CHAPTER 48 #2
He's the man who took Ace, my baby sister and threw her in that basement. This also means that he's the man who kept my Eve in that same basement. He's the man who carved her up and fed her lies her entire life. He's the man who isn't going to leave this house alive tonight.
"It's like I can see it all processin' in your mind, Adam. I see you puttin' it all together. Workin' it out. You remember me, don't ya?" His grin is feral as he speaks, and his Texan accent is thick.
I say nothing and just glare back at him.
"Well, that's alright. I expected as much.
I mean I'm a pretty memorable fella. Can't say that I remember you from that night though.
If I had seen ya, I would've killed ya before takin' your sister there.
Ya'll sure caused me a whole heap of problems. You killed my hired hand.
You destroyed all my equipment, and you let my slayer loose.
You know Adam, I just really don't appreciate any of what ya did too much at all. "
"We don't give a fuck what you like, old man.
How about you put down the guns and let me show you a little southern hospitality.
" Cal's voice is low and scary as fuck. He was there with me.
Cotton too. They still don't know the full extent of what this man did but they're both ready to kill him all the same.
They still don't know that the girl in that basement was Eve. Does he have her now? Is she here?
The man starts laughing. He laughs so hard that he doubles over. "Ah shoot. Are these the other two boys there with ya that night? All this time, I've been watching you and I didn't even realize. I can't believe I missed that. You fuckers got big didn’t ya."
He's been watching us. For how long? Why did he wait until now to strike? "What do you want?" I try my best to sound unaffected but for the first time in my life, I can't fake it.
"Well, my slayer of course. And that girl right there. The one that got away."
Cal lunges forward, eating up the distance between him and the man. The shot that rings out is deafening in the closed space.
BANG!
Again.
BANG!
Cal jerks back as each bullet hits its mark. He coughs, looking down at himself as blood pours from his body. I can't tell where he's hit. Both shots landed somewhere in the upper body. There's blood everywhere and it's flowing fast.
"Cal!" Cotton, Ace, and I all scream his name at the same time. Cotton and I rush to him, lowering him into a chair from the kitchen table. Ace struggles in the man's hold but stills when he presses the gun more firmly into her temple.
"C'mon, brother. Hang in there. Please stay with me." I've never begged before, but I'll get on my knees if it saves this man.
"Damn it, Cal. You better not die on me." Cotton's voice holds the tears that his eyes aren't shedding.
"Alright now boys. Let's not forget who's in charge here. The next time one of you shit stains get a wild hair up your ass, my compatriot over there is going to put one right through the skull of that pretty girl and none of us want that. I have plans for that lovely thing."
I still have questions. I don't know what he'll be willing to divulge, but I have to know. Before I can get a question out, he speaks first. His voice is more serious than anything we've heard from him so far. He's angry now and he puts emphasis on each word when he asks, "Where is my slayer?"
He doesn't know. He doesn't have her. Relief coats me like a heavy blanket. "She's safe. Somewhere where you won't ever get to her." My voice betrays nothing of the lie.
The man explodes with unhindered rage, "She's mine! Give her to me! Give her to me or the girl is dead!" He gestures to the man who has Ace, and he angles the gun so that it's pressed straight on against Ace's temple.
"No! Wait, okay. Wait. We don't know where she is."
"Don't fuckin lie to me! You don't let her out of your sight. I want her back. Give her to me."
He doesn't believe me because he's been following us. He knows that I never let Eve stray far from my side. "Something happened at the game. She has these episodes where she just isn't present for a while. She checks out. It happened at the game, and she ran off. We came here to find her."
The man's eyes narrow as they assess my face. He must believe me because his next words are, "Track her phone. I know you've been doing that."
I have no idea how he could know that. Did he bug our homes? "I can't. She left her phone with Ace."
He looks to Ace, who holds up the phone once again. I inspect Ace's face for any signs that she's losing it. None are there. She winks at me. She fucking winks. What the hell was that?
"Fuck!" He clearly didn't expect this turn of events. "Where's the SEAL?" He asks the guy holding the gun on Ace. The SEAL? What the fuck is this guy talking about?
"Airport. He'll land in Austin at 3:15 a.m. tomorrow."
"Fuck! Fuck!" He pulls his hair with both hands, leaving him looking like the mad man that he is. He's scared.
"Why now? If you've been following us so long, why did you wait until now to make your move?"
He scrubs his mouth with his hand and turns toward me, raising up the gun and firing.
BANG!
The impact of the bullet knocks me off my feet. It hits me high in the thigh and SHIT that hurts . "Fuck!" The pain is like nothing I've ever felt before. It burns and my entire leg throbs with each beat of my heart.
"No!"
"Damn it. How about you lay out some ground rules instead of just fucking shooting people." Cotton is struggling to keep his composure. Rage is pulsing just below the surface. I can hear it in his voice....see it in his eyes. The quiet nerd facade is just that. A facade.
I look up and see Cal. His skin is grey and he's already getting weaker. He's slumped over in the chair, but he's still breathing.
Cotton is at my side in an instant. He speaks quietly to me as he helps me back up and over to a chair. "We need a new plan, brother. This shit isn't getting us anywhere." I know he's right. They have Ace. One wrong move and it's over.
Cotton pulls up a chair between me and Cal and sits down in it.
He's showing that we aren't a threat. Then, he speaks.
"Listen, we don't know where Eve is. We don't know how to help you find her.
I can tell you though, your best shot at seeing her again, is keeping us alive. We're her family. She'll come for us."
The man jerks his head toward Cotton, seeming to mull over his words. He looks around jerkily and nods his head. "Yeah. Yeah. She likes you boys. She'll come for ya'll."
"We need to keep these guys alive though. Cal is bleeding pretty bad. She's not going to be happy to see that. If she thinks you're going to hurt us either way, she won't risk it."
Again, Cotton gets through to him. He nods slowly, accepting Cotton's words as the truth. "Do somethin' then. Slow the bleedin' or somethin'." He gestures to Cotton in a hurry-up motion.
Cotton leaps from his seat and goes into the kitchen, grabbing dish towels and kitchen scissors.
He gets back to Cal and cuts the bloodied shirt off of him, exposing the gunshot high in his left shoulder and another low on the right side of his abdomen.
He inspects the wounds and runs back into the kitchen, grabbing Saran Wrap from a drawer.
Using the Saran Wrap and some of the dish towels he makes a pressure dressing over each of the wounds.
Then, he comes to me and uses the same materials on my leg to make another pressure dressing.
Checking on Ace again, I see that she's calm and... .hyper-alert. I can see the worry in her eyes for me and Cal but there's also a vigilance that surprises me.
"When the roommates get home in the mornin', they comin' here?" The man asks the question, directing it to me.
"Yeah. They're coming to help us find Eve." I try to keep my voice steady, but the pain is intense.
"There is no Eve! That's a name those dumb shits made up to make her feel like a little girl. She ain't no little girl! She's a slayer. I need her back before that fuckin roommate of hers gets here and ruins everythin'."
"Eli? Why do you care so much about Eli?"
The man cocks his head to the side, regarding me curiously.
A small smirk graces his lips. "You don't know what he is do ya boy?
" He chuckles after he asks the question, and I just shake my head slightly.
He chuckles again. "Woo son. That man is somethin' different.
We don't need him gettin' involved in this.
We needed him far out of this state. That's why we waited.
This here is family business and he ain't family.
Slayer is mine. She's been mine since the day she was born.
You see, I'm her daddy. She belongs to me.
Not to you. Not to that killer over there playin' house like he's her fuckin brother or some shit.
Slayer ain't got no brothers. It's just me and her. "
He's, her father. Her father kept her locked up all those years. He tortured her and fed her lies. He made her...what? He wanted her to kill Ace. Were there others?
"You boys ever heard of the dark web? Ever heard of snuff films?
" My stomach contents curdle at his words as the realization sets in.
That night, when we caught up to him, it took us a while.
We were on foot, and he was in an SUV. We were winded and could barely stand by the time we got there.
It took every bit of speed and stamina we had to keep up with him.
If he had gotten on the highway, it would've been over.
We might never have found Ace. Eve might never have gotten out of that basement.
That day will always haunt me. When I think back on it, I'm right back there again. Desperate and furious.
We fall to our knees out back so we can catch our breaths. We have no idea how many people are in that house and we're no good to Ace in the shape we're in. We can barely breathe, let alone fight.
"You good?" My friends' faces are red, and their chests are heaving.
"Yeah."
"Good."
Once we catch our breaths, Cotton calls 911 and gives them the address.
We waste no more time and burst through the door surprising a man sitting at the kitchen table.
He jumps up and Cal is on him in an instant.
Surveying the area, I'm looking for any sign of Ace.
There's so much equipment in the living area.
So many wires and monitors. I run down the hall and there's nothing.
"Cotton, tear it all down and look for hidden doors in the floor or behind the equipment."
Loud crashes immediately ring out through the home as he demolishes everything in his path.
I go back in the direction I had seen the other man and Cal. There's no sign of the man who took Ace.
In the kitchen, Cal has the man by the collar, using his other hand to brutally beat the man's face.
The man isn't making a sound anymore. He isn't moving.
I'm not sure if he's dead, but he'll find no sympathy from me.
I look around and see a door. The basement, maybe.
It has a dead bolt and a key lock. That's it.
She's in there. I look around, but I don't see a key, so I run back to the door and kick it.
The wood splinters under my shoe, so I kick it again and again.
The third kick pops the metal hinge from the lock off and it falls to the ground.
Pushing the door open, I run down the stairs.
When I reach the bottom, I see her. Ace.
It's dark but it's definitely her. There's blood pooled on the ground around her head.
My heart sinks with terror, rage, and desperation, consuming me all at once.
I go to her, picking her up from the ground, when I feel sharp pain in my shoulder.
Immediately following that something wraps around my neck.
It's choking me. I drop my sister back to the floor so I can pull at whatever it is around my neck.
Turning, I grab the length of.. .rope, maybe and pull hard.
A girl is holding the other end of a whip.
I pull so hard that she almost loses her footing until she drops the whip.
Where did she come from? She looks terrible, but I can't worry about her right now. I have to get Ace out of here.
Removing the whip from my neck, there's no time to think about her. That ambulance needs to get here fast. I won't have time to think about that girl again for many years.