Chapter 27
Tegan
There’s a knock on the door. I slink past the closed curtains and stand on tiptoes to look through the peephole.
Stacks’ greasy head peeks back at me. Alec told me I shouldn’t open the door for anyone, but it’s our boss, and I don’t want either of us to get in trouble.
With a sweat-soaked hand, I twist the grimy metal doorknob and open the door.
“Hey,” he says as he pushes inside. “Where’s Alec?”
“He had something to do. He’ll be right back.”
Stacks smirks. “Good, cause I have business to take care of with you.”
The shift in the air is noticeable, especially to someone like me. The moment the nice guy turns into the bad guy is not a softly blended moment. It’s a stark switch, as quick as a light turning on or off.
“We’re going for a ride. Grab your things.”
I take a step back. “I’ll wait for Alec, if that’s okay.”
Stacks lifts the hem of his shirt and pulls a gun from his waistband. “It’s not really a suggestion, kid.” He gestures toward a pen and paper sitting on the rickety table by the door. “Grab that pen and write a note.”
My legs refuse to work, and my lungs struggle to wrangle any oxygen. I take a sharp breath as he aims the barrel of the gun toward me.
“Now!”
His booming voice is enough to unfreeze my legs, and I rush for the paper. I lean over the desk and grip the pen with shaking fingers. “What am I supposed to write?”
“Alec, I went to visit Tye. I’ll be back soon,” he says, and the lump in my throat grows larger.
He’s going to kill me. This note will make Alec think I’ve gone somewhere innocuous. He won’t know to look for me until I’m in several fucking bags in a dumpster. Regardless, I send the ink onto the page as the prospect of a bullet to the head looms behind me.
Stacks rips open the door and looks around before grabbing my arm and dragging me through the parking lot. “If you make a sound, I’ll shoot you right here.”
“Alec will find me,” I say.
“Sure he will.” He shoves me into the back of the van and slams the door.
As soon as he releases the handle, I go for it, but it’s useless. He used the fucking child locks on me. I try to clamber over the seat to get to the front door, but he whips it open and puts the barrel against my forehead. I sit back and melt into the seat.
I can do nothing but sit and accept my fate as he shuts the door and rams the key into the ignition. With a silent plea, I turn and watch the motel fade into the distance as we drive away.
The road noise sounds like a tornado beneath us as we bump along in silence. Not even the radio plays. Seconds stretch into minutes, and the miles grow longer.
“Why?” I finally muster the courage to ask.
Stacks tightens his grip on the wheel. “Alec was my best crew member, but then you showed up. Now he gets half the sales. This is why I don’t allow you guys to fraternize. It fucks with my bottom line.”
“Me and Alec don’t—”
“I saw the picture, kid. You nestled between him and Tye. Seemed like something to me.”
“Picture?”
“Don’t play fucking dumb.”
I’m not playing dumb. Have Alec and Tye been taking pictures? Why would they do that?
“Then why aren’t they here too? Why aren’t you getting rid of them as well? I didn’t fuck myself.”
“Alec and Tye are my heavy hitters. Once the little—well, big—-distraction is out of the way, I’m confident they’ll get back to their old selves, making sales like they used to. I’m cutting the fat, so to speak.”
If he’s going to kill me, does he have to take a stab at my weight first?
Talking is getting me nowhere, so I sit back as the silence settles between us again. Minutes later, he turns onto a bumpy dirt road. Yup, he’s taking me to the middle of nowhere to kill me. It was fun while it lasted, I guess.
Stacks drives for what feels like forever. The back roads twist and turn through the woods. I try to track the turns as he makes them, but I quickly lose my way. If he doesn’t kill me, it won’t matter. I’ll never escape this labyrinthine forest.
He shuts off the engine, cloaking the van’s interior in dark silence. The van door rips open, and Stacks snatches me out. He throws my backpack at my feet.
“Don’t ever come near my crew again, kid. If you do, there won’t be anything left for the cops to find.”
With that ominous threat lingering, he gets in the driver’s seat and speeds off. The headlights disappear, and I’m left alone in the pitch-black wilderness.
We passed a sign for a national forest several miles back, so that must be where I am now. My legs feel weighted as fear soaks my body. The strange noises don’t exactly help, either. Insects sing and a bird calls in the distance, followed by the yip of something with teeth.
Fuck, I’m scared.
Genuinely fucking terrified.
So I do what any stupid, young girl would do. I run from the noises.
Branches whip my legs and rip my leggings.
My skin swells with welts, and the air sears the raw areas.
Crickets and frogs chirp, their sounds hardly covering every ragged breath leaving my mouth.
When I finally come to a stop, I’m more lost than I was when I started running, but at least I’m away from whatever animal made that sound.
It’s better to be lost than eaten, I guess.
Exhausted, I plop down on a fallen tree and clutch my backpack to my chest. How the hell will Alec ever find me out here?
Or worse, what if he never tries to find me at all?