Chapter 22 TRACE
TRACE
“He’s gone.” Sage announces as I join them in the front of the abandoned house; the one intended for tonight’s haunted house attraction.
Both him and Evrin stand out front, Halloween decorations littering the surrounding area including fake headstones, skeletons coming from the ground and hanging from the trees, unlit jack-o-lanterns, and lots of spider webs.
I’m sure in the nighttime, it looks somewhat appealing and maybe even scary, if you’re into that.
But right now in the daylight, even as the sun starts to set, it just looks fucking ridiculous.
“What the fuck do you mean he’s gone?” I ask, looking out at the house behind them, not even stopping as I walk past.
Evrin grips me by the elbow to stop me, flipping me around to face him.
“He’s not there,” he says, a stern layer in his tone.
The wind breezes past us, the rain now having stopped its descent for the time being and the sun is making an attempt to drop behind the cover of trees.
“We came to check on him like you’d asked us to after the whole truth or dare thing, and mother fucker was gone,” Sage says.
I stare at Evrin for a second longer before yanking my arm free.
“Fuck!” I shout, pushing my fingers through my hair. I know I made sure he couldn’t break away on his own. There’s no fucking way. I let my anger pour out, frustration in my voice as I shout.
“How the hell did this happen?” I ask, knowing damn well that this is my fault. My fault for being so fucking whipped over Olivia.
“We can look one more time through the house. I mean we checked and it wasn’t hard since it’s still light out. But chances are, he booked it somewhere.” Sage shrugs his shoulders and every ounce of my body ticks with annoyance.
“The fucker shouldn’t be able to walk with the wound I left in leg. Especially not without leaving a blood trail,” I reply, pointing out that he probably had help which means someone fucking found him.
“Why the fuck did you leave him alone in the first place?” Evrin asks and I am tempted to hit him square in his jaw. But he’s right. I dropped the fucking ball here. This is partially my fault.
“I had something more important to do,” I say stoically, knowing that I just couldn’t fucking help myself.
I look around the forest, knowing that if he did get free on his own, he couldn’t have gone far, but the chances of that are slim to none. He’s bleeding out. He needs help to walk. But who found him and where did they go?
“Something more important than getting the fucking names of the assholes who raped your sister?”
I turn to Evrin, wrapping his neck up in my palm. I stare into his dark eyes for a second, feeling fury melt into my veins. “
“I want to fucking kill someone tonight, but pain is what I’m after more than anything.
I don’t give a fuck whose, so I suggest you tread lightly.
If you have a fucking problem with how I’m doing things, then fucking leave.
” He doesn’t even budge, unblinking and breathing steadily; holding his own like a fucking champ.
It’s what makes him a Cutthroat, a name that goes way beyond a football field.
Though, I half expected Sage to be the one to question me, not Evrin.
But my anger boils hotter when I realize that he’s right, remembering that he cared about my sister too.
A lot of people did. And I fucked this up because I put my focus somewhere else.
On someone else. But both are important to me and if I plan to get what I came here for, I can’t let my anger out where it doesn’t belong.
I loosen my grip on Ev’s neck and take a step back.
“Both of you need to calm the fuck down,” Sage starts. “The haunted house opens in about three hours. The sun disappears in less than two. So we need to start searching this goddamn forest before he makes it far enough to talk to anyone, if he already hasn’t found someone.”
I close my eyes, hoping to god that he’s still alive. I want those fucking names. I should have gotten them before I left. I came to shed blood, to get revenge for what was done to my sister and I’m not leaving until I find out who hurt her.
I look back up, Evrin and Sage stand in front of me now with the house behind them. But something catches my eye. Movement in the distance off to the side of the house; a person running toward the back.
I tilt my head and squint my eyes.
“What are you looking at?” Sage turns his head to look where I’m looking but I don’t answer him.
“Did you bring my mask?” I ask, holding my hand out. Sage searches the backpack he had discarded on the ground and pulls the hoodie I had asked him to bring me—to replace the one I left with Olivia—handing both to me.
I throw the hoodie over my head and remove my gun from the back of my waistband, tucking it into my pocket.
“I have to take care of something. You two search for Broden and let me know if you find anything.” I say, putting my mask over my head. “Where’s Alli and Banks?”
“Assuming they went off to finish what we started. You know that man can’t help himself. Always fucking watching,” Sage quips but Evrin doesn’t find the humor, instead turning back to me.
“What do you want us to do with him when we find him?” He asks, throwing the bag over his shoulder.
“Get the names out of him and then let him go,” I say as I start to walk past the guys.
“That’s it?” Sage looks between Ev and I in confusion and I turn to face him once more.
“The stab wound in his leg is likely infected. He won’t last the night. And there’s really no one here to help him with that.”
The boys nod their heads in understanding before breaking off. I don’t waste a second stalking up to the side of the house. I try my best to keep my footsteps quiet, not wanting to alert anyone of my presence. I don’t know who I saw, but I know I saw someone walking toward the back of the house.
I keep my eyes open, hand on my pistol, and my breathing calculated. Once I reach the back of the house, I wait.
I busy myself, pulling out my phone to the video feed.
I click into the camera in Olivia’s room.
She looks groggy as she stretches on the edge of her bed.
Likely just waking from a nap. I wonder if maybe she needed the rest from the exhaustion of our little chase out in the woods or if she was tired.
And that’s when I realize that my little reckless is wearing nothing but my hoodie.
Fuck. She drives me wild. I have to put my phone away in order to calm my dick. She does this to me, makes it so fucking hard to see straight. Makes it impossible to focus on anything else.
I push myself up against the old-wooded cabin before slightly turning my head over the corner when I hear footsteps starting to come near and I know now is my time. I lower my mask over my face and silently count to three before I pounce.
I reach out and grab the fucker by the collar of their shirt, throwing them up against the siding of the house while simultaneously pulling out my gun.
I tilt my head, recognizing the familiar face. My arm is pressing against his neck and I push the tip of my pistol into his ribs.
“What the fuck are you doing out here, Jensen?”
Jensen tenses up, falling still as I hold him in place, leaving only a few inches between our faces. I see the bruise I'd left him not more than a few hours ago caress the side of jaw and I feel a desire to break it this time.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he responds as his eyes look into the glow of my mask.
I switch off the safety of the gun before pushing it into him harder. He hisses as I move my arm up to the bottom of his throat, pressing against his trachea.
“I asked you a fucking question.” I don't like being challenged. I don't like not being obeyed, and after what the fucking dick said earlier, he should be sporting more than a sizeable purple bruise for his actions. I should have made him bleed.
“I- I’m following someone,” he chokes out.
“You’re gonna have to try to be a bit more convincing, pal. I only saw you sneaking around back here.”
I notice him struggling to breathe and I realize that if I want any answers from him, I might need to ease up on his windpipe. I decide to move the point of my gun up to the side of his neck and remove my arm, lifting my mask over my head.
“Fuck, dude. Is that really necessary?” I smirk at him as I pull back the gun to cock it, and then place it firmly against the pulse in his neck.
“You really are psychotic,” he says before steeling himself. “I was following Olivia’s friend, Alli.”
“Alli?” I ask dubiously. “I find that really hard to believe.”
“Yeah, I saw her get up and leave from the whole truth or dare thing. I just wanted to make sure she was okay after you made her humiliate herself in front of everyone.”
I scoff. “Like you didn’t get fucking hard watching her humiliation.”
“That’s not the fucking point.” He rolls his eyes. “I followed her out here to the house and I saw her go inside. I went in after her but she disappeared.”
I push the gun further into his skin. “Disappeared? You expect me to believe that you followed her all the way out here and then you just lost her inside the house?”
“You don’t have to believe me but that’s the truth. Now will you let me the fuck go?”
I tend to have an affinity for liars, but only because they’re easy to sniff out and in situations like this, it makes things go a lot smoother.
Otherwise, I fucking hate them. But I can easily place a liar, noticing the frightened twitch of their lips or the apprehensive movement of their eyes.
Even the impatient pulse of their heart, which I can practically feel Jensen’s vibrating through the gun as I keep it pressed firmly to his neck.
And while I can tell that there is something off about this asshole and his conclusion, I can’t say for sure that he’s lying which only infuriates me more.
“You sure it was Alli?”
He shrugs his shoulders sarcastically. “Pretty sure. Don’t know many red heads. Why? Shouldn’t you be focusing on Oli-”
I replace the gun with my hand, squeezing until he sputters as I lower my face to nearly touch his. “Say her fucking name, and I’ll rip your goddamn throat out,” I warn him, seeing the fear caress his eyes before he shuts them, desperate for air.
I let go, making sure I keep the gun pointed at him as I take a step back.
“Jesus,” he gasps, leaning over and holding his neck.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, so I pull it out and see that the camera in Olivia’s room detected motion.
I watch her as she walks around her room and by the way she’s dressed, I can tell that she’s about to leave the cabin again.
I stare in awe as she walks toward the mirror and touches her hair.
And fuck, seeing her in her little makeshift Halloween costume has me in fucking knots right now—a sweater that looks identical to that of Freddy Krueger tucked into a black mini skirt, some fishnet tights, and tall black boots.
A fucking nightmare my little reckless is.
She always did love her scary movies. And her pink hair, I feel my body react as I remember how it felt to be tangled into my fucking fingers.
I hear Jensen breathing, forcing air into his lungs as he continues to try and catch his breath. I look up from the camera as Olivia walks out of frame, taking one look into the idiot's eyes before whipping the handle of the gun into his head and he tumbles backwards as he groans in pain.
“Agh, what the fuck!?” He holds his hands to his temple as he tries to maintain balance against the side of the house, but I yank him into me by the collar of his shirt.
“This is your last fucking warning before I decide that you’ll be breathing out of a fucking tube. Do not test me.”
He’s lucky I don’t kneecap him for his comment, for scaring her at the bonfire, for the stupid look on his face. For all the time I had to watch him be fucking near her, look at her, kiss her. He deserves worse than a bop on the fucking head.
He doesn’t even respond, which is probably best because anything he says might rub me the wrong way. I toss his pathetic ass to the side and he eagerly stumbles away, disappearing into the woods and out of my fucking sight.
I look at the phone one more time before putting it away, regretting that I didn’t set up the cameras throughout the whole cabin instead of just Olivia’s room. I might have been to see if Alli ever went back to the cabin, if only to verify what Jensen is saying.
I close out of the video feed on Olivia’s room and I lock the phone and stuff it away, placing my gun in my pocket as well.
I decide to search the house, needing to be sure for myself.
If Jensen was telling the truth, then Alli has to still be inside because as far as I know, there are only two exits and she hasn’t come out of either.
I round the corner and walk toward the door, hoping that Olivia’s friend isn’t who I’m going to have to kill tonight.