Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I drive to the house, following John’s car. We both park outside and I have his escort into the home. The moment I step into the kitchen, Laura goes pale.
She was sitting at the kitchen table peeling potatoes with her sister. Her mom was stuffing a turkey. The small kids were trying to stab each other with common household items. All of that stops as we walk in.
“Daddy!” The little ones rush to John, while I stand respectfully to the side and wait for the greetings to be done.
Laura is staring at me like she’s just seen a ghost. I flick a wink at her just to let her know there’re no hard feelings. She might have run, and she will be punished for that, but I’m not angry at her. She had to give it a try. She was just outplayed by fate and by me.
She looks at John.
“Why is he here? You said I’d never see him again.”
Her mother chases the little kids out of the room and gets all the others down at the other end of the house. I’d say they’ll still be able to hear the conversations, though. This isn’t exactly a solidly built dwelling.
“He’s the father of your baby,” John says. “You two are going to get married.”
“No,” Laura says. “He’s a psycho. You don’t get it.”
“Does he hit you or something?”
“He wants to lock me away in his house,” she says. “He wants to make it so I’m… he kills people.”
“Hey. A man who kills people…” John gives a shrug.
“I’m not marrying him,” she says, standing up. “I’m not doing what either of you tell me to do, and if you keep trying to force me, I’ll make you both regret it!”
“Calm down,” John says. “We’re just going to talk. Get us some beers.”
She gives me a venomous look, but she does as she’s told and goes to the fridge, getting out a couple of beers. She proceeds to shake them and put them on the table in front of us.
“Go off,” she says. “Enjoy your beers, jerks.”
“That’s enough,” John says.
“You promised me that I was never going to see him again. Now you want him to marry me? No,” she says. “Never. Not in a thousand years.”
“You’re acting like a child,” John says. “You don’t want to talk? You can go to your room.”
She storms out.
“She’ll come around,” he says, tapping the top of the beer. He waits for a moment, then cracks the beer and shoves it to his mouth, sucking up all the foam from going everywhere.
I follow his example. I was planning on killing this person just a few hours ago, and now it seems he’s going to be family. I did not expect to find a kindred spirit in my pursuit of Laura, not in the form of a heavyset man running one of the most brutal criminal rings in the country.
“Did you see that guy in the gym the other week?”
“I consulted on the case for the police.”
“Oh, yeah? They didn’t catch him, did they? So are you bad at consulting, or…”
“Or what?”
John smiles. He doesn’t ask the question that is lingering in the air between us. Or did you do it. That’s what he really wanted to say. But he doesn’t need to. Because he knows.
He knows in the same way I know a string of crimes stretching from California to New York belong to him.
We share a beer, and then another, and then another. The house comes slowly back to life. Dinner gets cooked and served, and I help eat it. Laura’s family is a truly lovely, vibrant collection of people. I don’t often feel connected to those I meet. Usually they just feel like a series of either obstacles or advantages.
“You’re not such a bad guy,” John says as the evening is winding down. “You’ll be a good son-in-law. I might even have some work for you.”
And just like that, I am plugged into an entirely new network.
I thank him and his wife for dinner and go out to my car.
Which isn’t there.
Laura must have stolen it. She must have taken the keys from me somehow.
Or… no. She never came near me.
Then it occurs to me. The little kids. She must have sent them out to get the keys out of my jacket when it was over the chair. She deployed them like a couple of tiny commandos. I chuckle to myself. How absolutely adorable.
“What’s the matter?” John comes out onto the porch.
“She’s stolen my car,” I tell him.
“She’s really mad at you,” John laughs.
Laura
Lights are coming up behind me, fast.
So I guess he’s found me. Makes sense that he has a tracker on his car. I never thought that I could actually get away with this. I just wanted to do something to show this asshole that I really am going to be a huge fucking problem for him if he tries to keep me captive. Nothing is going to be as easy as he thought it was going to be.