.”

I tapped the bars with one foot. “Open up.”

“You promise?”

“Jesus, Kaden. Fine. I promise.”

“Tonight?”

“What? No way. I’ve got—”

“You promised. Tonight, Vie. Both of you come tonight.”

“Fine. Now open this goddamn door.” As he did, I growled, “Gee, I can’t imagine why I’d think you were an asshole.”

By now, though, Kaden was back to himself, and he just shrugged and smiled and clapped me on the shoulder as I stepped out of the cell. I followed him out of the sheriff’s station, and as we passed the next cell, DeHaven Knight crouched on his cot, knees tucked into his chest, watching us as we left. DeHaven Knight’s always watching, I thought, and it didn’t sound like my thought, and that scared me worse than anything that morning.