Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Gray,” he grins. “I’m Karl’s brother.”
Hot humiliation rushes through me. I am suddenly very aware of all the sexual intensity I have just indulged in, and the sticky residue that is starting to dry on the sensitive skin of my inner thighs. “Oh, my god. You heard all of that, didn’t you.”
“I wasn’t making an effort to listen,” he says, somewhat polite.
“You should have told me your brother was here,” I say, turning to Karl, who is grinning remorselessly.
“I forgot about him,” he says. “I forgot about everything except you.”
“That is not an excuse,” I say, smacking him in the chest.
“There’re a few gators out here,” Gray says, changing the subject. “Might have to shoot one or two in order to get back to the car.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got this,” Karl says.
He turns, picks up Patrick’s body, carries it out the door and… there’s no other way to describe it, yeets it into the swamp. Several gators surface from hidden places and move toward it. The last I see of Patrick, he is performing a grotesque dance not of his own making. It’s going to be hard to get that sight out of my head, but I guess that’s satisfying in its own way.
“Let’s go,” Karl says. “Now.”
We make a dash through the swamp, sticking to the little pieces of dry-ish land that keeps our feet and other things we don’t want to lose out of the water.
When we make it back to the car, I let out a little cheer of excitement.
“We did it!”
“Yes,” Karl says. “We did.”
“Well, not so much,” Gray says. “We were trying to return Patrick to his father.”
“I wasn’t trying to do that,” Karl says. “And I don’t think Ellie was either.”
“We are going to have to ‘discover’ the body, and call the authorities, and let Rainer Katsoff know that his son did not survive the arranged marriage. He will be angry. I suggest the two of you disappear for an extended period of time,” Gray says. He’s very logical. Good for him. I am not.
“I don’t care if he’s angry,” I say.
“We need to burn the swamp cabin down too,” Gray says. “It is likely full of evidence that will suggest foul play.”
“Nobody is ever going to believe that I killed a man his size with my bare hands. They might not even think he’s been killed at all.”
“No, but they will find traces of you there, and when they find those traces…”
“Or we could just… not,” I point out. “You could just tell the old man you couldn’t find anyone, and you could let the swamp deal with the rest of it.”
“I like her plan,” Karl says. “We don’t owe Rainer Katsoff anything. It’s time we got out of this parish. It’s time we went home.”
“My home got bulldozed and turned into a mall.”
“I’m taking you to my home,” he says. “In New Orleans. You’ll see your brothers and settle in.”
“Wait. Where are the boys?” I forgot about them too, though not as much. I thought Karl would take care of them. Sounds like he did. Sounds like I’m not going to like how he did it, though.
“I sent them to New Orleans to stay at my home. Tim and Tate already have jobs, and Connor is being tutored to start school. They’re doing well,” he says.
“Right,” I reply, my eyes welling with tears. “They’re doing well without me, you mean.”
“Ellie, you should be happy they’re doing well, period. It’s not about you. You don’t want to be held hostage, do you? So don’t do it to them. Don’t guilt those boys into pleasing you at the cost of living their own lives.”
Him telling me not to guilt them just makes me want to guilt everyone. I know that’s fucked up, but I feel like I am losing everything, and like everything I tried to do was not only a waste of time, but the wrong thing and a bad thing. Was it selfish of me to try to keep them with me all these years? Should we just have turned ourselves into foster care when we were still small?”
“You’re saying I’m like Rainer,” I say outlandishly.
“I’m saying you’re doing a similar…” he starts to explain, but I am not interested in what he is saying. I am interested in what I feel.
“You’re saying I’m a sixty-year-old man who forces his son into relationships he doesn’t want.”
“I didn’t…”
“You’re saying I’m a monstrous destroyer of lives and environments.”
“I’m saying lay off the kids, or I lay into you. I’d happily whip your ass again, Ellie,” he growls.
“Why would you do that to me?”
“I don’t like your attitude.”
“Oh, yeah? Well. I don’t like losing.”
“You didn’t lose. You’re alive.”
“I lost my home to that asshole. I lost the thing I’ve been fighting for. I lost my family. I lost my cell phone. None of our family are going to know where they’re really from anymore. The boys are going to be city boys. I’ll be some fancy city lady too. I’ll get used to running water and then I’ll say things like, I don’t know how I lived without internet stapled to my forehead…”