Rule 34 - Swayze

Domino and Georgie rode back to camp with me, as my car was more comfortable than Koi"s truck. Her face was pointed to the window the entire time, and she hadn"t said much. We were all dreading returning to the park.

No other news had broken regarding Ruth"s death or any other incidents. With all the staff gone, I wasn"t surprised.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked when we pulled into the parking lot and watched as others pulled in around us. "I"m sure they"d understand if you need more time. You are part owner, after all."

She nodded and sighed deeply. "I don"t think I was cut out for this."

"Staying in one place?" I gulped. The thought of her fleeing in the night had been gnawing at me.

"Running the park. I wouldn't mind staying if I had a reason to. I don't think I do though."

"Do you think you"ll leave then?" It felt like my chest was being squeezed as I waited for her answer. Finally, she looked at me.

"Hard to say. I have a list to get through first." She got out of the car and opened Georgie"s door.

I grabbed our bags and followed her back to her cabin. We passed the cabin where Ruth had stayed. Staff had gathered around, placing flowers, photos, candles, and other trinkets around the stairs to the cabin. Accidents were pretty regularly at the park, but deaths were rare. And Ruth, while she hadn"t been someone I"d particularly enjoyed past that one night, had been pretty popular.

Domino saw it and her eyes began to grow shiny. She ran into her cabin, and I followed her, as she dropped into a chair and sobbed.

"Ssshh, it"s okay." I crouched down in front of her.

She looked at me and glared. "It"s not okay. That was supposed to be me. Whoever stabbed her was trying to stab me. I just keep seeing her hanging there on the zipline, her body slowly turning, and no one moving to grab her. I don"t understand why. Other than Marisol and I not liking each other, but that"s not a reason to do something like this."

Who knew what Marisol was ever truly thinking.

Koi came in without knocking, and when he set eyes on us, he frowned.

"This is probably bad timing, but Fabian just came over and told me that he wants us to move in with you. A chainsaw was left on his doorstep the other morning, and the same knife that had been used on Ruth the next. He thinks it's a threat."

Domino stood abruptly, and I fell backward. "Threat to who? Because I don"t live there. Maybe they weren"t trying to kill me. Maybe it was Marisol or someone else."

The door creaked open, and Fabian appeared. "It"s better to be safe than sorry. Marisol has also been given security. Until we figure out exactly what happened, I don"t want you going anywhere without one of these guys."

"What about when I"m asleep, or showering, or working?" Domino threw up her hands. "This is exactly why I didn"t want anyone to know who I was. You sound like Dad!"

"Yeah, well, Dad"s not here and this is the best I"ve got right now. As far as sleeping and all that, there"s plenty of room in here. We can move their shit over."

"Does Marisol have people sharing a room with her too?" She crossed her arms.

"She"s still living at home. Come home and we won"t have to do this."

"Fuck you." She stormed out the door.

Fabian looked from Koi to me."Well, one of you go fucking follow her!" Koi did as told, leaving Fabian and me alone. He sighed. "I"m sorry, man. I know this wasn"t the plan you had for this summer, but I think of you guys as brothers and she seems to like you enough."

Like us enough? If he knew how we'd spent the last three days he'd have a different phrase in mind.

"It"s fine. Have you had any sort of clue as to who it could be?" I asked.

"Not really. To wield a chainsaw you have to have some muscle, especially to run with it. But both guys on the other side were running back already before Ruth even got there."

"You know about Marisol, right? What she"s been asking people to do?"

"Yeah, she"s gotten away with a lot of shit in the past, but after this, we"re done. She heard it from me these last few days. I"m not doing that again." He shuddered. "With Ruth."

The fact that he"d done it all, that he knew just what to do to hide the crime, was disturbing enough.

"Anyway, move your shit in. All of it. The staff that was in Ruth"s cabin are taking yours instead. They are too distraught to stay in theirs. Oh, and you"re being promoted to Park Ambassadors. You just go around with Domino and make it look like Risky Rush Park is the best place you"ve ever been." He left quickly, and I sulked. Any other day, I would have fought him and won the argument, but today, I was too drained of emotions to do anything but leave and start moving things in.

An hour in, Koi and Domino were still MIA.

Koi: We"re at the park.

Then, I got a text from Mattias.

Mattias: meeting tonight at the beach. No open invite, attendance mandatory.

I was getting sick of all of this. Maybe Domino was right. The open road sounded way better than all of this bullshit. What would they do if Koi and I just quit? I took everything but the beds and card table out of our cabin and put it into Domino"s. Considering her bed was a queen-size with a frame, I figured we"d all just share a space. My dick got a little hard just thinking about it. This weekend had been so fucking great. We"d had sex six more times after that first time. Now we could have that any time we wanted.

Georgie was starting to get anxious, so I grabbed his leash and took him for a walk. On the way back, I stopped at my car and pulled out the box of photos Johnny Blue had given me. I laid them all out on the table, trying to figure them out. This box seemed to be taken at a convention of some sort. There were people in cosplay and photos of others with what might be micro-celebrities. I didn"t recognize any of the names on the tables and signs, but I finally found a photo of the event banner. It was a vintage toy convention.

It fascinated me that she could take something so... bland and make it interesting. While I"d looked at the photos, I"d gotten invested in some of the people. She was pretty good at photography. I looked around the cabin. She kept saying she missed the road. What if I brought the road to her? I dug into one of my bags pulled out a roll of tape and started to hang them up all around the room. I was just finishing up when the door opened and I turned. Marisol and I stared at each other, frozen to the spot.

"I didn"t realize anyone was in here." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, is that why you came in?"

"What are you doing?" She went to the walls and poked a photo. "What"s all this?"

"These are Domino"s memories. I found a box of her photos, and I wanted her to be able to see them all the time."

"Oh, how romantic. I"m sure she"ll like that. Gotta do something to compete with Koi."

My fists clenched. "What are you talking about?"

She smirked. "Well, while you"ve been putting up photos for hours, those two have been hanging out at the park, holding hands and acting like someone didn"t just die here."

"She died because you had someone out there trying to kill her." I shook my head, trying my best to control my rage.

"No, she died because you couldn"t do the job I asked you to do. You had to go and fall for her "I"m so innocent, love me" bullshit. That"s how she was back then too. She hasn"t changed. I was almost a little glad when she took off. Then I didn"t have to see everyone fawning over her like she was some injured bird."

Marisol peeled a photo off the wall and stared at it.

"Do you know why she left?" I asked suddenly, enraged. "Because your uncle tried to rape her."

Marisol froze and looked up. Her mouth fell open slightly, but she closed it again. Her brown eyes went through a fast transition of shock, confusion, and hurt, and then finally settled on anger.

"Big fucking whoop." She started toward the door, dropping the photo on the floor. Her hands shook as she walked away. "Maybe if he"d succeeded, he wouldn"t have touched me."She paused, turning back. "And maybe then I wouldn't want her dead."