Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

ELLIS

“Well, looks like they can’t come get us right away. Any ride shares come out here?” Tavish asks the man who is watching us with much interest.

“Nope, not even the pizza man will wander into these parts. Although I’m afraid I have a thing or two to do with that,” the man holding the shovel says with a laugh. “After that one night with my wife, he could barely walk.”

One night of what? What the fuck happened?

Tavish holds the man’s phone out so I can see that he’s written something down that says: He’s totally a serial killer. He’s got serial killer eyes. He will likely take us to his home and try to dice us up or wear us. LOL.

What the fuck is the “LOL” for? And why does he keep adding laughing emojis to it? Like does he actually find any part of that funny?

I quickly grab the phone and type out: Do you have ammo?

Tavish takes it back and writes: Only these two guns.

And I watch as he flexes his arms.

What the fuck does any of that mean? And why ?

Slowly, I look over at the stranger who is just smiling for no damn reason at all. Maybe he thought of something cute… or funny. Or maybe he’s thinking about how he’s going to murder us. Like… I’m sure he’s a good guy. I’m sure he really is out… in the middle of this field… for a totally legit reason. And the shovel… he’s probably a farmer so he’s brought his shovel along for a walk… yeah… that one.

The man points off to his left. “But if you want to come back to my place, I have an ATV that I can use to take you over to the gas station that’s a few miles away. You can call yourself a Wuber, or whatever it’s called, from there.”

“Okay, sure,” Tavish says, like he didn’t just warn me about the man being a serial killer!

“If it’s only a few miles, we could just walk… right… Tavish?” I ask.

“Nah, why the fuck would we walk when he has an ATV?”

What the fuck? Did he forget he just mentioned that the man would take us home to “dice us up”? Maybe Tavish is confident he could take him. Maybe that’s what this is. Maybe his overconfidence is going to get us killed.

“Right that way,” the man says as he waves us ahead of him.

“You have something to eat at your place?”

“I sure do,” he responds with a grin.

Who grins after saying that? And why doesn’t Tavish seem concerned? What does this guy have for us to eat? Arsenic and rat poison?

“Shit, my shoelace came untied,” Tavish says as he stops what he’s doing to kneel right then and there. “I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that there’s a hole in my shoe. Probably not, eh, Ellis?”

“Y-Yeah,” I say as I watch while the man lifts the shovel above Tavish’s head.

Clearly, he’s going to bash his head in, and then I’ll be stuck out here running from the goddamn serial killer alone. Today is not my day.

“Please don’t!” I yell as I rush forward and throw my free hand up to do what? Block the attack? Let him murder me instead? I sure as fuck don’t want to die. And why am I running forward, willing to sacrifice my life for this man I barely know and who has mostly caused me irreparable trauma?

Something drops from the sky and hits me on the top of my head before rolling off into the vase I’m still holding. Slowly, I look down at the apple that the man just thumped off a tree near Tavish.

“You got some hefty balls, my friend. It’s probably not very safe to shove your head right into the area someone’s swinging a shovel. My wife did that to me once… it’s why I only have one nut. She popped the other.”

I simply stare at him as Tavish stands up and starts laughing. “Were you just going to save my life from an apple?”

I blush a little as I realize that I literally ran forward and nearly got smacked over the head with a shovel… because this possible serial killer was knocking down an apple. Can this get any more embarrassing?

With a sigh, I put my hand into the vase, but the moment I grab the apple, I can’t pull it out.

This makes Tavish laugh far too heartily.

“It’s like the book with those coonhounds!” the shovel man says, and that makes Tavish holler as he thwaps the man on the back like they’re best buds.

“It is! He’s like those raccoons that they’d trap with a jar!”

It definitely can get more embarrassing.

Why the fuck did Tavish infest my mind with the idea of this man being a serial killer and then just leave me to fret about it alone while the two of them become best buds?

I open my hand and drop the apple so I can free my hand before shaking the apple out of the vase and handing it over. “Can we go?”

“What’s your name, friend?” Tavish asks.

“Fred. Yours?”

“Tavish.”

“Radish?”

“Close enough,” Tavish agrees. “And this is Ellis.”

“He seems like a fun one,” Fred says as he starts off toward his house. “How’d you get so bloody and haggard looking? And how’d you end up jumping out of a plane?”

“My ex-wife finally snapped. She’s found a younger and cuter man and just fucking stabbed me. We had no choice but to jump out.”

“Wow. I bet she was fun in bed.”

“Every experience was life or death, but boy did she know how to work her magic,” Tavish says. Like what the fuck is he even talking about?

“My wife does too. Sometimes she’ll toss in a little surprise like some spicy lawn-ger-ray or bring the neighbor Chad over.”

I… feel like lingerie or the neighbor are two completely different things.

“Chad get right up in there?” Tavish asks, evidently invested now.

“I thought since he was a young’un, only about twenty-one, he wouldn’t be able to keep up. But as long as we give him a few rests he does his best.”

What the fuck is he doing that this man in his prime can’t keep up?

“You’re hilarious,” Tavish says as he heads off like he doesn’t have a hole in his shoulder or a hole in his shoe from me shooting him.

I tag behind, holding the vase and wondering why I’ve suddenly been deemed the vase holder of the group. And… speaking of which, why am I even carrying this stupid thing? I debate setting it on the ground, but I feel like we’ve gone this far with it, I might as well keep carrying it.

When I see the house in the woods, there’s a weird mixture of relief and anxiety that floods through me. This guy is far too suspicious, but don’t serial killers try to blend in?

“You boys hungry? Since we were talking about raccoons, I have some raccoon jerky. I’m sure you’re used to eating kangaroos or koalas, but over here our wildlife doesn’t punch back,” Fred says, then laughs.

“Still not Australian, but you know… I think I’m actually feeling quite full. I’ve eaten a grand total of nothing since this time yesterday and I couldn’t feel fuller,” Tavish says. “This the ATV?”

“You, Ellie?”

It takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to me. “Uh, nope. My stomach took to eating itself hours ago and is fully sated.”

“Is it the raccoon? Do you feel a kinship to one after getting caught like one?” Fred asks then laughs again.

I just give him a very forced polite laugh which he seems to enjoy.

Then he heads over to his ATV and waves at it. “Alright, let’s go,” he says as he clambers on.

It’s clearly meant for one rider to fit comfortably but two to be tight. It’s definitely not for three grown men, but Fred is sure waving us on like we’re all just going to sit on each other’s laps.

“Do you want to be the sausage or the bun?” Tavish asks.

I’m immediately confused. “Is this some kind of code for sex?”

“You’re hilarious!” Fred says. “My wife likes being the sausage.”

“Ha… ha ha…”

“You took too long. Get in the middle,” Tavish orders.

I eye the ATV as I finally get what he was referring to with the whole sausage and buns thing. “I feel like that’s the worst spot.”

“Unless someone starts shooting at us and then it’s the best spot,” Tavish says.

Which is a very good point. “Okay. Sure. Yeah. Okay,” I agree as I climb on behind Fred. I settle on a relatively appropriate distance between my dick and this random man’s ass while still holding this fucking vase. “Do I leave the vase?”

“I got a nice little holder for it up here,” Fred says, setting it in the container as I realize the vase is going to have a whole hell of a lot more room than I’m about to have.

Tavish swings on behind me and I’m thrust forward, right into Fred.

“Maybe you could take one of us at a time?” I ask as I feel it all. I feel every bit of Fred’s backside and every bit of Tavish’s front side… and I’m suddenly wishing I had the vase to put some distance between us.

“Sounds like someone doesn’t like being the sausage between two handsome buns,” Fred comments. “My wife would be jealous. Now hold on tight, Elliot.”

“I can assure you, I’m not going anywhere,” I say, but Fred grabs my hands and forces them around his body, then he cups my hands until he forces them to interlock in the most intimate hug I have ever had with a complete stranger.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a more awkward position in my life than at this moment when I’m both spooning and tightly holding on to a man who eats raccoon jerky and probably just got done burying a body in the backyard.

“I have to say, you two make a pretty cute couple,” Fred says.

“We’re not a couple,” I respond because even if Tavish is handsome and has a nice laugh, I can’t yet look past everything we’ve been through together. “I’ve known this man a grand total of twenty-four hours.” Twenty-four hours where I’ve been abducted, ridiculed, chased, nearly murdered, tortured, and thrown out of a plane.

“My wife and I got married within two hours of meeting each other, so it’s not the hours you spend together, it’s the way your hearts mesh and mold. And I can tell that the two of you… your hearts are meshing with vigor.”

“Yeah well, did she try to abduct you and tape you up and claim you’re a serial killer?”

“Fucking hell, if she had, I think I might have fallen in love even quicker!” And then Fred takes off so fast that Tavish is snapped back because he wasn’t holding on to me in the intimate way I’m holding on to Fred. I turn my head in time to watch him flip off the back into the driveway.

“I really feel like I told you to hang on,” Fred says as he skids to a stop, kicking up stone and gravel. I have a death grip on the man as I realize that maybe being the sausage is ideal. “Do you need Ellen to be the bun? This man knows how to hang on. He’s got a nice, firm grip on me.”

Tavish brushes himself off before climbing back on all cool like. I… honestly think he’s a little embarrassed but is refusing to let it show on his face.

“I’m a damn good bun,” Tavish says as he grabs on to me.

I didn’t think I could have less room than I already had until Tavish got up in there… like really got up in there. Now I realize how foolish of a mistake that was. If there’s life left in me by the time we get where we’re going, I’m going to be surprised.

Fred flies down the road and this time, Tavish stays on, probably due to the way he’s holding me in a crushing hug. Even with all of these distractions, my mind is racing the entire ride. What if my mom and sister didn’t get ahold of someone fast enough? Did Mom realize how dire the situation is? Did she just go to the police to wait? What the fuck was Dad up to? Is he even still alive? While I know my sister, Sienna, still holds out some hope for him, I resigned myself to the fact that he died years ago… because why else would he have just disappeared like that?

After about ten minutes, Fred slows down as a car approaches us. The car also slows and the window rolls down before the woman inside whistles.

“Sexy babe, you look like you’re having fun and leaving me out,” she says. “I might be a tad bit jealous over here that I didn’t get to watch.”

“I have to take Radish and Elenor here to the gas station and then I’ll be home.”

“I can’t wait,” she says before blowing him a kiss. “You boys don’t titillate him too much. Leave some of him for me.”

And then she’s gone.

It takes me a full minute before I realize what just happened.

“That was your wife?” I ask.

“Ain’t she the most beautiful woman you’ve ever laid your eyes on?”

“And she had a car?”

“She sure does. I get what you’re getting at, but I might be a bit jealous if you were sitting this close to my wife.”

“You clearly don’t get what I was getting at! We could have gotten into that car instead of continuing on with this weird man sandwich thing we have going on here! And we have gone way farther than a couple of miles!” I realize before sighing. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me when you’re taking time out of your day to drive us to the gas station. I really appreciate you helping us so much. I think I’m just tired and being dramatic.”

Fred just laughs and drives on, not at all considering calling his wife to save us from the most uncomfortable ride of my life.

“Just be glad you’re not in a vehicle with Leland,” Tavish says. “This is paradise compared to that.”

“I have to assume that’s because you’re the bun and not the sausage,” I grumble.

Tavish has the Lyft driver drop us off a block from where we want to go for some reason… which makes me feel like we’re doing something illegal.

“You sure we shouldn’t go to the police?” I ask.

“Do you want answers or do you want the police to get to it when they have time?” he responds. “And really, the police aren’t going to deal with this shit. If you’re being helped by protective services and shit’s as dicey as it’s looking, it’ll go higher up, but at the same time… is it really worth wasting resources on? I mean, they never did find your father; you think they’re going to do much now?”

“Yeah? I really hope my family is worth wasting resources on. My father was a detective… wouldn’t they try even harder having known him?” I mutter as we head through a busted gate where someone jumps out in a ski mask.

“Put your motherfucking hands up!”

I scream, but if I’ve learned anything during this past day it’s that the quicker you think, the faster things turn out well for you. I whip that plastic bag out of my back pocket and yank it over the man’s face before wrapping the handles around his neck.

“What the fuck! What the fuck!” the man starts yelling as I wait for Tavish to do something now that I have him startled. His something seems to be laughing.

“I’m suffocating. Why are you suffocating me?” the masked man cries as another masked man comes up and shoves his finger straight through the plastic, popping a hole where his mouth goes.

“I love the new look, Cassel. It’s very fitting. Let me poke some eyeholes for you as well,” the new man, who very much sounds like Leland, says.

The bagged man starts blindly smacking the area in front of him. “Don’t you dare jab me in the eyes.”

“Cassel, why ? I’m trying to help you,” Leland says as he grabs the bagged guy in a headlock before tightening the bag around his neck since it’d been close to falling off. “I’m helping! Let me help, Cassel!”

“You’re not helping with shit!” Cassel growls as he yanks it off and glowers at me… which is maybe an appropriate response. I’m so tired, running on no sleep, no food, and minimal water… and he literally jumped out to scare me, but now suddenly, he’s looking at me like I’m the bad guy?

“I would be annoyed at you, but you both look downright rough,” Cassel says. Even with the mask on, I can see his grimace.

“Pitiful is the word you’re looking for. Tavish, you look pitiful. And why are your eyes so red? They’re creepy. Stop looking at me with them.” Leland takes the bag from Cassel and pulls it over Tavish’s face as the man just submits to it. Maybe he’s as tired as I am.

“Aw, it’s the first time I’ve ever enjoyed looking at Tavish.”

“You forgot the airhole,” Cassel says, since the airhole is now on the back of his head.

“I didn’t forget, Cassel. Now, do we have some tape to keep that on?” Leland asks. “It’d be preferable if the tape went over his mouth so he couldn’t speak with his disgusting accent that’s annoying and definitely not sexy. Every time I hear it, it’s like little sound ninjas crawling into my earholes and stabbing my eardrums with teeny cocktail swords.”

I pretend not to notice any of that going on. “I want to say I’m sorry for putting a bag on your head, but as soon as I thought about it… I realized how embarrassingly insignificant of an attack that was,” I mutter.

“That’s okay, bro,” Cassel reassures me. “We all start somewhere.”

“Ah, the serial killer is back! I didn’t notice you there,” Leland says, like he could have missed that I was the one bagging his friend.

“He’s not a serial killer. You should have seen the way he screamed over shooting off some guy’s finger,” Tavish comments, still in his bag.

“Maybe he’s a serial killer who just really likes fingers,” Leland says. “Anyway. Anyway. Come inside to our torture room.”

I sigh as my exhausted brain finally catches up to what’s happening. “I kind of feel like we jumped out of a plane so we wouldn’t end up at this very location… but then we willingly came here and… I was oddly more comfortable in the plane than on an ATV with a creepy guy named Fred. So what I’m realizing is that we never had to jump out of the airplane or meet Fred at all. Ha…”

Cassel’s head snaps around and he tears his mask off. “Did you… Did you… Did you say Fred ?”

“Yeah, I definitely did.”

Cassel shivers.

I stare at him in horror. “What? Is he really a serial killer?”

“Worse.”

“What’s worse?”

“He tried to feed me… squirrel.”

Is that worse? In what world is that worse? I mean… obviously, I wouldn’t eat it either, but is that worse than being a serial killer?

“Well, Ellis got right up in there on the ATV. Like you couldn’t have slid some floss between Fred’s booty and Ellis’s bits,” Tavish says as he pulls the bag off his head, which makes Leland tsk.

“Is there like… a police officer I can speak to?” I ask.

“The chief of police is here,” Leland says.

“Really?” I ask, thrilled as he leads me inside to where the “chief of police” is relaxing in a seat in front of Terry and Eugene with his own ski mask in place.

Then we have Terry, who is strapped down like some man out of a bondage porno, and Eugene, who is either dead or still pretending to sleep. All the while this “chief of police” is kicked back with his feet up, mask on, and watching what looks like a video of a kitten. “I… I don’t think that’s the kind of ‘police’ I was looking for. Ha… Like real police? Anyone? Please? Anywhere?”

“Ellis, this is Daddy Henry, who just arrived and is clearly already bored. Daddy Henry, this is Ellis,” Leland says.

“I’m… rather uncomfortable,” I admit.

“It’s fine, you’ll get used to it,” says “Daddy” Henry.

“Do I have to call you Daddy Henry too? Because… I really just don’t want to.”

“Henry’s preferred,” he replies.

“And why is that man tied up like some dominatrix got a hold of him?” I ask.

“It’s just…” Cassel starts, looking a little embarrassed. “He was really wiggly, so I just… kept going and then he looked like that. It’s fine. Just don’t worry about it.”

I eye Terry and find that both of us aren’t quite so sure how fine it is. Then there’s Eugene.

“Is he dead or pretending to be sleeping?” I ask.

“I think he believes he’s fooling others. It’s like when a little kid hides behind the curtain and thinks no one can see him,” Cassel says as he kicks Eugene’s chair.

“So what’d you guys find out?” Tavish asks.

“A whole lot of nothing, honestly,” the final masked man responds. This must be Leland’s husband. “These two seem to know very little about the whole thing. They could be lying, of course.”

“I have my crew coming to collect them,” Leland says.

“What the fuck’s that mean?” Terry asks, looking rather alarmed.

Leland gives him a manic grin. “You’ll find out.”

I walk up to Terry and take a deep breath. “Do you know anything about my father? Like what he was involved in? Or why this Arthur guy wants him so badly? Please? I really just want some answers. I would really appreciate it.”

“I don’t know shit,” Terry snarls at me.

I have absolutely no idea why or how I thought that would work.

Eugene cracks an eye open before both shoot open wide when he realizes I’m looking at him.

“You?” I ask. “Please? I just… please?”

He grimaces. “I… I don’t know anything, man.”

“Please? It doesn’t sound like they’re going to let you go if you don’t talk,” I say. “Don’t you want to ask that lady out on a date? You’ll never be able to see her again if you don’t help.”

Eugene bites his lip. “I… I’m really being honest when I say that I don’t know much. But I do know that Arthur is a pretty influential man. He’s made his money through mostly legal means, but something’s going on that just… suddenly made him become fixated on your father. It was like… a month or so ago, he just started acting frenzied. All he could think about was trying to find you and your family. So I’m not sure if something came up, or what happened that started it. I really, honestly don’t know anything more, man. I’m at the lowest end of this mess. Maybe his contact over here would know more? He’s the only guy Arthur frequently talks to, and from the way he speaks to him, he seems to know something. He’s the guy who runs the business while Arthur’s off spending the money.”

“Thank you,” I say. “Thank you so much. I just want to keep my family safe.”

“Can I go free now?”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” Leland answers. “We’ll decide later. But for now, I think we need to get out of here before backup comes.”

We follow him out as a van pulls up. Leland simply nods at the guy who gets out, and I watch as a handful of men wander off toward the building.

Like… what the fuck are they doing? Are they just going to murder them and carry their bodies off? What the hell is this? Leland acted like they might let them go, so maybe they’re holding them until all of this is fixed? Maybe they’re taking them to jail… yes… that one. Let’s pretend it’s that one.

I decide that maybe I’m better off not knowing, and instead, I’m going to find my family and hide somewhere until this all blows over.

Tavish reaches a car that he leans against before turning to me. “Ellis, if you want, you can go with Henry, and he’ll take you to meet up with your mom and sister. You can rely on the same people as before to fix this mess, but don’t forget, they were never able to find out what happened to your father. They gave up long before that. And they’ll likely just force you to relocate.”

I still as that sinks in. I would have to change my name, change everything again. Would everything I’ve worked for just disappear? My job, my house, everything that I’ve surrounded myself with would be gone again, just like when I was sixteen.

“Your father was a detective, wasn’t he?” Cassel asks.

“Yeah.”

“Yet the people he worked for never found him,” Tavish says.

“He disappeared. They tried to find him.”

“All I know is that if someone I cared about disappeared, I’d tear this damn world apart to find him, but those he worked with never found anything, it seems,” Leland says.

“You think someone is hiding something?” I ask, unsure if that’s what he’s getting at.

“Honestly, I know very little,” Leland replies.

Tavish catches my eyes. “But what we do know is that the group of us can get you answers. Let’s say it’s an apology for dragging you off into the hands of an asshole. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like what we find, but we’re pretty damn good at anything we put our minds to. You can still go join your mom and sister, but if you’re out here with us, I’m confident we can make things happen faster since you know more. Even if your father never told you anything, you know who he is, and more about him than we do.”

I rub my face. I’m so exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for a damn year and a half. I really want to see my mom and Sienna and make sure they’re safe. But isn’t doing everything I can to keep them safe better?

“I just… I’m not good at this stuff. I don’t know how to help any of you. I’ll probably fuck it up.”

“Nah, you’re damn good at this,” Tavish says as he sets the vase, which is miraculously still intact, in my hands. “You’re a natural.”

I don’t know if it’s delirium or what, but I find myself nodding at Tavish. “Okay… Okay, yeah, I want to go with you guys. I want to figure this out.”

Tavish gives me a pat on the shoulder, and I don’t know why it makes me feel pretty damn good.