CHAPTER NINETEENJayden
Jayden
Sage has moved. Thinking I won’t find her. Thinking it makes her safe. It’s laughable really.
I know that making someone disappear is about careful thinking, planning, and luck.
Luck that the neighbors won’t be up and look outside.
That they won’t call the cops. That if they do call the cops, that there won’t be officers in the area for a fast response.
I know because I lived the other side of it.
Sage has a camera on her front door so I avoid it.
I smudged my license plates with mud before we left.
I left Cole and my kitten parked about a block away, and walk through the neighbors side and backyards.
The ground is still frozen so I won’t leave any footprints.
I’ll still throw these shoes away just in case.
The light is on in Sage’s double. I hang by the neighbor’s shed. Her backyard isn’t big, maybe 75 feet, but there aren’t any trees or anything to provide cover. Her habit is to let her dog out at five. It was one of her biggest gripes about her lab Harriet - she was as needy as a baby.
I wait. Five rolls around. Then five ten. I glance at my watch again. My thoughts keep going back to my kitten. The fear she had today was unbearably hot. Intoxicating. Made me want to delay my plans just to fuck her in the backseat. It took monumental effort not to do so.
Finally, Sage opens the sliding door and Harriet runs out. She shuts it again. She looks the same. She’s still tall, brunette, and slim.
I walk to the side of her house. Harriet greets me, sniffing at me and spinning in excited circles. I pat her head and get down to her level, grabbing her collar. I wait around the corner of the house, just out of sight. Harriet licks my hand repeatedly.
Sage waits a few minutes before I hear the door open again. “Harriet!”
She doesn’t come, because I don’t let her.
We wait. There’s a frustrated huff and she calls again. Harriet whines.
“For Christ’s sake dog.” I hear the door open a little more and Sage steps out.
I have my gun in her ribs before she can get two feet out the door. I grip the side of her neck and hiss, “Not a word.”
She stiffens.
“Thought you could hide from me?”
“Jayden,” she breathes. She starts to tremble.
“Say goodbye to Harriet.”
“Fuck you.” But she’s shaking and her voice cracks.
Her hatred doesn’t turn me on. It burns like acid in my stomach. I shake her hard. “Fucking walk.”
I yank her around and open the sliding door with my hand not holding the gun. Harriet darts inside, away from the cold. I use my other hand to pat Sage down quickly. She is in thin pajamas. No phone.
“You’re a psychopath Jayden. When I don’t show up to work they’ll call the police.”
I don’t honor her with an answer and push her back the way I came.
She’s stiff and resistant. I dig my gun into the thin skin over her ribs.
As we get through the neighbor’s yard and can see the church she starts looking all around.
Her fists start clenching, and her breathing gets heavy. She’s going to run. Or scream.
I slam the butt of my gun into her head. She crumples.
Fuck. It’s a lot more suspicious to carry someone to a car than walk them there. This fucking bitch. I throw her over my shoulder and shoot a text.