by Rumer Raines
“Fine. You have five minutes to come up with an idea. That is all the time I am giving you.” I advise the group and turn back to face the house. I can’t believe that she is in there with him, while I stand out here waiting for Larry, Curly, and Moe to come up with a plan. Don’t get me wrong. I trust them with my life. I just don’t want to trust them with Adele’s. It's not their woman in that fucking house with another man. It’s not their woman who could be getting touched by that other man at this very second. They each may feel they have hours to get into that house, but for me, it’s only seconds.
“I can go in.” I turn around to the quiet little voice that just made this offer. I look up to see that Thomas, Oliver, and Frank have all stopped talking and we are all glancing at Maryann. She volunteered to be bait. Frank and I make eye contact and he shakes his head, not liking the idea. I walk over to Maryann putting my hand on her shoulder.
“Are you sure about this Maryann?” I ask her as Frank takes a deep breath and chuckles. He is going to have to get over it because if she wants to help Adele, she is going to help her.
“I am. You all won’t just sit out here and talk, correct?”
“If you all distract him, I can get inside the house.” I meet her eyes and realize that she is serious and wants to do this. I look back at Frank who doesn’t want to do it. I think about Adele and realize that we are going with Maryann’s idea and Frank will just have to be pissed.
Moments later I watch as Thomas grabs a brick and throws it through Garth’s window. We wait a few seconds while he comes running out of the house, with Adele behind him. Garth is so focused on his car, he doesn’t even notice that Thomas is hiding behind the bushes, less than a foot away. While Garth is having a temper tantrum over his broken window, Oliver and Maryann have sneaked around the bedroom window. I hope Adele didn’t lock it once she kicked me out, but if I know her she would have left it unlocked in case I had to come back. Once inside the house, Maryann and Oliver were supposed to slam the door shut so we would know they were inside. Frank and I stayed in the truck. We needed to keep Garth outside long enough for Maryann and Oliver to get inside. Every time he looked calm, Frank would shine the bright headlights on him. His attention would re-focus on the suspicious truck and he’d wonder if we had anything to do with the broken window. Garth finally reaches his breaking point and heads towards the truck. When he is a few feet from the truck, the front door slams and he turns around to head back to the house. I grind my teeth as I watch him grab Adele by the arm and walk to the door. I watch as he glances at Adele most likely advising her that they are locked out of the house. They walk around towards the bedroom window and I am sure they will climb in to find Oliver and Maryann waiting.
Frank and I head towards the house waiting for Oliver to let us in. When he finally opens the door for us, Garth is on his hands and knees trying to get up. I walk over to him and kick him hard in the stomach which causes him to gasp for air. When he tries to get up the third time, I grab his hair forcing his face into the wood end table and he falls onto his back. I sit on his chest, throwing vicious punches as blood starts to ooze out of his face and I hear the front door close. Thomas comes in with rope and tape as he, Frank, and Oliver look at me with bloody and bruised hands. Oliver pulls the chair to the middle of the room and I climb off Garth and pull him off the floor and toss him into the chair. Frank tapes his hands behind his back and ties him to the chair. He’s half unconscious since I just beat the shit out of him, so he doesn’t put up much of a fight.
We wait for him to come to, but he just sits there with his head hanging down. Oliver walks over to him and slaps him a few times across the face and after the fifth or sixth slap, he finally comes to. His eyes widen and then narrow as he looks at each of us. I walk closer to him wrapping my hands around his throat and all I want to do is choke the life out of him.
“You need to pay close attention to what I am about to tell you.” I grind my teeth as I tighten the grip around his neck. I can hear him gasping for air and with each gasp, I think my grip tightens.
“There are two women in that other room, who are both going to leave with us. If you even think about either of them again, we’ll come back and we won’t be this nice. Do you understand me?” I tighten my grip and I can feel him trying to shake his head. Is this mother fucker trying to disagree with me? I start to choke him and his face starts to turn red as Oliver pulls me off him. As I walk away rubbing my hand across my beard, wondering what in the hell do we’re going to do with this guy, Frank suddenly approaches him with a smirk.
“You are really a stupid bastard, aren’t you?” Frank ask Garth as he chokes gasping for air.
Adele
I glance at the door, wondering who exactly is ‘dealing with Garth?’ I also wonder how they are dealing with him. I take a deep breath as I start to worry about what’s going on in the other room. I’m afraid and I will admit to it. I am scared for Garth. He is a bastard and he’s made my life a living hell, but do I want him hurt? I wouldn’t mind if they broke an arm or leg, but will they kill him? I know what Alex is and I understand who he is, but can I overlook it if he does kill Garth? I stand up from the bed and I head to the window. I can feel my breathing become shallower. I try to focus on breathing in and breathing out because I am about to have a panic attack. Maryann walks up behind me and touches my shoulder. I turn around to face her and I can see the fear in her eyes too. What is wrong with us? Why do we care about what happens this man?
“Are you okay?” Maryann asks me and I shrug my shoulder as I look towards the door.
“I think I will be. I am just worried.”
“About Garth?” she asks me and I don’t know how to answer the question.
“I guess so. Is it odd that I want to walk out of here and never see him again, but I don’t want them to hurt him?”
Maryann sighs and shakes her head,
“Let’s go.” She heads towards the door and I follow her. Frank is standing in front of a bloody and badly beaten Garth as Alex, Oliver, and Thomas are huddled up in what appears to be a heated discussion. I can’t help but notice that Alex is rubbing his hands which appear to be bloody. When we walk into the room, all eyes turn toward us and Alex walks over to us trying to move us back towards the door. When he grabs my arm, I snatch it away as I stare at Garth.
“Adele, Maryann, you both need to go back into the bedroom and stay there until one of us come in to get you,” Alex advises.
“What are you going to do to him?” I ask and Alex sighs.
“Adele,” he whispers as he shakes his head and runs his hand through his beard.
“Can we leave?” I ask a confused Alex and his eyes narrow on mine. “I want this to end now. We can turn Garth loose and let’s all just leave. I am sure he’s learned his lesson.” I plead with Alex while I make this major request to everyone in the room. I want no part of any of this, but more importantly, I don’t want Alex involved in any of this. I know he doesn’t just want to release Garth. To turn him loose. He wants to punish Garth and make him suffer for everything he’s done to me and Maryann. I won’t deny that I want him to suffer too, but he has suffered. How will I sleep at night knowing that he suffered because of me? Would I be any better than he is? I walk towards Frank and grab his arm and plead with him to end this. He looks at me and then back toward Alex as he closes his eyes.
“Okay, Adele. If that is what you want. It’s done,” Frank says as he turns back toward Garth.
“Consider yourself lucky, she just saved your life,” says Frank to Garth as we all head for the door. Maryann shakes her head and I notice she wipes away a tear.
“Can I have a minute?” Maryann asks Frank and he nods.
As we all head towards the door, when… ‘BAM’. Alex knocks me to the floor and I see three guns pointed towards Garth. I turn around and see Garth with a hole in the middle of his forehead and Maryann holding a smoking gun. Frank runs over, taking the gun from Maryann’s hand and she fa
lls to the floor in tears.
“I couldn’t just let him walk away. I can’t run anymore,” Maryann cries and I crawl over to her and wrap my arms around her.
“Get them out of here,” Frank says and I turn to see Oliver headed towards us as he grabs us each by the arm and practically throw us into the car. I have no idea where he is taking us and at this point, I really don’t care. Maryann killed Garth. I lay my head against the cold window and close my eyes to stop myself from vomiting. I just witnessed my best friend kill our husband.
Alex
Maryann killed Garth with one fucking bullet to the head. I don’t know where the hell she got a gun from, but I should admit I am glad she had it. The only downside to her killing him is that I wanted to do it. I guess at least this way I get what I want and I keep Adele happy. I guess I can say Adele is happy. She has the peace of knowing that I wasn’t the one to kill him. At least I have the satisfaction of beating the shit out of him. Frank had Oliver get the girls out of the house while we got rid of Garth. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Adele will be at the safe house until we're done here and not in the next room.
We found a large rug to wrap Garth in and backed Franks’ car into the driveway. While Thomas made sure that no one was around, Frank and I, threw the body into the trunk. We also got rid of everything that was broken and cleaned the place better than any professional housekeeper. By the time we walked out, nothing looked out of place or like anyone had even been in the house. I walked into the bedroom and made sure there was nothing left in it that could be tied to Adele. I even took the time to make the damn bed. As far as anyone would be concerned a man lived at the house alone and went out and never returned.
Thomas made several calls to some of his construction buddies. He found several construction sites that would be pouring cement the next morning. When we found a hole big enough to dump Garth in, we delivered him to that site. We threw his ass in the hole so he could be buried in the morning. It’s a good thing that Thomas has friends in high places. Or maybe you could even say they are low places since they don’t even ask questions. Our construction buddies are really on a need to know basis. They tell us when we ask but they don’t ask questions or go checking on anything before they start to pour. They are always paid quite nicely to not ask those kinds of questions.
Once we have disposed of the body, we head to the safe house.
“What are we going to do about Maryann?” Frank asks and I knew we would somehow have to deal with her. She killed a man and we got rid of the body. What if she regrets it and decides to turn herself in? We may have just fucked ourselves by getting rid of Garth for her. Will she hold it over us?
“We’ll talk to her to find out where her head’s at.”
When we arrive at the safe house, Oliver is standing outside smoking a cigarette. My eyes lift the closer I get to him because Oliver doesn’t smoke.
“When did you start smoking, Oliver?” I ask as Frank and Thomas look at each other waiting for the answer.
“When you sent me here with those two women,” Oliver retorts and I hear Thomas chuckle behind me.
There are no lights on in the house. It’s pitch dark, so I turn on the light switch as I walk in. Maryann and Adele are sitting in the dark. There are two chairs in the room along with a couch. The chairs are facing each other and they are each sitting in one. I look at them both and I decide to sit on the couch which is in the middle.
“Is there a reason you were sitting in the dark?”
“What did you do with him?” Adele asks.
“He is somewhere he won’t be found.”
“What are you thinking about Maryann?” I ask and Adele and I both look at her.
“I’m going to prison,” she whispers.
“No, you aren’t. You are okay with that aren’t you?” I ask her and she shrugs her shoulders as Frank, Thomas, and Oliver walk in.
I slide to the end of the couch so I can be within touching distance of Maryann. I reach over and touch her knee so that she looks at me while I am questioning her.
“Maryann, it’s very important that you understand what happened tonight. You killed Garth and we got rid of the evidence. If you go down, you could be taking all of us down with you.” I tell her and I notice something in her eyes change. She looks at me and nods and I breath sigh of relief knowing that we’ll all be fine.
We all stay overnight at the safe house. We want to watch Maryann to make sure she doesn’t crack. Both she and Adele appear to be sad, but thankfully not devastated by Garth’s death. I watch out the window as Maryann and Adele look to be in deep conversation on the porch. When I walk outside to join them they both become silent.
“What are you two discussing?”
“My future. Now that I can come back among the living, everyone will think of me as Garth’s wife. It will be a little hard to move on since he won’t be around to sign divorce papers,” Maryann says and I lower my head realizing how we fucked up by getting rid of Garth so soon. He’s dead, so he won’t be signing any divorce papers. Maryann will be considered a married woman unless we dig up Garth’s fucking body.
“I guess we didn’t think of that. I’ll take care of it.”
Both Maryann and Adele look at me and I wonder if I just wrote a check my ass won’t be able to cash.
“How will you take care of it?” Adele asks me and I chuckle at her and remind her to never ask questions. Once the girls come into the house for the night, I grab Thomas and head out to make good on my promise.
Thomas curses at me the entire ride back to the construction site. I understand why he is so pissed off so I don’t even bother to argue back with him or defend myself. Garth will be buried tomorrow morning and if that happens Maryann will never truly be free. She needs the official death certificate and that won’t happen if we do it this way. Garth will only disappear and that shit isn’t good enough. Thirty minutes later, Thomas and I are both swearing as we carry Garth’s dead, heavy body out of the same hole we threw him into. We throw him into the back of the truck and we head back to his house. When we back into the driveway, we make sure no one is around and luckily all the surrounding homes are dark, which means they are all in bed and not likely to become witnesses. We turn off the lights to the truck and push open the unlocked front door. We do another check and we carry Garth back into the house and lay him on the kitchen floor.
A few hours later Thomas and I are watching down the road as the house explodes.
Adele
The FBI has been called to a fatal home explosion that took the life of Garrett Davenport. The FBI has advised us that they will take over this case since Davenport has been wanted for almost 15 years for bank fraud.
Maryann and I are shocked when we turn on the news and see this late breaking announcement. Maryann grabs my leg and squeezes it as she watches and I wince. I had wondered where Alex had disappeared to for most of the night. He was gone for hours and when he finally comes home he came straight to me. I heard the bedroom door open and I could only watch the slow motion of him getting undressed. When he finally climbed into bed behind me and wrapped his arm around me. I turned into his arms and practically mauled him as he groaned. It feels like forever since I was in his arms and I couldn’t control the need that I felt for him. When Alex groaned, I climbed up on top of him spreading my legs. I stripped out of my clothes and lowered myself to lick his neck. I could hear Alex growl underneath me as I lowered myself to grab his already hard dick. I rose and quickly lowered myself onto him. I gasp at the fullness of him finally being inside me. I placed my hands on his chest as I ride Alex and he thrust hard into me. Alex grabbed my thighs and squeezed them as I tightened my legs around him. When we both finally come, my legs were so sore, I practically had to fall off him. The next morning, I glance at Alex’s chest and gasp as I see the new tattoos that he has. I run my hand across my name that he had placed across his heart.
I didn’t ask him where he had been. I knew he would
n’t tell me anyway. I also know that if I want to be with Alex, there would be things I couldn’t know. There would be things I didn’t want to know. Would this make me naïve or stupid? Maybe it will just make me a woman willing to stand by the man she loves. I trust Alex fully and I know that he would never hurt me. This is a man that moved a girl he couldn’t stand into his house when I was in danger. This is a man that never gave up looking for me when I walked away. Alex didn’t put the bullet in Garth’s head, Maryann did and I love her as much as I did before. Killing Garth doesn’t make her an evil person, so I can’t label Alex evil either. I don’t know what they did to Garth and I don’t care. Maryann and I are finally free.
When another news conference cuts into our talk show, Maryann and I sigh. The FBI will be giving an update on what they have learned so far. I am not sure how much they could have found out since it has only been two hours since the first breaking announcement. Agent Grasso stands in front of the cameras advising that Garrett Davenport was killed instantly from the explosion. Grasso is asking for any family members to contact the FBI for the latest updates. My eyes widen as I watch the press conference and I notice that Alex is watching me. I walk over to Alex grabbing his hand and we walk outside. He pulls me into a kiss and I place my hands on his chest pushing him away.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong, I was wondering if there is something you want to tell me?” I ask him and Alex narrows his eyes at me.
“What would I need to tell you?”
“FBI Agent Grasso?”
“What about him?” Alex’s eyes rise as he looks at me.
“Alex…he’s a customer at the club. He always sits in one of your special booths.”
“You have a good memory, Adele. He does.”
“What happens now?” I ask Alex as he pulls me closer to him and kisses my neck.