Chapter 19
Santiago
“Santi!” Blair whines. The sound is twisted with a giggle as I drag her away from the crowded space in front of the stage where the local band is jamming out. “Where are we going now?”
“You’ll see!” I call, knowing that we’ll have to hurry. I’m shit with keeping track of time normally but with Blair, I’ve lost all sense of it.
Now we’re running late.
“Please tell me this is where you dress up in your baseball uniform and show off that tight ass,” she says.
My answering laughter is loud.
“Another time, I promise,” I assure her.
Quickly, we hurry back to the truck. I open the passenger door for her and wait until she’s put on her seatbelt before closing it and running around to the driver’s side.
“Okay, what has you all amped up right now?” Blair asks, as she clicks on her seatbelt and we pull away from the curb. “Did something happen back at the house or—”
“No. Well—” I shrug. “Not that I’m aware of it. I have something I want you to see but, um, I had to schedule it a little bit in advance, and if we don’t get there soon the surprise will be ruined.”
Blair reaches forward and plays with the knob on the radio station. “Alright. Can I get a clue as to what the surprise is?”
“I’ll give you a hint,” I offer before flashing her a grin. It slides away however as I consider my next words. “Rhett usually does this with me.”
Blair tenses. Her attention swings from the radio to me, her eyes sharpening.
The swift shift from Playful Blair to this cold and calculating version is intense.
Scary almost. As she straightens in her seat, her body doesn’t stiffen so much as grow eerily still.
The warmth in the car slips away, and a chill replaces it.
“What are you dragging me into, Santi?” she asks, seriously.
“You’ll see. I promise it’ll be exciting,” I assure her without elaborating.
“I’m learning, Santi,” she says, her words coming out slow and cautious. “That you only have one mode and it’s ‘exciting’.”
I don’t bother to stifle my grin as I take a road out of town and in the opposite direction of Gnarly Pines. Immediately, we’re engulfed in woods. The winding road isn’t one taken often and it's been a while since it’s been repaved.
We bump along in the dark of the cab in silence for a moment before Blair asks, “No axes tonight?”
I wink at her. “They’re in the back.”
Blair nods as leans back in her seat.
My excitement at the fun we could have is being tested by my nerves which are fraying as I wonder how Blair will react to what I’ll show her.
She doesn’t say anything for the duration of the trip but neither do I.
By the time we get to the small cabin off the dark, unnamed dirt road, the silence is thick enough to cut through.
I drive around to the back of the one room cabin so that the truck is out of sight to anyone that approaches, then I cut the engine.
Blair says nothing as I climb out, following my lead. I round the back of the truck and pull the old toolbox over to me. I undo the latches then open the top. I reach for two black humanoid masks, then a pair of old and a pair of new leather gloves that are inside.
I toss Blair the new leather gloves and a mask. “Put those on.”
She does what she’s told. When she looks up at me through the mask, my cock grows swiftly into a painful erection. Swallowing hard, I reach forward and lift it off her face so that it sits on the top of her head.
“I want to see your pretty face for as long as I can,” I tell her when she gives me a confused look.
She turns her head away but not before I catch sight of the shy smile spreading across her face. Chuckling, I reach for the two axes laying in the back. Just like with the gloves, I offer her the new one.
“Santi…” Blair starts as she takes it from me.
“Can you explain why we’re doing this? I’m not opposed to murder, per se but…
usually when I commit a felony it’s to save my life—or Dad’s.
And while I can’t say the same for Dad, he at least got paid for it.
Are you doing this just for the thrill or… ?”
“Yes and no,” I start, anxious for her to finally understand. “Do you remember that I told you my dad died on the job? Well, I didn’t tell you exactly how he died.”
Blair watches me, her gaze sharp and unwavering. “No, you didn’t.”
“Well,” I start. “My dad walked into a trap house. Typically, in those places there’s just a bunch of druggies and a few sex workers inside, so when he went searching for the man who’d beaten his girlfriend so badly that she had a miscarriage, he didn’t worry too much about trouble.
He didn’t know that two gangs had converged in that same building and that a war had literally just begun before he walked inside.
He barely got three feet into the warehouse before he was gunned down. ”
“Oh, Santi…” Blair breaths, her eyes softening. “I’m so sorry.”
My heart twists but I continue, knowing that for her to understand, I need to say this.
“After college, I intended to go into the police academy and follow in his footsteps,” I push on.
“But when I came home for his funeral, I learned the people responsible for his death had escaped capture. Eventually, the police department stopped bothering to even pretend to look for them. Dad never got his justice. That never sat right with me. I was so, so angry, Blair. My dad was a good man. He didn’t deserve what happened to him and the assholes who took his life, they didn’t deserve to live. ”
Blair’s brows furrow as she considers this.
“So you… picked up an axe?” she asks.
I step closer, my body trembling with pent-up energy. Blair tilts her head back to continue to hold my gaze. I wonder what she’s seeing? Do I look like a madman?
“Not an axe, but a knife. I left Caddawalk and hunted those assholes down. When I found them, I wasn’t quick with it either.
Dad got justice and I… I gained enlightenment,” I tell her in earnest. “I didn’t want to be a cop anymore.
The thought of dealing with red tape infuriated me.
It’s all just bullshit. So I started listening to police radios, I used my cyber security degree to hack the police department's computers, and I started a game I dubbed The Hunt.”
Blair hums thoughtfully, finally breaking eye contact to look around the darkness that surrounds us.
“And how does any of this—” she waves toward the cabin, “—play into this game?”
“Well, originally, I went after murderers, violent offenders, and whatever. I chased them all over the state, sometimes going into Ohio or down to Maryland. It was extremely uncoordinated and time consuming. But then I introduced Rhett to the game when he arrived,” I explain to her.
“He narrowed down our victims to pedophiles. They’re easier to find thanks to the online public database and due to the sheer number of them.
Then, Rhett had the bright idea to bring the creeps to us rather than us going to them.
So, we bought a piece of land just outside of Caddawalk under a shell corporation, set up this cabin, and now we—”
“Lure your victims here, where you kill them,” she concludes, glancing at the cabin.
I nod.
Blair says… nothing. I wait for her to say something, anything, but she simply stares around us.
What does she think of all of this? Is she excited?
Appalled? A bit of both? I can’t read her blank expression.
Personally, I think The Hunt is a noble game.
But I guess I can see how it would seem a bit morbid.
My stomach clenches as my nerves intensify. Just when I think the silence has gone on too long, Blair sighs.
“This seems…” She searches for a word, her hand twirling around as if that will help her. “Honestly, it’s all a bit underwhelming.”
I blink in surprise. “Ah, what?”
“Yeah, I was kind of expecting more,” she shrugs. “Is there a plastic tarp inside that you use to keep the floors and walls clean when you chop them up?”
The slight disappointment in her tone is at odds with the gruesome picture she paints and it makes me laugh. The sound carries around us and weaves its way through the trees.
“No! You’re right, that would be boring if we just killed them inside the cabin,” I agree when I get myself under control. “We lure our victims here, then force them to run into the woods. If they can out run me and Rhett, they get to live. If we catch them, however, they’re dead. That’s The Hunt.”
Her eyes light up and a grin stretches across her face. “Okay, that sounds like a lot more fun.”
“Oh, I promise, it is.”
Blair looks down at the axe and bounces it slightly to get the feel of its weight. When her head comes back up, she gives me a curious look.
“Why did you want me here tonight, Santi? You could’ve just told me all of this.”
“Tell you about the game but not let you play?” I scoff. “That would be rude.”
Blair snorts and she rolls her eyes dramatically. “Be serious, Santi.”
“Because I wanted you to see that even if you get tired of Caddawalk, there will always be fun to have,” I confess, my voice small as my face heats. “I want you to like it here.”
At the confused shake of her head, I sigh and tell her the whole truth.
“I like you, Blair, and this is my attempt to get you to see, and like, all of me. I want to include you in all facets of my life,” I blurt out, unable to keep it in any longer.
“Oh.” Blair blinks in surprise. When she says it again, her voice is low and her expression softens. “Oh.”
“This is me, just as much as being the manager of The Shop at Gnarly Pines is,” I admit.
“My soul craves justice, Blair, and I’ve found a way to feed that craving.
Maybe that makes me a monster, maybe it doesn’t.
Truth be told, I don’t care. The only thing that I do care about right now, is that you still like me despite my socially frowned upon after hours hobby. ”
Tonight was my opportunity to show Blair all the reasons there are to stay in Caddawalk. She seemed to enjoy the shops. She loved the dive bar and now she gets to play my favorite game—one that can go on for a lifetime.
Is it enough to get her to stay?
I don’t know.
But god, I hope so.
Before anymore can be said, the flash of headlights sweeps over the trees a few yards away. We both tense in alarm. Our heads turn in the direction of the side of the house. A second later, the sound of a car coming to a stop alerts us that we’re no longer alone. I turn back to Blair.
“Look, I can turn him away. We don’t have to do this if you don’t want—”
Blair reaches out and grabs my forearm and gives me a tentative smile. “Let’s do this.”
“Yeah?” My voice jumps an octave as hope and relief, excitement and anticipation collide in my chest.
She nods. “Yeah, Santi. Just tell me what you need me to do.”
I lean forward and kiss her forehead, surprising both of us.
“Stay here, I’m going to chase him out the back door. We’ll give him thirty seconds then go after him. Whoever kills him first is the winner.”
Slipping into Spanish, Blair declares, “Let the best killer win.”
Then, she has the nerve to wink at me like she didn’t just say the sexiest fucking thing ever.
I reach forward to tug Blair’s mask back down to cover her face. When it’s covered, she slips into the darkness.
Unbeknownst to her, she takes my heart with her.