27. Cas
Chapter twenty-seven
Cas
W hat Will thinks happened yesterday:
Stop at the farm with coffee. Find Riley in the parking lot. Head a few towns over to the city. Meet up with some friends of mine. Enjoy nightlife. Get Riley a vehicle before he can get himself in too much trouble. Send him home shitfaced with someone who’ll fuck his brains out. Go to my hotel. Stay the night. Meet with investors in the morning. Come back home. Stop by the farm around my usual time with iced coffee, equally confused as everyone else about what went wrong.
What actually happened yesterday:
Stop at the farm with coffee. Meet Riley there. Ask if he still wants to carpool tonight. Pick him up at his place close to nightfall. Detour to my house real quick, since I forgot my phone at home. I’m so scatterbrained, hahahah. He’s impressed by the house. Pretend to check my phone. Aw, shoot. The meeting that I completely made up got canceled. Frown. So very saddened by this fake news.
Riley says it’s okay. We don’t have to leave town to have fun together . Perfect. Let’s pregame at my house. We start with shots. He’s a lightweight. He starts to flirt with me. Flirt right back. Be open to him making a move so he thinks it’s okay. Take him to bed.
Wring his little fucking neck until he stops fighting, then give it a satisfying snap just for good measure. Won’t be resting that head again on anyone anytime soon.
Drag Riley out of bed. Strip the sheets and put dirty linens right in the washer. Scald the shit out of everything. Everything. Top to bottom. Every room. Every surface. Everything he might’ve touched and even stuff he definitely didn’t, just to be safe. Load up Riley in a leftover painting tarp from the remodel. He spends the night wrapped up outside in the barn. Scald the shit out of myself. Make bed again. Bedtime. Sleep great.
Wake up the next day. Lie low at home for the morning. Stop by the farm at my usual time with coffee. Give spare coffee to Jesse. Smile. I’m such a nice guy. Offer to take his trash. Heart-melting kisses from the boyfriend before he sends me on my way. Go home. Put on my snow tires. Same tires Jesse happens to have on his truck. Load up Riley. Sun sets early. Around twilight, arrive at a wooded area conveniently located a couple of miles from where Jesse and his family lives. Dump Riley. Shake the shit out of the coffee straw around Riley’s face and mouth. Thanks for the free DNA, Jesse. Do a half-assed job burying Riley like an amateur. Take the tarp with me for now. Go home. Wash truck. Scald self again and put all clothes in the washer. All done with everything in time to welcome home my horny boyfriend. Lots of sex. Sleep even better than last night with him wrapped up with me.
A week passes. No one has any idea what happened to Riley. And by that I mean, no one’s come across his body in the pitifully shallow grave I left him in. Eh. Just a matter of time. The farmer’s market has officially come to a close for the season. Will and I have been going strong, and he practically lives with me. Jesse has backed right the fuck off, so I’ve been able to tolerate Will’s best friend like the good boyfriend I am.
The remaining leaves are frosted every morning. Snow has started falling regularly, though it rarely sticks. The whole season is cozy and lovely. Sex in front of the roaring fireplace, Hallmark holiday-type romance. I am extremely happy for perhaps the first time in my life, so much so I am content with day-to-day normalcy. Mostly because Will smothers me with love and affection, and I adore the constant attention. He really doesn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything outside of me.
Since neither Will nor I have family obligations, and since the farm will be closed for the long weekend due to the holiday, we have decided to go away. It’s going to be just me and him, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, spending the entire time cuddling and drinking cocoa between rounds of screwing. Sure, we could’ve done all that at my house, but the snowy mountain backdrop is something we both want to experience. Will has to close tonight, but he’s going to sleepover and then first thing tomorrow we’re driving out to the rental for our vacation. Like the good boyfriend I am, I pop by in the afternoon with his caffeine fix. Leave it to him to suck down iced coffee in a store that isn’t heated very well.
I am basking in sweet nothings and promises of all the things Will is going to do to me over the weekend when Jesse comes by to drop off his keys. I wordlessly pass a hot coffee over to him, since he probably needs it from being outside and I’m in such a good mood even his presence can’t take that from me.
“Thanks, Bailey,” Jesse chirps.
I hum a response and don’t even really bother to look in his direction.
“I’ll see you guys… wow, won’t be until Tuesday. Have a good Thanksgiving,” Jesse says.
“You too,” I say with a polite smile.
“You doing something with the family?” Will asks.
“Yeah, all the relatives are coming out to the farm for the weekend and Mom’s cooking a turkey. The whole shebang,” Jesse sighs. “I suppose you guys are staying close to home?”
“Mm, no,” Will says. He pauses to slurp his coffee, then sets the plastic cup on the counter. “We’re going away.”
“You’re… going away?” Jesse says, clearly confused.
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “We rented a place in the mountains a couple of hours from here. Just us two for four whole days before coming back to reality.”
“You didn’t tell me you’re going away,” Jesse says quieter.
“Shit, dude. I guess I forgot. We kinda decided last minute since we have nothing else going on, anyway.” Will laughs. “It’s okay to be jealous. I would be, too.”
“Yeah,” Jesse nervously laughs along. “Fuck you both. I’ll be trapped with over a dozen people I only see a couple of times a year, and every single one has an opinion about my sex life.”
“Sometimes being the black sheep of the family instead of the good son has perks,” Will teases.
“Well, have a good holiday and I’ll be seeing you soon.” Jesse waves and leaves.
“I better head out, too,” I say. “I’m going to get everything packed tonight, so tomorrow we can just grab our coffee and go.”
“You’re the best.”
Will gives me a kiss goodbye and I run a bunch of last-minute errands before coming home right before dinner. I park in front of my house, and Will should be home soon also since the store’s closing early. Keys in hand, I shove my door open. This isn’t the kind of area where people lock their doors. I don’t really believe in that, except it looks worse to be the one weirdo who doesn’t trust their neighbors. And besides, what the fuck do I have to be afraid of?
As soon as I close the door behind me, and while my keys are still in my hand, a click gets my attention. Jesse’s standing off to the side in my living area.
“What are you doing in my house?” I ask.
“You know,” Jesse says.
“I’m calling Will.” The second I shift to grab my phone in my pocket, he raises his arm. He really has some nerve to draw a gun on me in my own house. Rude.
“Do you think I’m fucking stupid?” Jesse hisses.
A bit, yeah. Not going to say that, though.
“I know you did something to Riley. You looked at that kid like he was shit under your shoe, and you expect me to believe after one night of being all buddy-buddy with you, he mysteriously dropped off the face of the planet?”
“Of course, I didn’t like him. That was kind of the point of me taking him out to meet people,” I say. “He needed a boyfriend, and I didn’t want him to keep hitting on mine in the meantime.”
“Right. And you took care of that, I’m sure.”
“Jesse, you’re being paranoid,” I laugh.
“Maybe I am. All I know is, someone’s been picking off guys around here over the last year. And if you expect me to sit back and let you take my friend to the middle of nowhere for four days when the last guy you went out with is still missing, you must think I’m fucking stupid.”
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK. Time to dig deep. I swallow hard repeatedly and blink, letting my eyes water until the corners sting. After I let out that first sob, Jesse drops his arm ever so slightly.
“I’m sorry,” I choke.
“You did do something, didn’t you?” Jesse says.
I shake my head. “I know you think I stole Will from you.”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“Of course it does. But you should know Will and I really did like each other for a long time. I even asked Will first if anything was going on between you two, because I didn’t want to ruin your relationship. And just when I finally think we’re all in a good place, where you’ve forgiven Will and he and I are happy together… you saw the way Riley looked at him. Yeah, I took him out and pawned him off on the first guy who showed an interest in him because I was jealous. And now he’s probably been trafficked or something, all because I couldn’t handle him flirting with my boyfriend.”
“Shit, Bailey, I…”
“It’s all my fault. I never should’ve let him leave, but it’s not like he was alone with the guy. He was taking a rideshare to his house. I thought he would be okay.” I let the sobs wrack my entire body, and Jesse frowns.
Pro tip: 97% of the population will become uncomfortable around someone crying and immediately want to flee or comfort them. That’s assuming they have any sense of empathy. The 3% that don’t are probably like me. Jesse is in the 97% and he immediately lowers his arm all the way.
“Fuck, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Jesse says. “I’m so sorry. None of this is your fault. I didn’t even know you felt so bad about all this.”
Jesse takes a step closer. Wide open. Grab arm. Twist. Knee to the gut. Gun is mine now.
“Bailey, fuck, I’m sorry,” Jesse says with one hand up and the other where I kicked him.
“I know.” And with a deep breath, I cut those tears off as if I simply turned off a faucet.
Jesse notices and tilts his head to the side, scrutinizing me as he should’ve from the start.
“Did you believe that?”
His only response is his eyes widening.
“Pretty good, huh? I’ve been practicing that for a while now.”
“You fucker. You really did kill Riley, and now you’re going to do the same to Will.”
I scoff. “Of course not. Will’s my boyfriend.”
And because he’s proven to me over the past few weeks that I’m only a menace while topping.
“As for you, you’re my boyfriend’s best friend. And that’s kept you alive until now. Not so much anymore.” I shrug.
While Jesse’s frozen in place, I tilt the gun and make sure the safety’s off. I don’t like guns. Too messy. But if I’ve always been one thing, it’s adaptable.