Chapter 21 #2
“All right. This is what we’re going to do.
” He pointed to the top of the tower. “We’ll winch him from up there.
Tie a rope on one of the metal bars on the water tower and drag him up.
As soon as we get him up there, we’ll tie his ankles and throw him into the water and ta da!
” He gave me spirit fingers. “He drowns. They don’t maintain these old towers.
By the time someone has a reason to peek inside, he’ll be bloated and nearly unrecognizable. Or bones on the bottom.”
Bile rose in my throat and I shoved the reaction down deep with a sharp nod. “Why is there water in there? I mean, if it’s old, shouldn’t it be empty?”
He shrugged. “No clue, but there is. I found this place last summer. I’ll go up first and tie the winch.
When I throw down the rope, wrap it around his waist tight and make sure he can’t slip out.
Then, come up, and we’ll lift him together.
” Ari didn’t wait for acknowledgement. He grabbed rope from the trunk and marched toward the ladder with confidence I wished I had.
I waited with bated breath, a shiver passing through me as a gust of cold air hit my face.
I buried my chin in my collar and shoved my gloved hands into my pockets.
Our surroundings were quiet, and somewhere from my left came a soft hoot that made me jump.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I closed my eyes and told myself everything was fine. Ari wasn’t leaving me to get caught.
Finally, a rope hit the ground beside the water tower.
I strode over to the rope, then yanked it toward Chuck’s body.
I did as Ari had instructed, wrapping it around Chuck’s waist until I was sure it was secure.
The last thing we needed was for him to slip out of any knots halfway up, because that’d be very messy.
When I was happy with my work, I ran to the ladder and made my way up, holding the rungs as tight as I could. The higher I went, the chillier the wind became, reminding me that it was too fucking cold for this shit. I needed to take Eddie somewhere tropical.
I finally reached the top of the ladder, and Ari gave me his hand, which I took with a quiet “thank you.” When I was firmly on my feet, he waved me over to his winch setup.
“It’s a good thing we have gloves and there’s two of us.” He chuckled, his eyes bright. “Wrap this around your hands.” He shoved a thick cord of rope at me. “And we’ll start pulling him up together. He good down there?”
I nodded confidently. I wasn’t going to second-guess my work. Fuck whatever Chuck might say if he was conscious. “He’s ready to go.”
Ari’s smile was shinier than a kid’s on Christmas. “Then, let’s pull.”
I took a deep breath and watched as Ari pressed a foot into one of the steel bars surrounding the tower. I did the same and braced myself as Ari said, “Go!”
Together, we tugged as hard as we could, dragging Chuck’s heavy body up with every yank of our rope. Sweat beaded on my forehead and cheeks, which made the whip of the wind icier against my skin.
Each time Ari said “pull,” we moved in unison. Finally, Chuck’s body appeared in our line of sight. Ari hooked his arm under Chuck’s armpit, and I copied him. We yanked him over the bar and onto the tower.
I panted, my brain catching up with what we were about to do now that I wasn’t exerting myself. Chuck was still unconscious. We were going to kill him. Throw him in the tower to drown. Was that what I wanted?
I closed my eyes and thought back to the time I’d lived with Chuck, remembered how he swore I was useless, a stain on his life, even though I was only his stepson.
He’d made me listen to him belittle my mom, tell me what a whore she was and how he’d kill her one day, and then he’d forced me outside to play catch with him, which ended up being him throwing the ball at my face and seeing if I could duck fast enough.
He was a horrible person.
“Tyler?” Ari poked me on the shoulder, and I dragged myself out of the memories. “Are we doing this? We can leave his ass here to freeze to death if you want.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Let’s drown the fucker.”
The scary grin returned to his face.
He pointed at the door on the side. It didn’t look quite right. Someone had probably used a torch to cut the hole, and the door was a piece of sheet metal. Not a pro job at all.
Ari looked very proud of himself. “Cut the lock off with bolt cutters the last time I was here. All we gotta do now is throw him in.”
“What you’re saying is you were going to put someone in here, so it might as well be Chuck?”
He snickered and nodded.
“Let’s do it.” I grabbed Chuck under the armpits again as Ari opened the door. We lifted him through the entrance and onto a rickety narrow platform that creaked under our feet. Someone had welded it to the side of the tower, and like the door, it was definitely an amateur attempt.
“What was this platform for?” I asked, looking around.
Ari turned on his phone flashlight and set it near our feet so that strange shadows danced around the dome surrounding us. My heart froze for a moment, expecting to fall as the platform broke under our weight, but nothing happened. The water gleamed about twenty feet below us.
Ari released his hold on Chuck, and I cursed as Chuck’s entire weight fell to me. He stepped back and waved his hand toward the water. “The final choice is yours, Tyler. These are your demons.”
It was oddly . . . empathetic of Ari. Maybe it was better to assume the thing he understood was revenge.
Another calming breath later, the decision solidified.
I shoved Chuck off the platform.
His body sailed through the air. A thud that rang around the dome had Ari and I sharing a confused look.
“What was that?” he asked, taking off his beanie. He ran a hand through his hair.
“Uh, no clue.”
He grabbed his phone, and we rushed to the edge of the platform.
For a second, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. Chuck had landed on his back and blood leaked out of his ears. Red spread around his head like a bizarre halo, and his eyes fluttered as he coughed.
Ari gasped.
“Oh, shit. It froze. The water froze. How did we not think about that?” I nudged his side.
Ari started to chuckle, which led to me snorting, and then we were both howling, despite the carnage below. My heartbeat settled somewhere near normal by the time we wound down.
“Shit, we’re dumb,” I said.
That just kicked off another round of amused laughter.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“You don’t want to wait and see if he—”
“No.” All at once, the seriousness of what we’d done closed in around me, making the shadows seems strange and dangerous.
I didn’t wait for an answer from Ari. I left through the door and ran to the ladder, slipping a little on snow.
The cold air whipped my face, but I ignored it as I grabbed the rungs and made my way down, one step at a time until my feet hit solid ground.
Ari wasn’t following, but I ignored where he was to rush to his car and jump into the passenger’s side.
I was right. This wasn’t my thing. Chuck was dead and I should be happy—I was happy—but that didn’t stop my heart from racing and a flush of fear from creeping up my neck.
I glanced around the car, but no one was around.
I closed my eyes, humming Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” as I thought about Eddie. Hopefully he’d forgive me.
Ari got in the car after what felt like forever, his grin wide and eyes shining bright.
“He woke up right after you left. He was pretty out of it. I told him you said hello.” He chuckled, clearly pleased with the entire situation, but all I could feel was cold.
I needed to go home, to cuddle with Eddie and tell him everything.
“This spring he’ll sink. Maybe I’ll come back to see. ”
“There’s no water in the base. Chuck can’t go too far.”
He hummed in interest.
The drive back to Ari’s house was quiet.
I didn’t speak, and he didn’t fill in the silence, another thing I enjoyed about him.
When we arrived at his house, he got out to grab my Christmas present for Eddie while I waited in the car.
I watched from my spot in the passenger’s seat as Jules whipped open the door before Ari made it there, and he shoved Ari against the threshold, his hand wrapped around Ari’s throat.
Ari laughed and licked the tip of Jules’s nose, and Jules snapped his teeth at Ari before kissing him hard. The scene was all very erotic.
My dick twitched.
By the time Jules let Ari go, Ari was bouncing. He went inside with Jules following before he came out again, my bag in hand. By the time he slid back into the car, I noticed all the extra hickeys on his neck and jaw.
“Jules happy to see you?” I teased, feeling a little lighter, since we were far away from the water tower.
“More like jealous I went hunting without him. That’s our thing.” Ari winked. “I’m in trouble later. I hope Master brings out the knife. We’re going to get rid of any evidence at the bar, so don’t worry about it.”
I had a feeling I shouldn’t ask the questions lingering in my head.
When we arrived at my home, I said my thank-you with a big hug, which he returned with an awkward back pat, and waved at him as he drove away.
The present felt heavy in my hand as I stepped up to the front door. Would Eddie forgive me for what I’d done? We could live happily without fear of Chuck now. Would he understand that?
Fuck, I hoped so.
The door yanked open and Eddie stood on the other side with a frown. “Baby, where have you been? I’ve been worried sick.”
I threw myself at him, and he caught me in a tight hug. “I killed your dad, Eddie. I did it and I’m not sorry. Please don’t hate me.”