by Strand, Jeff
“Mr. Winlaw is coming after you. Grab your purse and get the hell out of there. Just get in the car and drive. Don’t tell me where you’re going. Answer the phone if I call but don’t call me. Okay?”
“Seriously, Daxton, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do shit! This isn’t on me! That bitch is a raging psychopath, and she killed six of Winlaw’s men.”
“Wait, what?”
“I barely got out alive. She might still be trying to hunt me down. Winlaw is having a meltdown over it and he’s coming after you, so I need you to shut the fuck up and do what I say, all right? Get out of town. Get in the car and just drive. Don’t use credit cards for anything. All right?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m walking around in some woods. Go. Take this seriously. I love you.”
Maggie hung up.
She’d do what he said. Daxton was sure of it.
He was deeply in love with her and would do almost anything for his child, but he wasn’t going to sacrifice himself for them. A quick death? Maybe. But not the hell on earth that Winlaw had planned for him. Not a chance. So if she was too stupid to get out of town like he told her to...well, he’d be devastated, but he wasn’t going to march into Winlaw’s office and give himself up.
Maybe there was still an opportunity for redemption. It was certainly better to die at Allison’s hands than Winlaw’s—at least hers would be quick. Numbers and brute force didn’t work. He’d have to take her by surprise.
He wanted to get as far away from here as possible, but that meant a life of constant fear, for as long as it took him to get caught. Which might not be very long. If he still somehow managed to subdue Allison and deliver her, Winlaw might forgive him. Perhaps let him off the hook after another savage beating. After all, Allison was even more dangerous—and therefore more useful—than Daxton had ever imagined.
Dammit! That’s how he should have pitched it when he called Winlaw! Instead of treating the massacre as a disaster, he should have reported it as a positive development. “The bad news is, everybody you sent over here is dead. The good news is, with Allison under your control, you could rule this city!” It sounded like cheesy supervillain shit...but it was basically the truth, right? If Allison could kill people with her mind, and Winlaw could control Allison, he’d be unstoppable.
But Daxton couldn’t call him now. “Hey, boss, I thought of a much better way to phrase the news.” He’d totally screwed up. Again.
He wandered through the woods for a few minutes, unsure which way to go. If he got lost in these frickin’ woods, he deserved to die. His phone had a GPS, but he might not be able to return to his apartment, and he should conserve battery power for now. It wasn’t like he was in the middle of some gigantic forest—it was the woods next to Allison’s house. What kind of idiot could lose his way out here, in daylight?
He only bumbled around for a couple more minutes before seeing the road. He emerged from the woods, trying to work out a plan. She wouldn’t expect him to come right back. That could work in his favor.
What other advantage could he gain?
He heard a car approaching, so he stepped back into the woods, out of sight.
The car drove past.
Daxton didn’t believe in God or any other higher power, but damn, somebody was looking out for him. He’d just been given an amazing opportunity, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
“Why would I want to talk to you?” Allison asked.
“Because I can make your life much easier, or I can make it much more difficult,” said the man on the other end. “For now, let’s pretend that I’m going to make it easier. One of my employees told me that you have a certain gift. Is there any truth to that?”
“What kind of gift?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t even know who you are.”
“My name is Dominick Winlaw. I’m not mad at you. I’m fascinated. How did you kill those men?”
“I drenched them with boiling water then stabbed the shit out of them.”
“I heard otherwise.”
“What did you hear?”
“You want me to be blunt? Fine, I’ll be blunt. I heard that you have telekinetic powers.”
“And you believed that?”
“No,” said Winlaw. “I thought it was ridiculous. Then you sent me pictures of six dead bodies on your floor and it suddenly didn’t seem as far-fetched.”
“That’s fair. But I personally would go through a lot more possibilities before I settled on magic.”
“You’re absolutely right. And at this point I don’t even care. Regardless of how you did it, the fact is that you killed several of my men. I’m not saying that these were world class assassins, but still, it’s a pretty impressive feat.”
“They were stupid.”
“How so?”
“I’m not telling,” said Allison. “If you send more people after me, I want them to make the same stupid mistakes.”
Winlaw laughed. “I like you.”
“I’m hanging up now, because I feel like you’re trying to distract me.”
“Hear me out. I’ll be brief. If you’ve already called the police and they’re on their way, we have nothing more to say to each other. Is that the case?”
Allison wasn’t sure if she should tell the truth or not. “Maybe.”
“For now, I’ll take that as a no. I’ll be perfectly honest with you. Given the choice, I would rather not have the police show up and find those dead men in your house. It’s just the way I feel. If you haven’t called the police yet, then maybe you feel the same way. If we both feel the same way, then suddenly I could become very useful to you.”
Allison looked at all of the gore in her kitchen. Her life would be much easier if she didn’t have to explain it to the authorities. Still, since these mutilated bodies were Winlaw’s employees, she couldn’t exactly trust him. “I’m listening.”
“I’ll send out a cleanup crew. They’ll make the bodies disappear. You’ll come home to a corpse-free home and a nice new carpet. They work quickly. It will be like this never happened.”
If only...
“Then what?” Allison asked.
“Then hopefully you’ll be willing to have another conversation with me. It’s your choice. I’ll be satisfied just to make the bodies go away. That’s a pretty good win-win first step, don’t you think? Again, if you’ve called the police, then this whole discussion is moot, but you haven’t hung up on me yet.”
Though not everything Allison did in her life was a master class in exquisite decision-making, she also wasn’t a complete idiot. Winlaw wouldn’t clean up her mess with no strings attached. He’d leave somebody behind, perhaps hiding in her closet. Or he’d install hidden cameras, or an explosive device to blow her up when she opened the refrigerator. He’d do something, and she’d have to be absurdly gullible to trust him.
Unless she had no plans to return.
Let him clean up the bodies while she and Spiral got the hell out of town forever. There would be some logistical issues, like selling the house, that would be a pain in the ass, but she’d take that over trying to dispose of a bunch of mangled corpses.
“All right,” she said. “You can clean up my place. I won’t need to leave a key—your guys can come in through the broken window.”
“Thank you,” said Winlaw. “I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership.”
She wondered if he was trying to kind-of quote Casablanca. Then she felt a little better knowing that if she could wonder something as trivial as that, she wasn’t having a complete nervous breakdown.
Allison hung up. She didn’t know how long she had before the cleaning crew got here. Probably not very long. She hurried into her office and grabbed her work laptop, then got her bug out bag from her bedroom closet. It was an oversized duffel bag filled with cash, essential documents, and other items she
’d need for her time on the road.
She quickly took that stuff out to her car and put it in the trunk, then went back inside to collect Spiral. The cat was startled by her aggressive attempt to scoop him up and tried to get away, but one nice thing about an old cat was that they were easy to catch. The bug out bag already had a small amount of cat food and litter, saving her thirty potentially crucial seconds.
Time to go.
No, wait. She was a mess. Even if it cost her a couple of extra minutes, she had to change out of her bloody clothes and rinse off.
She took a very fast shower, then got dressed in jeans and a dark blue sweatshirt. If she missed a spot, she didn’t want any blood visibly soaking through.
Then she got in her car and sped off, with no destination in mind except to get as far away from here as possible.
16
Since Allison wasn’t answering any of his text messages or phone calls, Cody took a half-day at work to go check on her. She might be angry with him, but she was clearly in a very bad place, and without her assurance that she was okay he needed to make sure she wasn’t lying in a bathtub filled with bloody water.
He had no idea if a relationship between the two of them could work out, but he liked the idea of being the less messed-up of the two. Usually he was the weird one. The whole “Hey, I may freak out and break your arm in my sleep,” was less of an issue with somebody who could break bones with her mind.
Did he believe her?
Pretty much, yeah.
He’d seen—with one hundred percent certainty—Allison stop the pregnant woman from falling without actually touching her.
Some might say that if a woman had the power to severely harm or kill you with her mind, and she couldn’t control this power, it was best not to date her. There was a definite logic to that point of view. Cody couldn’t help his infatuation, though, and while she didn’t necessarily need him in her life, surely the fact that he hadn’t run screaming from her meant that she might want him to stick around. He’d be good for her. Give her an extra little smidgen of happiness.
They’d have to be careful, but Cody was a pretty observant guy. If Allison’s emotions were rising, he’d politely but quickly excuse himself. He’d learn to spot the signs. They could figure this out.
Assuming she hadn’t done something terrible.
He’d stay optimistic. Ignoring his messages and calls didn’t mean she was suicidal. Hell, for all he knew, she could’ve accidentally dropped her phone into the toilet and it was sitting in a bowl of rice right now, even though the rice trick didn’t actually work.
He’d find out soon. He was almost to her house.
In his rearview mirror, Cody saw a man step out of the woods behind him. The man began to frantically wave his hands over his head, trying to get his attention. Cody stopped the car and the man hurried toward it.
This seemed like something that Cody probably should not get involved with, but the man wasn’t carrying a roaring chainsaw, so Cody would at least find out what he wanted. He hoped it had nothing to do with Allison, though a guy coming out of the woods and flagging him down very close to Allison’s home seemed pretty unlikely to be a complete coincidence.
The man opened the door and got into the passenger seat. As he slammed the door closed, Cody recognized him. It was the husband or boyfriend of the pregnant woman. Cody suddenly very much wished he’d just kept driving.
Before Cody could say anything, the man took out a gun and shoved it against Cody’s side.
“Hey, asshole, you’re my prisoner now.” The man was twitchy, almost like a drug addict having withdrawals. “If I get the slightest hint that you’re going to try something, I’ll pull the trigger. The bullet goes in one side, out the other, and you die a slow agonizing death. Got it?”
Cody nodded. He’d never even held a gun, much less been threatened with one. He wasn’t going to succumb to panic, though. He’d do whatever it took to stay calm. He’d get through this.
“What are you doing here?” the man asked.
Cody couldn’t think of a credible lie, at least not with a gun pressed against his side. “Checking on Allison.”
“Why?”
“She might be in trouble. I mean, obviously she’s in trouble. What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do shit to her.”
“So she’s okay?”
“As far as I know. Who the hell are you? I saw you on the street when my girlfriend fell. How do you know Allison?”
“We became friends after that. She was really upset and I talked to her to calm her down. She stopped responding to my texts so I drove out here to make sure nothing was wrong.” Cody tried to give the man a friendly smile. “I’m Cody.”
“I’m Daxton. I guess we’re best buddies now, huh?”
“I guess.”
“Cody, you are the bright spot in what has been an amazingly shitty day. You’re going to help me out. What you’re not going to do is get an inflated sense of your self-worth. I will shoot you without a moment of hesitation. You are completely expendable to me. Are we clear?”
“Yeah, we’re clear.”
“Does Allison trust you?”
“I guess.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“I only met her yesterday.”
“And yet you drove out here to check on her.”
“Right,” said Cody. “But that has nothing to do with whether or not she trusts me. Maybe I’m a lunatic stalker.”
“Are you trying to be funny?”
“I don’t know what I was trying to be.”
“Don’t try to amuse me,” said Daxton. “I’m not in the mood. Drive to her house.”
“Okay.” Cody resumed driving. He needed to come up with some sort of plan, but he had no reason to doubt that Daxton would indeed shoot him. The loss of his unborn child had driven the man murderously insane. What kind of ingenious plan could Cody concoct with the barrel of a gun pressed against him? His only current option seemed to be: do what the scary man says. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to Allison, but he didn’t want to get shot in the gut for her.
He drove past a van and an empty car parked on the side of the street. Daxton’s? It didn’t matter. No reason to ask.
Around the corner, he saw Allison’s home, a small place with a huge yard.
“Fuck,” said Daxton.
“What?”
“Her car’s gone.”
“I didn’t see her drive by.”
“Well, no shit. She must have gone the other way.”
“What do you want me to do?” Cody asked.
“Park in her driveway.”
Cody drove up right in front of Allison’s home. The front window was shattered, which seemed like a very bad sign.
“Now what?”
“Any chance you know the passcode for her phone?”
“Do you have her phone?”
“Are you seriously going to ask me a dumb question like that?” asked Daxton.
“No, I don’t know her passcode. Why would I?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think you did, but maybe you watched her unlock it after you two were done fucking last night.”
Cody didn’t respond to that.
“Get out of the car,” Daxton told him. “We’re going inside.”
They both got out. Cody didn’t even consider making a run for it—no way would he make it to the safety of the woods before Daxton squeezed off a few shots.
Daxton waved the gun at him. “Let’s go.” They walked over to the house. “Try the front door.”
Cody turned the doorknob. “It’s locked.”
“We’re going through the window, then. Are you squeamish?”
“Yes.”
“It’s horrific in there. Your girlfriend left a pile of corpses behind. You can throw up if you can’t keep your lunch down, or you can cry, or curse God, or whatever you need to do as long as you don’t make any sudden movements. I’ll be more t
han happy to add another body to the pile.”
“Allison killed people?” Cody asked. His mouth had suddenly gone dry.
“That’s what I just said. You think I’d make something like that up? Climb on in.”
Cody walked over to the front window and peered inside. There was indeed a dead body on the floor—no, two of them. And lots of blood.
He looked back at Daxton. “Who are they?”
“My co-workers.”
“Why did she kill them?”
“It’s not Q&A time. Get in there.”
Cody climbed through the window and into Allison’s living room. He slapped his hand over his mouth and tried to keep from vomiting, even though Daxton had given him permission to do so. He was able to choke it down while Daxton climbed into the living room after him.
“Feeling okay?” Daxton asked.
Cody nodded.
Daxton pointed to the dead man in the center of the room. “Know what your girlfriend did to him? Looked at him. That’s all she did. His teeth fell out and he started bleeding from all over. I bet if we took off his clothes we’d see that he was bleeding from all over, but we’re not gonna do that.”
“What are we doing in here?”
“We’re making sure she’s not hiding.”
“You said her car was gone.”
“Could be a fake-out.”
“You think she moved the car, then went back and hid in the house?”
“No,” said Daxton. “I don’t think she did that, but I’m checking to rule out that possibility. The reason my life has turned to shit is that I didn’t make sure an apartment was properly searched. The kitchen will probably be worse, so you might as well get it over with and take a look.”
“That’s okay, I believe you,” said Cody.
“I wasn’t presenting an option.”
Cody walked across a blood-free path on the carpet and looked into the kitchen. It was indeed worse. Twice as many dead bodies in there. Cody managed to once again keep down the vomit, but it was a narrower victory this time. He turned away quickly, hoping Daxton wouldn’t consider that a sudden movement.
“Nasty, huh?” Daxton asked.
Those weren’t men that she killed by breaking their bones with her mind. There were stab wounds. Burns. Either Allison’s powers had more facets than she’d told him about, or she’d fought back through non-supernatural means.