Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Quinn
Aven and I sit at a table in Jim’s suite, hovering over a binder full of criminals.
Jim sits on the couch with Kenny, the massive white cockatoo.
He pets the bird’s head and speaks softly against its beak, and as the bird closes its eyes and listens, it’s the sweetest sight I’ve ever seen.
The fact that someone once abused this animal is beyond my understanding.
Jim catches me watching them and smiles to himself. “They have problem-solving skills, you know,” he says with a sad smile. “The cockatoo’s cognitive abilities could be compared to that of a young school-age child. Terribly, terribly smart animals, the cockatoo.”
“Seems like you two have developed a bond,” Aven says. “Might not need that other bird after all.”
Jim shakes his head. “Kenny and I have a bond, that’s true, and I plan to keep him around, but the other bird still needs us. So many do.”
“Aye. We can’t save them all, but we’ll save the ones we can.” Aven flips to the back of the book, and yellow suits fill the pages. His finger drags over the faces until he stops on a man. “Terrence Brickle . . . Was he the one with the lemur colonies that magically disappeared?”
Jim stands and delivers Kenny to his perch.
“Yes, and we still haven’t discovered their location.
He seems to believe we’ll have to let him go eventually.
He fails to realize we aren’t the authorities and are under no such compunction.
His release is inevitable, but only his release to Satan himself.
Until I know the whereabouts of those animals, we have to keep him alive. ”
He pulls a few cashews from his pocket and offers them to the bird, who accepts one with a gentle squawk. Jim pops the remaining cashews into his own mouth. The bird bobs his head in approval and goes back to munching.
“At least we can save the other bird. Our team is en route as we speak.” Jim palms a few more cashews, then stuffs them into his pocket. “Maybe I’ll set up a bird sanctuary on Devil Horn Island.” He turns to the bird. “You’ll like it there. Very warm. I’ll spare no expense.”
“Let the wee lass have a crack at the lemur bloke,” Aven says. “The other egg broke a little prematurely.”
“We can save the lemurs,” I say with a crack of my knuckles. “Give me a few minutes alone with this guy, and I’ll get the location out of him.”
“Someone has developed quite the bloodlust,” Jim says as he rocks on his heels with a pleased smile. “Are you handling the mental aspect well? I have psychologists on staff if you need to speak with someone.”
“Oddly enough, my time here has been more therapeutic than the eons I’ve spent with my therapist. I think it’s time to cut ties with her.”
Jim gets an odd look in his eyes, like I’ve nearly touched a hidden live wire, but he recovers and smiles at me. “Yes, well, if you change your mind, just let me know. For now, I’ll get an area set up so that you can practice your torture skills.”
I tuck that look into my back pocket for later. Right now, it’s time to enjoy my new hobby.
“Of course, it might be fun if we turn it into a game,” Jim offers.
“No need to turn it into a group activity,” Aven counters.
I shrug and turn to face Aven. “I don’t really mind if others are there. So long as Desmond isn’t invited.”
We filled Jim in on the Desmond situation before we started going through his big book of bad people.
Aven wants to take out Desmond immediately, but Jim says we have to wait.
As long as he hasn’t been witnessed trying to take my life, we aren’t allowed to act, and no one saw him put the turmeric in my meal the other night.
“I’ll speak with King and Frankie regarding the Desmond information,” Jim says, “but I can assure you he won’t be at this event. The invitation will be extended to our insiders only.”
I look back at Aven. “I’m fine with that.”
With a sigh, he relents. “Aye, call them in, then. If it’s what she wants, make it a game.”
Jim practically explodes with joy as he flitters off to begin preparing. Meanwhile, I’m exploding with excitement. I get to torture a piece of shit and rescue endangered species. I’m living the fucking dream, and I don’t know what could make this any better.
But then I feel the phone in my pocket, and I remember what’s to come tonight. What started out as a horrible day is turning into one of the most exciting days of my life.
After taking lunch in my room, Aven and I join five other teams of two outside the Pirate Plunder ride. It’s only once we arrive that Jim explains what we’ll be doing.
“Everyone, listen up. The game is simple. You’ll need to ride rides to get clues, and the clues will eventually lead you to your target. The first team to extract information from their target will be declared the winner. If both members of your team refuse a ride, your team is out of the game.”
Cat raises her hand. “Bennett and I don’t do water rides.”
Jim pulls a notecard from his breast pocket and runs his finger down the paper. “Then you’ll last as long as round three.”
Cat and Bennett start grumbling to each other, as do most of the other pairs. They’re likely trying to figure out who is willing to ride what and if this is just an exercise in futility.
I turn to Aven. “I’m not afraid of anything, so we won’t have any issues there.”
“Aye, me neither,” he says, but I distinctly recall the way Sim Aven closed his eyes on the coaster. Not to mention the way he ran off when Desmond offered to ride Iron Tiger with me. Maybe his fear of heights had something to do with it.
I glance up at Aven again, but his face is a stone mask. He shows no emotion.
“Let the games begin!” Jim raises a starting pistol and fires it into the air, and the entire group rushes to get on the ride.
Pirate Plunder is a large ship that swings higher and higher until it eventually goes upside down. It’s not my favorite ride at an amusement park, but it’s also not the worst.
I slide onto the long bench seat, and Aven presses in against me.
His shorts ride up a bit, making it so that our exposed thighs touch.
Heat rockets through me, and I pretend I don’t notice.
I don’t want him to move away or lower his shorts.
I’m thirsty for something more from him, and I’m desperately grasping at whatever I can get.
“Sorry about that, lass.” He pulls his shorts down and squishes in tighter as Kindra, Ezra, Eve, and Ice Pick join our row.
Motherfucker.
Cat, Bennett, Frankie, Maverick, Grim, and Rosie fill the row in front of us.
Another few rows of bench seats face us on the opposite end of the ship.
As we’re buckling safety belts and double-checking the lap bar, staff members begin popping a few Cattle into those seats.
Oddly enough, the staffers buckle them in.
I figured they’d let them fall right out, but no, they lower the lap bar, too.
“I don’t like these sorts of rides,” a woman in a yellow jumpsuit says. Her hands are fastened behind her back, but her legs are free. She tries to stand, but the lap bar holds her in place. “Let me off!”
The red Cattle sitting in front of her turns in his seat. “Would you shut the fuck up for once? We’re strapped in. It’s not like we’ll fall out.”
The woman struggles against the lap bar again, realizes he’s right, that she couldn’t get out if she wanted to, then settles in her seat again.
A ride attendant raises his thumb, signaling that they’re ready to run the ride, and another attendant nods and fires back the same signal.
“Oh, one more thing!” Jim calls. “Your first clues are hidden on the Cattle. Happy hunting!”
A loud buzzer sounds, followed by a click that I can feel in my feet. I tug on our row’s shared lap bar, afraid it’s come undone, but it’s still firmly in place. A breath of relief shudders out of me as the massive ship begins to move.
We slide backward first, which is forward for the Cattle.
When the ship gets a little lift, it drops and goes the other way.
My ponytail flies away from my neck, and I grip the lap bar with a squeal and a smile as my stomach drops.
Gravity pulls me down, down, down, and then we’re moving backward and rising again, a little higher this time.
On the third pendulous swing, the Cattle lap bar rises. The click I felt in my feet was their side of the restraints coming undone, not ours. With their hands buckled behind their backs, they can’t even hold on for dear life.
I laugh and turn to Aven, but he isn’t looking at me. I don’t think he sees anything as he stares at the dipping horizon and grips the lap bar with every ounce of his inhuman strength. The soft vinyl gives under his fingertips, and his knuckles blanch.
I wiggle my hand beneath his and give it a squeeze as the ship starts to rise again. His hold on the lap bar relaxes as he turns to look at me.
“Are you having a nice time?” he bellows over the rush of wind and creaking gears.
“Aye!” I shout with a smile.
My use of his native tongue seems to undo something inside him, and the fear in his eyes slips away, if only a little. He manages a smirk before the ship goes into another dive. His face contorts, and he grits his teeth as the vessel takes our stomachs.
At the apex of this lift, one of the Cattle loses his fight with gravity and tumbles out of his seat.
The ride starts its backward swing on our side and sends his body flipping all the way to the back of the ship.
He lands on the platform, giving us the perfect view of his fatal disfigurement as we rise and rise and nearly go upside down.
His legs twist at unnatural angles as he wriggles below us, and one of his arms is definitely broken.
It won’t matter, though, because the ship swings over him and silences his screams.
Kindra raises her arms and lets out a squeal, and Ezra does the same. I want to as well, but Aven is struggling, so I stay quiet and just keep squeezing his hand.
The ship swings the Cattle side into the air again, and they are upside down.
The moment is brief, but gravity manages to pull one of the men from his seat.
He tumbles toward us, then smacks the central mast running through the ship’s center.
His skull breaks open and sends part of his brain into Ice Pick’s lap.
Ice Pick swipes the tissue off his thighs as if it’s just a bit of mud.
When we head backward again, I know what will happen. I can already see it in my mind, and Aven will miss it if he doesn’t open those beautiful brown eyes. I clench his hand and lean closer.
“Don’t be afraid,” I say, just loud enough for him to hear me. “I’m right here with you. If you fall out, we go together.” I raise our clenched hands to drive the point home. I won’t let go.
He doesn’t argue with me for once. He doesn’t try to be Billy Badass and pretend he isn’t scared. Instead, he just nods and opens his eyes.
The ship flips upside down and stalls. Three more Cattle are sent screaming to the platform, but the woman is the final holdout.
Her face burns red with the effort of clenching the seat with her legs, but it’s a battle she won’t win.
Before the upside-down stall ends, her legs lose the fight, and down she goes.
Splat!
Everyone lets out a cheer, and I raise mine and Aven’s hands as the ship flips all the way around. When I look over, I’m happy to see his other hand raised as well. He still looks absolutely terrified, and he isn’t cheering with us, but at least he’s trying.
Two of the bodies go flying from the force of the ship’s return to land.
After another turn, the ride slows and comes to a stop, and we all pile out of it.
Working together, we pull mangled bodies from beneath the ship and dig through their pockets for a clue.
We each find what we need, then separate into our little duos to read our secret messages.
Aven holds ours close to his chest and whispers the words. “If it’s a key you wish to find . . .”
I roll my hand through the air, urging him to keep going, but he just holds the paper toward me.
“Ach, that’s all it says. See for yourself.”
Sure enough, it seems we’ve only been given part of the clue.
“Damn you and your dirty tricks,” Eve shouts toward Jim, who looks pleased as punch as he rocks on his heels and laughs.
“Might want to figure out who has the missing pieces to the two puzzles,” Jim says.
“Who has last words that rhyme with ‘find’?” Aven asks.
Frankie, Maverick, Ezra, and Kindra all raise their hands, and we hurry to form new groups. When we put all three clues together, it makes a full clue.
You might go into the mine
If it’s a key you wish to find
Or maybe it is just behind
“You tore down the mine train coaster,” Maverick says to Jim. “That’s no fair. How are any of us supposed to know where it used to be?”
“I know where it was,” I say.
Aven looks at me, and he’s about to ask how, but then he must remember what we discussed this morning, because a knowing look shines in his eyes. I nod at him, hoping he doesn’t say more. He doesn’t.
“Lead the way, then,” Kindra says. “They’re already getting a head start over there.”
I turn, and sure enough, the other six are already setting off to follow their clue.
We’d best get a move on. The mine train was on the other side of the park, and right behind it, we’ll find the next ride.
There’s no telling what sort of calamity waits for us back there, but we’d better hurry if we want to win.