Chapter 10
TEN
JACKSON
The second Waylon is down the stairs, Leland waves at him. “Child, I have bought you donuts.”
“Ooh,” he says as he rushes over to grab one.
“Your uncle Micah got those for you, not Leland,” Micah corrects, tapping our coffee machine like abusing it will make it work faster. It seems like the one thing Lucas did not instill in all of these men is patience.
“Thank you, Micah!”
“Don’t thank him,” Leland says. “We’ll work on that. Don’t thank strange men.”
Waylon’s eyes narrow a bit. “Aren’t all of your friends strange?”
Leland appears to ignore that, since he’s the strangest of them all.
“Have you heard from Cam?” I ask Waylon.
“I did. He said they asked him a ton of questions, but he kept to the story, and they seemed satisfied. He said that his mom told him the truth, but she hasn’t told his dad yet—that she plans to but is scared he’ll leave her.
He adopted Cam when he married her, so she’s afraid he’ll try to take Cam away, claiming that she is unsafe for him to be around. ”
“Shouldn’t you only marry someone you trust not to nab your child and run?” Leland asks before eyeing me. “Don’t be looking at him. He’s half mine.” Leland grabs Waylon, making me laugh. “You can have the legs; I get the top half.”
“You’re so embarrassing and weird,” Waylon decides.
“Since you’re here today, Micah, you’re going to help me,” Leland says.
Micah looks at his wrist where there is no watch then taps it twice. “I would absolutely love to, but look at the time; I have to leave.”
Ignoring him, Leland declares, “Waylon, Micah’s going to help me train you.”
Micah seems interested now that he knows this isn’t anything horrible… or at least assumes it’s not going to be.
“Cassel said that Micah is really good at getting out of binds. So he’s going to show you how to escape if someone has tied you up,” Leland says as he grabs a rope.
“Can I finish my coffee first?” Micah asks, since the coffee maker finally spit out the last of its coffee into his cup.
The way Leland knees him in the back of his legs and uses his brief moment of unbalance to grab his arms tells me that the answer to that is no, no he may not have his cup of coffee. Leland swiftly ties Micah’s wrists, wrapping the rope around them with precision before beaming at his masterpiece.
“You… I’m sorry, you think I’m going to escape out of that?” Waylon asks, giving up before he’s even tried. “Is there a play dead option like with the bears?”
“You really should learn this stuff. I was taught how to untie myself when I was two years old,” Micah says as he grabs his coffee.
Waylon gapes at him… and I have to admit, I do too.
“How the hell did you get untied already?” Waylon asks.
“Language,” I remind him, although I’m not even sure why at this point. It’s a losing battle.
Leland lets out a noise that tells me that he didn’t exactly expect Micah to get free, and the moment Micah sets the coffee cup down, Leland is back to winding the rope this way and that around his wrists.
“You really need to try harder than this,” Micah says.
By the time Cassel and Jeremy arrive twenty minutes later, it’s become clear that this is no longer about teaching Waylon how to untie himself; it’s now a battle between Leland and Micah to see if Leland can tie him in a way that Micah can’t get free from.
“Hey, Jackson?” Waylon asks.
“Yeah?”
“Do we have to sit here all day and watch this? I mean… it was really cool like the first seven times, but I’m getting a bit bored.”
“What are we bored of? Leland’s face? I agree,” Cassel says as he comes in and sees what Leland is doing.
He must have some hangup over not being able to keep Micah tied up because he pushes Leland out of the way and takes over.
“Hey, hon, I think you were teaching Waylon something,” I say as Micah breaks free of Cassel’s first attempt and Cassel is left standing there with his mouth open. Jeremy offers him comfort in the form of a pat before noticing the dozen donuts and ditching him.
Leland freezes. “Oh, I forgot. Right. Our demo is over, Micah, teach him. Go on, now.”
“It’s easiest to fool cocky ones like these two,” Micah explains as he slides in next to Waylon with the rope in hand.
“You use distraction—and let’s be honest, both of these two are easily distracted—and while they are, all you need to do is shift your arms in a way that makes it seem like they’re tight together when you’ve instead created yourself some space. Let me show you.”
“While he’s doing that, I have the data from Barlow’s house,” Cassel says.
He shows us a recording that depicts how the man was already waiting inside before we arrived, having already begun the process of herding Teo’s men before we even got there. It was all a game to him, and the entire time, he never appeared to have a second person with him.
“Could someone have been directing him using the security cameras like you did for us?” I ask Cassel.
“I thought of that too, but there was no trace of anyone having broken into the feed before I did. Now, they could have gotten in through traditional means, like by being in the security room, but I don’t see any trace of them,” Cassel says.
“One thing that does stand out to me is that the man knew the routes. He knew how to usher everyone exactly where he wanted, telling me that this wasn’t his first time in that building.
He could have found blueprints for the estate.
There are also pictures online from when the house was originally sold to Teo Barlow, but that wouldn’t tell him enough. ”
“Have you cross-checked all of the people who were active in the house this past week with the ones who died?” Micah asks.
“I’m working on it.”
“Are either of you nervous that this guy isn’t done with us?” I ask curiously.
“I just want to know what’s going on so if something happens, we’re prepared,” Leland explains. “Nothing too crazy. Oh, Cassel, Micah said my codename came up at Harley’s.”
“Like… in passing?” Cassel asks.
Micah shrugs. “I couldn’t tell, and when I tried engaging the man, he seemed reluctant to deal with me. I mean… look at me; who wouldn’t want in my pants?”
“You said… ‘deal with you.’ So were you talking to the guy or trying to bed him?” Leland asks.
“Maybe a bit of both,” he says. “Speaking of which… is Everly coming?”
What does anything we’ve said have to do with Everly?
“I think he’s coming at nine to punch me,” Leland says as he checks the time. “We invited the whole gang besides Tavish. We’re hoping he just like… forgets he’s part of this group.”
“I don’t forget shit, weasel!” Tavish announces as he comes in with Ellis and Everly. “Fucking bears remember everything.”
“Isn’t that like… elephants and crows or something?” Waylon asks.
Tavish ignores that point. “What are we even doing here?”
“You weren’t even invited, you came anyway, and you’re still complaining about coming?” Leland asks.
“I think he just wants your attention,” Ellis says, which makes Tavish huff.
“The attention of a weasel is like wanting the attention of a tick. Look at him over there wanting to suck the life out of me.”
“Tavish, we’re showing Waylon different ways to escape when you’re tied up. I didn’t know if you were good enough at untying yourself that you could show him?” Leland asks, and the moment he changes his tune, Tavish should know better. Instead, he shrugs.
“I’d love to show him,” Tavish says with all the confidence in the world. The man is brimming with it, and Leland is brimming with mischief as he rushes over and starts tying Tavish up. He looks quite pleased while Tavish tries undoing it, even though it becomes quite apparent he can’t.
“Waylon, come over here, Tavish wants to show you how easy it is to get out of this,” Leland says. “You’re good at this, right, Tavish?”
“I’m good at everything,” he claims.
“I think maybe your confidence is getting in the way,” Ellis comments. “You are good at a lot of things… but I don’t think this is one of them.”
“Ellis, watch Micah,” Leland says as he ties Micah the exact same way, and before Leland has even dropped his hands, Micah’s out of it.
And I know exactly why Leland did it because Tavish is fixated on Ellis who is very impressed.
“How did you do that?” Ellis asks.
“I can do it too,” Tavish says as he is left to struggle.
“I was told that I had to be here for something so important that you couldn’t tell me over the phone,” Everly grumbles.
“Maybe I’m just that important,” Micah says with a wink.
Everly stares at him like the man just asked if he could throw his coffee in his face.
“Shouldn’t I be in school?” Waylon asks as he sits at the table.
“No, we told them you’re sick. I did a very good job lying to them,” Leland says, sounding almost giddy.
“Why are you so proud of it?”
“No idea what you’re talking about,” Leland replies, but I know it’s because the receptionist asked, “Is this Waylon’s dad?
” and Leland got to go, “SURE IS” quite loudly.
It was actually so loud that she promptly called my phone expecting that the previous call was Waylon and his friends trying to fake being sick to get out of school.
I had to assure her that no… it was just my husband, and yes, he was far too excited to be calling in a sick child.
“You’re staying home today while we make some kind of plan,” I explain.
“We were careful,” Cassel says as the noise of Tavish struggling just becomes background noise.
“I’ve deleted all footage of any of you there last night as well as anything showing that they had Cam.
I watched the building for hours, and no one left besides the one man who killed them all.
About five hours after we left, some of Raul Barlow’s people from the main house showed up.
My guess is there was an alert because of the security system.
Raul probably tried to get in contact and with no one answering, he sent people over.
I’m sure his plan was to deal with this himself, but about an hour ago the police caught wind of it when they noticed a car sitting on the side of the road with a dead man in it who worked security for the Barlow home.
My guess is our visitor killed him on his way in or out. ”
Micah grimaces. “That’s not good.”
“We had to leave the place as-is,” Leland says. “We all wore gloves, we were careful. Tavish, are you in the system so if you left any blood, they could track it back to you?”
“I am not. They’ll get absolutely no matches,” he responds as he tries to pretend he’s just casually enjoying the fact that he’s still tied up. “There’s no way anyone could ever catch me.”
“Would you like me to untie that?” Ellis asks.
“Nah, nah, I got it. I’m just building up to it, you know? Make it more dramatic,” he says.
“Is that what he says in the bedroom too?” Leland mutters.
“Do we trust Sophia?” Tavish asks. “How well do you know her exactly?”
“Not well, but I believe she is well aware that her life is on the line and, more importantly… her son’s,” Leland answers.
“But we are already aware she’d hand you over for her son,” Everly says.
“Not surprising. I think we can all agree that we’d hand over someone we don’t care about for someone we love,” Jeremy says.
“I’d hand over Tavish for a bag of cotton candy and I don’t even like cotton candy,” Leland agrees.
“I would hand you over for nothing at all,” Tavish says with a beaming smile.
“With what hand? Because right now… it seems like you don’t have either.” Then he cackles to himself. “Hey, Waylon. What are you learning over there from Tavish?”
“Uh… that cockiness gets me tied up and unable to get free?” Waylon offers.
“Very correct. You’re so smart. Does everyone here see how smart my Waylon is? You’re still not open to changing your name? I’m thinking Leland Jr. has a really nice ring to it.”
Even though Waylon is giving Leland an exasperated look, I think he’s enjoying himself.
“Waylon, from now on, one of us will take you to school and pick you up. You are not to leave the school building at any time for any reason,” Leland says.
“What if it’s on fire?”
“Pack some marshmallows,” Leland unhelpfully supplies. “Cassel will also be changing your age to twenty-one so you can get a concealed carry license.”
“What? Leland, come on,” Waylon whines.
“Tavish will be going into school with you as your bodyguard.”
Waylon is now staring at me like I’ll save him.
Leland pats his back. “It’s okay, Waylon. Tavish is like a worm; you cut him in half and then we’ll just have two Tavishes.”
“Will we?” Waylon asks.
“One way to find out,” Leland says as he pulls out a knife and examines it before cutting the rope and freeing Tavish.
“I almost had that,” he says.
“Sure you did.”
We spend the rest of the morning confirming that we’ve successfully deleted anything tying us to Teo Barlow’s household, and then Cassel cuts his control over their security system before someone starts looking deeper and finds any connection to us in the system.
And then… things go back to normal. A week of normal, to be exact, before Detective Patel comes knocking on our door.