Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
RAFE
“ W hat the fuck was that?”
When I came up the trail the last thing I thought I would find was the makeup artist that found Jane cozying up to Grant. Fucking rainfall made it impossible to hear what they were talking about but it also gives me the advantage of being able to sneak up on them. Grant’s too focused on her and the treeline beyond the cabin. I think through the names I know, the faces that I’ve seen and her name bubbles up to the surface.
Alexia.
She’s been nice to Kit and that’s the only reason her name has stuck with me. I like to know who’s good to my girl but mostly it’s to know who deserves to have their tongue ripped out for fucking with her. When I’m close enough, I can hear what Alexia is saying.
“No, someone else…at least I think so. She went psycho and threw herself at him, tried scratching his eyes out too before security pulled her off of him.”
Of course the facts about what happened have gotten a dose of drama added to them. It’s exactly why I wanted to make Jasmine lose her shit today. If someone from set hasn’t already made a call to the bloggers and paparazzi I’ll be surprised. By tonight, it’ll be all over socials, which suits my plans fine but I can’t show it in public.
“She didn’t fucking scratch my eyes out,” I snap and stalk towards Alexia and Grant. Alexia jumps in surprise and so does Grant. Fucker was definitely not watching the trail like he should have, which brings us to now.
“What was what?” Grant asks and nods down the trail after Alexia. She’s out of sight now, far enough away for us to speak freely.
“She thinks it’s Holly,” he says without explanation.
“That’s not what she was talking about. She was talking about the shit that went down with Jasmine today, wasn’t she?”
Grant rocks back on a foot and gives me a curious look. “Seems like you already know what she was talking about and what actually happened. You wanna explain to me why she was saying Jasmine scratched your eyes out?”
I cluck my tongue. “Why? You worried about me, baby?” Grant doesn’t immediately tell me no, so I know he is and I grin at him. “She didn’t do shit. I just pushed her some so she took the heat off of Kit. Jasmine is going to be the only thing these vultures are going to be talking about.”
He gives a grunt that usually means ‘fine,’ so I turn my attention to what he said about Holly. “Why would she think Holly did it?”
He holds up a hand to stop me. “I’ll explain that in a minute but this is more important. We have to fucking move,” he says as he whips a couple of photos out of his pocket and into my hand. I bring them close and shield them from the rain that’s definitely a storm now.
The first photo makes my stomach turn. It’s of Kit. She’s beautiful and unassuming, worry pinches her face as she stares out of the window. But it’s the next photo that has me wanting to kill someone.
“Motherfucker,” I snarl when I see the three of us sleeping. “Who did this?” I turn the photo over and see the shitty little message scrawled in black sharpie.
“I see you. Do you see me?”
“They’re dead. They’ve been dead since they started this game and I’m going to make this shit last.”
Grant hums in agreement. “I can get on board with that. Thinking we find who they’re working with and make them watch each other die. Those photos were waiting for us today. Someone took them while we were in the cabin, left them for us on the top step and I know why.”
“Why? How do you know there’s more than one of them?” I stare down at the photos in my hands. Kit is my world. Someone is threatening my fucking world . The photo of the three of us has me feeling like I’m coming out of my skin, like my bones are too big for the rest of me.
I need to move. I need to hunt. I need to fucking kill the person that did this.
“Getting on top of the cabin without us noticing? That’s a two person job,” Grant tells me and tucks his hands into his pockets. He starts walking towards the cabin and I follow him. We look like two men just out for a walk, maybe a smoke but there’s purpose to what Grant is doing, even if he’s taking care to make it look casual.
“I was out here before Alexia came up the way. I was looking, trying to find a hint of where this fucker went and at first, nothing. But we both know there’s always something. It’s not like they’re a ghost, now is it?”
I stay silent but it doesn’t matter. He’s right. There’s always something. It’s how everyone eventually gets caught. Everyone leaves a trace, some essence of themselves at the crime scene; it just depends if the person tracking them is smart enough to see the pattern. As much as I give Grant shit for being a dumb fuck, he’s smart about what he does. Not as good as me but he can read the pattern of a hunter the same as I can.
“The angle of that photo means they were on the North side of the cabin when they took it. There’s nothing to hold on to there so there had to have been a ladder.”
“Long ass fucking ladder,” I mutter. And it’s true. While the cabins are built to simulate coziness, the bedroom is massive, the ceiling well over forty feet up. It wouldn’t be a normal ladder that someone would use. It would have to be construction grade, the type of stuff that would weigh a ton.
“That's where they put the ladder,” he says and points at the ground. Two divots taunt me when I follow where he points. “Got an uncle who runs a saw mill in Alaska. I used to go spend a few weeks every summer with him. I know a ladder like that is going to take time to move and that’s not even considering the time that Alexia saw Jane.”
“When did she see Jane?”
“At fucking three-thirty am. She left the bonfire everyone was partying at early, that’s the last time Alexia saw Jane before she went to their room and found it covered in corn syrup. Look at the photo again. Look at my right hand. What do you see on the clock?”
I pull the photo back out and look the photo over. Zero right in on where Grant is telling me to look. I didn’t notice it before but there’s a clock—that stupid fucking high tech alarm clock Grant uses. The fucking thing rolls away from you if you don’t turn it off. Three-forty shines bright on the clock face and I raise an eyebrow.
“That’s ten minutes after Alexia saw Jane.” I know the fucker said corn syrup but there isn’t time to delve into that so I stay focused on one crisis at a time. “Elysium is too big for them to make it from our roof to Jane’s room. Ten minutes wouldn't be enough time.”
“No, it fucking wouldn’t be. Not when you factor in the time they would need to hide that ladder and do what they did to Jane’s room. That takes two motherfuckers for them not to be seen. Besides, that’s not touching on what we found in the woods today.”
“This has to do with that corn syrup shit you just said, doesn't it? Don’t think I didn’t fucking catch that.” Instantly I want to punch him. “And what the fuck do you mean we ? You didn’t take Kit into the woods, did you?”
“And what if I did? I keep her safe. She’s safe with me.”
“That’s not what this says. I see you. That’s a threat and we both know it.” I snarl and hold up the photos but he waves a hand at me.
“You’re in that photo too or did you forget that?”
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe later.”
“Listen here you little shit-”
“No, you listen. We’ve got two goddamn fuckwads out here grabbing women, shitting out fake blood, stalking Kit and sending us messages like a couple of bitch ass limp dicks. Shit is serious right now and we can’t wait around here like sitting ducks for them to fuck with us.”
He’s making sense so I nod. “I’m with you. You want to go after them then?”
“Fuck yeah I want to go after them.”
“We take the place that’s two hours out from here then. It’s got state of the art security. It’s far enough away that no one is going to be able to spiderman their way onto the roof to spy on us.”
Grant rocks back on his heels and looks towards the cabin. Rain falls in a slant with a gale of wind. All around us the storm gathers strength. It’s going to be hard to see anything past our cabin soon with how fast it is coming down.
“Kit’s not going to like it,” he says.”
“I don’t give two fucks what she likes and doesn’t. It’s our job to make sure the fucked up parts of the world don’t touch her and right now it’s touching her.” I shove the photos in my coat pocket. I’m going to shove them down the throat of whoever took them after I slit their throats. “We have to tell Holly before we move out.” If we don’t, I’ll get shit from Rita and I know Grant’s agent wouldn’t be far behind. Not to mention it’ll cause a stir with the film if we take off without anyone knowing about it.
The movie is important to Kit and that means it’s important to me. We can’t jeopardize the movie, even if the assistant director is the prime suspect right now.
“Why does Alexia think it’s Holly?”
“She didn’t really tell me. That’s when you showed up. I think it’s bullshit. Holly couldn't do this.”
I swipe my hand across my face and wipe rain from my brow. “What makes you say that?” I start walking. If the ladder was heavy enough to leave proof of where it was, then I’m willing to bet it’s nearby.
“She wants this movie to succeed. Needs it to. It’s her first time holding the reins. She’s in charge of making sure this goes off without a hitch while the director gets to have his final vision on the screen.”
“Could be the director,” I muse, craning my neck to look through the trees to the left. There’s underbrush there. A good place to hide the ladder.
“Who? Jackson? Nah, the guy is clean. Just wants another big payout so he can keep fucking his way around the world. He’s not on set any more than he needs to be.”
“Doesn’t sound too bad right now.” I don’t mean it. The only two I’m fucking are Kit and Grant’s pain in the ass. Wherever their asses go, I go. That includes around the world or on the set of what’s becoming a murder scene. “You think the ladder is through there?”
“Might be. We can look in a while. The storm won’t let up anytime soon. Let’s head back in. I’m sure Kit is losing her shit right now. Who do we have to talk to to get the place you found?”
“I’ll text Rita. She’ll set it up.”
Grant and I fall into step with one another. I’m normally alone when there’s someone to kill, but there’s an odd comfort in having Grant with me. I know if I fail, he won’t. Kit will be safe so long as one of us is breathing. For now, that’s all the comfort I need.