Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
C haz woke up with his face in the dirt. His head throbbed and spun at the same time. He moved only his eyes as he continued to do a full body check. His hands were tied behind his back, but he assumed his feet were free. The people above him were quiet, and he strained to make out what was being said.
“What the fuck were you doing?” A high, squeaky voice tried hard to whisper, but their pitch changed octave every couple of words.
“Do you know who these two clowns are?” Another man, slightly angrier but calmer, spoke.
“They were our targets, so the boss could have a backup for the whole… you know?” The first man whined. These were the fellas behind the Bigfoot, and Chaz was glad to hear someone else was in charge of the Bigfoot idea. Interesting. Obviously, they were Ezra’s contacts. Oh, God, where was Ezra?
“They’re from that joke agency. I’ve seen the older guy before. He’s a fucking dog with a bone. The boss will want us to dispose of them. So, I’m going to do that.”
“By kidnapping them? Goddamnit, George! If we were caught, we were going to pin this whole thing on SPAM! And once one of their men was arrested for this crime, they’d go under, and the boss would be so happy. Remember?” So, this was Ricky. Which meant George had shot at them.
“This way is easier and more fun.”
“I don’t fucking care. This was going to be a bloodless campaign, and then we wouldn’t have to deal with their bogus agents.” A pair of feet came into Chaz’s visual range. Ricky was pacing and wore some high-end hiking boots. Chaz was a bit envious.
“Yeah, sorry. I was trying to be expedient or whatever. Get everything down right away so we can report back to the boss. He’s gonna wanna know.” George shrugged away Ricky’s complaints.
“Oh my God! The boss! His party! He was supposed to chase and capture Bigfoot, remember? Oh my God. He’s gonna kill us. Fucking hell, George. I had enough points to get a raise.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. God. How about we do this? We bring them to the spot. Our friends here will be with Bigfoot, and we take the rest of the afternoon off,” George suggested. Ricky jabbed his toes in the dirt near Chaz’s face. “Come on, Ricky. Look at them. They have gear and other survival shit. It’s not like we’re dumping them in the middle of nowhere. At most, they’ll be in the woods for a night, and the boss will discover them. Or the cops.”
“But if we do this, SPAM will be on our asses. Especially if?—”
“How will they know?” George interrupted Ricky. “Let’s go. The sooner we get to the boss, the better it’ll be for us.”
“Good point.”
Chaz bit back the groan, trying not to give himself away. These two were the worst henchmen ever. If his hands weren’t tied and he wasn’t lying on his belly, this whole situation would be moot. He and Ezra would be in his truck, heading home.
A rough kick to Chaz’s side had him curling up. “Come on, asshole. Wake up.”
Chaz grunted and moaned as he pretended to be surprised and unaware. “What? What’s going on?”
“Let’s go. We’ve got places to be.” George hauled him to a standing position and shoved him forward. Chaz managed to catch a glimpse of Ezra at his side before his vision was blocked out by a rough-knit material. He wasn’t sure what they used to blindfold him, but the fabric smelled like ass.
“Chaz?” Ezra’s fearful query churned Chaz’s stomach. “What’s going on? Why am I tied up? Chaz?”
“Keep quiet and listen to these guys. We’ll?—”
“Shut up, asshole, and get moving. You can kiss your sweetie when we’re gone.” George shoved Chaz hard in the back, causing Chaz to stumble over a root. If George hadn’t caught him, Chaz was sure he’d be eating dirt. He had assumed the "quick on his feet, ready for anything" part of his life was done. He wished it was, but fate had a funny way of reminding him that the situation could change in an instant.
Ricky and George led them through the bush for roughly an hour. Occasionally, they stopped for a rest. The kidnappers were kind enough to offer them water before pushing them forward. Chaz tried to keep track of how long they walked or how many creeks and streams they crossed. The hike became a jumbled mess in his head as George started chatting, commenting on the scenery and their plan.
“This is good. Sit down, asshole,” George ordered as he shoved Chaz onto a crumbly trunk. The air stirred as another body—Ezra—fell next to him. A familiar weight was placed on his lap, likely his backpack.
“You two are gonna sit here until you can’t hear us anymore. At all. And then you’re gonna stay until…”
“The alarm goes off,” Ricky suggested. Someone lifted Chaz’s hand and placed a slick device on his palm. A phone. “After it does, you can do whatever the hell you want. Once we get back to town, we’ll contact the OPP for you and give them coordinates to where you are.”
“I was only going for a hike! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ezra sputtered. Chaz pressed his leg against Ezra’s, hoping his touch would calm Ezra down. Nothing could happen now. Ricky and George had their minds set.
“Meh, don’t care. You’re the ones who chased down Bigfoot.” George's lack of respect grated on Chaz's nerves. Chaz listed the ways he could hurt George. The guy would be dead when Chaz was free of his bonds.
“The bay is that way, and the road is that way. Good luck.” A rough hand turned Chaz’s head to give him a general sense of direction before releasing him. Soft chatter drifted away, which left Chaz and Ezra alone.
“Chaz?”
“Shush.” Chaz strained his ears as he attempted to triangulate the way Ricky and George went. The sound of wind in the trees wrecked his perception.
“But I’m confused.”
“I’m trying to see if I can follow them by listening, so shh,” Chaz snapped. Not being able to see frustrated him. It hindered his ability to rescue Ezra and himself from this dumb situation they were in. He leaned forward and focused on the ambient noises. Nothing. Ezra had distracted him, and now he was fucked. “Well, shit.”
“What?” A tinge of worry tightened Ezra’s voice. Chaz winced. He’d forgotten this was Ezra’s first rodeo, and he therefore hadn’t dealt with a mission that’d gone wrong before.
“I lost track of them. I hoped I could figure out where they went so we could follow them.” Chaz worked on freeing his wrist from the ties. Thankfully, Ricky and George hadn’t pulled them too tight. Chaz had some wiggle room to play. “How’re your hands?”
Ezra grunted and grumbled for a minute before Ezra sighed. “How are we going to get out of this?”
“They told us we could free ourselves once they were gone. I’m taking that to mean our situation isn’t as dire as we think. We’ll sit back-to-back to see if we can feel what’s going on with our wrists. If we know what’s been used, we can figure out how to undo the bonds.”
“Okay, okay. I can do that.”
Chaz shifted around until Ezra’s back was pressed against him. He felt the soft khaki of Ezra’s pants before he danced his fingers against Ezra’s. They locked together briefly. “Right, so can you find where the ties are attached?”
“Yeah. It’s not a zip tie. It’s got a clasp. One second,” Ezra murmured before releasing Chaz from the restraints. Chaz remained still as Ezra worked. The whole process took a minute before Chaz was free.
Chaz ripped off the black toque covering his face and rolled his eyes at what Ricky and George used to subdue them. It took him less time to free Ezra, and he removed Ezra’s blindfold. “I feel like a chump.”
“You couldn’t see it,” Ezra said kindly. He pressed the balls of his hands against his eyes and groaned. “I have the worst headache, and I’m sure I have a lump the size of a baseball. Ow.”
Chaz straightened up and examined Ezra. Nothing was out of place from what he could see. So, he slid his fingers into the soft silky hair, searching for the wound. A spot was tacky with blood and a fair-sized goose egg. Not a good sign. “Other than a headache, how are you?”
“Fine, I think. How ‘bout you?” Ezra pulled his phone out and lifted it high in the air. “Shit, no signal.”
“No, there wouldn’t be. Reception is always terrible up here. Okay, we have our packs.” Chaz lifted his and nodded. “Feels like the same weight. Good.”
“Hey, Chaz. We have a situation?”
A thready tone had Chaz spinning to see what had caught Ezra’s attention. He peered over Ezra’s shoulder and discovered a body in a brown fur costume with a distinct human hand thrown outward. “I don’t remember those guys talking about a third person. You?”
“Uh no. This is new.” Chaz stared at the unnaturally still body, for once unsure of his next steps.
“So, what do we do?”
“Well, we attempt to figure out where we are, go to the cops, and continue our original plan before Ricky and George abducted us. We can’t stay here and wait for help. We’re in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. Drop a pin on your map, so when we do get out of this bush, we’ll have a precise location for the cops.” Chaz’s thoughts whirled as he wrestled with the fuckup of a mission and how best to get out of it. “We need to find water. It’ll be our best bet to give us a definitive location.”
“Okay, but what will the pin do? If we dropped it, we’d know where we are.” Ezra jabbed a hole into Chaz’s plan. His attention had remained on the body, freezing him in place.
“Goddamnit. I forgot about that. Anyway, we go for help. The minute we find cell service, we can call 9-1-1 and April.” Chaz set Ezra’s backpack in his arms and stared down at the brown fur once more. “There’s nothing else we can do, Ez. Let’s go.”
“Do you think they knew about the body?”
“Who?”
“Ricky and George. Do you think they knew someone was in it when they took off on us?” Ezra snooped around the site, his toes nudging the debris. Chaz wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but he left him to it. The snooping might be a coping mechanism.
“They probably did it, though they seemed a bit… out to lunch. This whole scheme has the earmarks of a pair of goons running the show, which seems wrong. Let’s go. I’d like to get my bearings before dark.”
“Yeah, but…” Ezra returned his gaze to the fallen person.
“We can’t do anything when we haven't figured out where we are. That’ll be our first task.” Chaz hefted his backpack onto his back and chose a direction based on gut instinct. “The water is this way.”
Ezra sighed and rolled his wrist, allowing Chaz to go. Chaz could hear him grumbling, but Chaz didn’t dare engage him until they’d walk far enough away from visuals. Fuck, what the hell were they going to do? Ezra was right. Ricky and George were involved in these shenanigans. And they were going to use Chaz and Ezra as the fall guys. But there was a silver lining. Ricky was scared of their own mysterious boss as well as fucking around with SPAM. Maybe that could work to their advantage. They could locate this person and explain what happened.
This was a bigger mission than either April or Ezra had imagined and a mess beyond their regular scope of messes. Chaz’s sense of wrong was going haywire as he continued to think of ideas before tossing them away.
“We have enough water to get us through the day. If we do become stuck for the night, we can boil some for safety,” Chaz said out loud. Ezra’s silence had begun to bother him.
“But how? I don’t remember seeing any tools for camping. And I don’t have a vessel that’s fire safe or a match. We’re fucked.”
Chaz widened his eyes at Ezra’s casual f-bomb. He hadn't been sure if Ezra understood the concept of swearing. This was a sign of Ezra’s state of mind.
“I do. I keep an ultra-light kit in my backpack at all times. You never know when you feel like having fried fish at the beach.”
“You just happen to carry an ultra-light stove in your backpack, even though this was supposed to be an afternoon adventure?” Ezra asked skeptically.
“Yeah, of course.” Chaz shrugged. It was his normal. He had to be prepared for every eventuality. Because shit could go wrong at a moment’s notice.