FURIOUS

by Honey Palomino

  “Benji,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s nothing.”

  “It’s enough for a start. We could get jobs!”

  “No, we couldn’t, nobody is going to give jobs to a couple of ten-year olds, Benji.”

  “We can’t just let them separate us.”

  “If that happens, we can still stay in touch. We can video chat.”

  “I can’t protect you, Molly, not if I’m not here!”

  “Benji,” I said, smiling sadly at him and shaking my head. “You can’t protect me, even when you’re here.”

  “If you called me, you know I’d come right over.”

  “It’s never like that. It’s always fast and unexpected when he hits me.”

  “It’s just not fair,” he said, his voice rising with anger.

  “I know,” I said. “But I hear life isn’t fair. At least that’s what the adults say.”

  “It sucks being a kid and it sucks being an adult.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “What do we do, Molly?” He was such a good friend, so kind and caring.

  “We just get through it, I guess. The best we can.”

  I reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently.

  “We’ll be okay, Benji. Don’t worry.”

  “It’s hard not to.”

  “I know. But we’ll get through this. You just gotta be patient.”

  “Molly, will you promise me something?”

  “What?”

  “If he ever tries to hurt you again, promise me you’ll run up here and lock yourself in the attic, then you’ll call me, so I can come get you, okay?”

  “I’ll try, Benji.”

  “Okay. Pinky swear?” he asked, putting out his finger.

  “Pinky swear.”

  CHAPTER 33

  BENJI

  I hated the fact that I couldn’t do anything.

  I hated the fact that I’d mustered all that strength to call that lady Grace and nothing had happened. Molly was still stuck in her house, with her monster of a father, and nobody had lifted a finger to help her.

  What good were adults if they didn’t do anything? If they just let things keep happening? They kept preaching that if we saw something wrong, we should say something and when we finally spoke up, nothing happened.

  It was maddening.

  I’d meant what I said when I asked Molly to run away with me. If she’d said yes, I would have made all the arrangements. It couldn’t be that hard to figure it out. We could hop on a bus to get out of town. Go to Portland or something. Find a hotel for a few days until we found something cheaper. I could steal my folks credit card to make a reservation, find some strange adult to check in for us and then sneak in when nobody was looking.

  Or, we could camp in the woods.

  My folks had a garage full of camping gear we could take.

  It could be done. It might not be easy, but at least Molly would be safe.

  If I was forced to leave town with my parents, then Molly would be left all alone, with nobody looking out for her. I couldn’t let that happen.

  My head was spinning with ideas as I walked home from the store. After spending the morning at Molly’s house, I took the long way home and stopped to buy some candy. I figured if I consumed enough sugar, maybe my brain would work harder and produce some solution to this entire problem that I hadn’t thought of yet.

  I was almost home when a black SUV pulled up alongside me. I looked inside and saw it was Grace.

  “Hi, Benji,” she said. Her voice was soft and gentle.

  “Hey,” I said, wary of her now. I’d put all my hopes on her and she’d done nothing.

  “I wanted to check in with you,” she said. “How are you holding up?”

  “Not so great, actually.”

  “I know this is hard,” she said. “I want you to know what you did, calling me, was very brave. Molly is lucky to have a friend like you.”

  “Well, what are you going to do about it? Nothing’s changed and she’s still there!” I shouted accusingly. I didn’t care that I was being rude.

  She nodded, slowly and paused.

  “I know it’s taking longer than either of us want. But I promise you I won’t stop until I get Molly to safety. Her father is a very powerful man, just like you explained on the phone. But I’m working on it. I am.”

  “Really?” I asked, squinting my eyes.

  “Yes. I promise.”

  “Okay, thank you,” I said, feeling a twinge of hope. “But you better hurry. My Dad wants to leave town and I can’t bear the thought of that.”

  “Why does he want to leave?”

  “I’m not sure. It has something to do with Molly’s dad, some business thing. But if we move to another town, I can’t take care of Molly!”

  “I see. I understand,” she said. “Please try not to worry. We’re working as fast as we can.”

  “Alright,” I shrugged, kicking a pile of snow with my sneaker. “Thanks.”

  “Thanks for calling me,” she said. “Have you told anyone you called me?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, good. Let’s keep it that way. I’ve told everyone I’m here to write a book about Greenville, so that’s my cover, in case you wondered. We’re going to bring Molly’s father to justice, you’ll see. She’ll be safe.”

  I nodded, hoping she was telling the truth. I needed her to be telling the truth. Molly needed her.

  She was the only hope we really had left.

  CHAPTER 34

  FURY

  The trees that lined Green’s property were thick and plenty. Western yellow pines and Doug firs and noble firs stood side by side amongst Western red cedars, creating a towering canopy that blocked out most of the light, with the exception of narrow beams of brightness that shot through the branches. Shadows of leaves danced on the snow-covered forest floor.

  Covered with thick blankets of fresh powder that perched on the edge of their leaves and trimmed their branches with bright white lines, the trees swayed in the cold breeze as my footsteps softly crunched below, breaking through the top crust of the fallen snow.

  I’d ventured far away from Green’s house, wanting to make sure I wasn’t overheard when I called Grace. The stillness of the forest caused the hair to stand up on the back of my neck. I shivered slightly, not sure if it was from the cold or the pure creepiness of the secluded forest.

  Grace answered on the first ring.

  “There’s been an interesting development,” I said.

  “Tell me.”

  “I looked over the surveillance footage from last night and you won’t believe who popped up trying to get into Green’s office.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense,” she said.

  “It was Dottie.”

  “Our Dottie?” she asked. “From the B&B?”

  “The one and only. She was dressed in a black hoodie and dark pants, holding a flash light, all hunched over and moving slowly. When she saw the door was locked, she walked out of view.”

  “That is interesting,” she said. “Did you tell Green?”

  “I haven’t told anyone but you. What do you want me to do?”

  “Don’t tell him. Don’t do anything. I’ll talk to Dottie and see if I can get anything out of her.”

  “My lips are sealed,” I said.

  “Fury? You didn’t come back last night. Is everything okay?”

  Thankfully, she couldn’t see the blush that crept up my face.

  “Sure,” I said. “Just fine. Spent the night at Jackie’s, actually.”

  “The waitress at Jenny’s?”

  “Yes, that’s her.”

  She paused and I could just imagine the look on her face. Grace never reacted to much instantly, she always stopped to take a breath and think things over before proceeding.

  “She seems like a very nice girl,” she said, finally. I couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll talk to you later, Fury. Let me know if anything else comes up.�
��

  “Will do.”

  I hung up the phone with the realization that I’d wandered even deeper into the woods while we were talking. The crunching of my boots and the birdsong flowing overhead were the only sounds within earshot. The snow shrouded any trail that may exist, so I wound my way through the maze of tree trunks and fallen logs in a random path. I traveled this way for a quarter mile or so, falling peacefully into the silence, my head replaying images of my night with Jackie last night in between flashes of anger at Green.

  She’d cast a spell on me. Without the need for potions or voodoo dolls, she’d entranced me from the moment I’d laid eyes on her. Making love to her the last few nights had only reinforced her power over me.

  Green’s snide remarks about her only made me hate him more.

  A man that can talk about a woman like that deserves to have his face beat into the ground. I’d been pulsing with anger ever since. His words had only served to make me even more determined to bring him to his knees.

  He didn’t deserve an ounce of restraint.

  So, while the forest I was wandering in was peaceful and quiet, inside of my chest, a storm was brewing. My heart beat with a thunderous rhythm and I marched through the woods like an angry bull, blinded with rage.

  This was the Fury I’d been avoiding for the past year.

  This was the man that lived under the surface of my cool demeanor, threatening to find a way to unleash itself and succumb to the uninhibited rage.

  This Fury had caused a lot of problems. He’d overwhelmed me many times, causing me to lash out at the wrong time, at the wrong people, over and over. He’d served me well in the past, don’t get me wrong.

  Anger had been merely a tool. A tool that taught me righteousness and dignity. A tool that had blessed me with the strength to stand up for myself, when nobody else would. Life had failed me, but my anger never would.

  But it was a tool I’d inherited, not something I’d chosen.

  My old man was pure rage. As if he’d had so much rage inside of him, he couldn’t contain it all, he’d passed the excess on to me. From an early age, it was all he taught me. Quick to anger, and the first to fight, I’d seen him take down his opponents before they even knew the punch was coming.

  For the short time he was actually around, if I ever showed an inkling of fear, he’d beat it out of me. Fear was something you fought back, something you didn’t give the light of day to.

  It never made sense to me.

  How could you have so much anger without having something to be afraid of in the first place?

  To me, fear and fury went hand in hand. But maybe that’s because it was always my fear meeting his fury. After a while, I just adopted his ways, because it was easier that way. It kept him from turning that rage my direction and in a sick, twisted way, we sort of bonded in our mutual anger at the world, lashing out at common enemies, battling the same wars.

  That was before I’d met Asher and Eli and Nate, though. Once I’d been introduced to their world, once I realized that I could be tough and still be in control, the need for that anger fell away. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t instant. That rage had been instilled deep in me, imprinted into my soul, and even to this day, it’s still proving to be something just under the surface just waiting to explode again.

  Green’s lewd words about Jackie had come the closest to igniting that bomb than anything else had in a long time.

  To say a walk was in order was an understatement.

  Now, leaving a situation, taking a deep breath, and when really pushed, taking a walk, were the best tools I had to keeping that rage controlled. Green had no idea how close he’d come to death by insulting Jackie like that.

  I hoped like hell, for his sake, he never said another word about her.

  Because even this walk, in this cold-ass, dark, peaceful forest wasn’t doing much to assuage the white-hot hostility that was pumping through my veins.

  I kept walking. I couldn’t go back like this, drunk on this storm of emotions rushing through me. For Molly’s sake, I couldn’t let him see me like this. I had to keep my cool, at least outwardly, and I had to stay on course, or we’d never get that little girl to safety.

  After jumping over a fallen log in my path, I came to a small, opening in the trees. Just big enough to fit a small house into, the snow was undisturbed in the open area. In a corner sat a small pile of rocks, topped by a pile of decaying flower stems. I walked closer and sat down on another fallen log beside it. Looking around, there was no other indication of any other items around, but I figured this must be a meaningful spot for someone to have chosen to pile rocks there and leave flowers.

  I remembered Jackie’s story from last night, about Bodhi’s best friend having disappeared. I about kicked myself when I realized I hadn’t relayed that story to Grace earlier. It had to be important.

  It might just be the answer to everything.

  And whatever this spot was, it could be a clue.

  Sure, Green’s family had lived on this land for many decades. It could easily be the grave of a beloved pet, but it’s possible it was more than that.

  I jumped up and headed back, grateful for the brief respite from the boiling rage I’d been consumed with.

  I pushed it back just enough to make my way back to my bike parked in front of Green’s house.

  CHAPTER 35

  BODHI

  “Will, give me some good news,” I said into my phone, leaning back and putting my feet up on my desk in my home office.

  “Bodhi, I tried to reach them all afternoon,” Will said. “I finally got ahold of them at the end of the day and they said they made their final decision. The deal isn’t happening. We need to find another property.”

  “That’s fucking unacceptable, Will!” I blew up. This was bullshit, plain and simple. Will hadn’t done his job, he’d not held up his end of the bargain and there was no fucking way I was going to take no for an answer.

  He fucking knew that.

  “There’s nothing I can do, Bodhi!” he insisted.

  “Goddammit, Will, you better fix this and fix it fast! Go to New York tonight, I don’t care what you do, go fucking make this right!”

  “No, Bodhi. The deal is dead. I’m not going to New York.”

  “What did you fucking say?”

  “You heard me. I’m not going up there and making a fool of myself. They don’t want your business. Just find another property, for fuck’s sake!”

  “Will, you need to rethink this.”

  “There’s nothing I can do. I won’t do it.”

  “Just who do you fucking think you are?” I seethed. “Don’t make me fuck up your entire life, Will. You know what I can do.”

  “So fucking do it, Bodhi! If you bring me down, you implicate yourself. You aren’t fucking innocent. None of us are.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “I’m not going to New York.”

  “You’re making the biggest mistake of your life, dumbass.”

  “No, the biggest mistake of my life happened twenty-five years ago when I went along with your bullshit plan. We should have called the cops, told them the truth when it happened. Then, I’d never be wrapped up in your miserable existence. I’d have faced the consequences and gone on to live my life! You ruin everything you touch, Bodhi!”

  “Watch your mouth, Will. You’re being fucking stupid. For all your brains, you have absolutely no common sense.”

  “I’ve never made more sense in my life. It’s over, Bodhi. I’m not going to New York and the deal isn’t happening. Live with it.”

  “Fuck you, Will!” I shouted, throwing the phone into the bookshelves behind my desk.

  I grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the bar in the corner and poured a glassful, downing the amber liquor fast and hard. My chest burned with pain afterwards, the intensity matching the rage I was feeling. I sat down at my desk, picked the phone back up and called Ross.

  “We have a problem,” I sa
id.

  “What’s up?”

  “It’s Will. He’s weak. The weakest of all of us.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I think it might be time to take him out, Ross. He’s going to bring us all down if we don’t do something.”

  “You want me to talk to him?”

  “I think we’re past that point,” I said, downing another shot.

  “I hoped we wouldn’t get to this point,” Ross said.

  “I always knew we would.” I hung up the phone, leaning back in my chair again as I nodded slowly.

  Will had to go and I knew just how to make that happen without getting my own hands dirty.

  Fury was becoming more of an asset every day.

  ***

  An hour later, I walked into the bedroom looking for Marilyn. She wasn’t in her usual spot under the covers, so I wandered into the bathroom. She was in the bath, limp and glossy eyed, her hair in a messy knot on top of her head.

  She was a hot mess and yet, she was still beautiful. If you squinted your eyes and looked past the drug-addled blood-shot eyes, that is. My eyes raked down to her naked body, drinking in the bubble covered fake tits that bobbed just above the water line. At least one thing about her was perfect.

  My cock hardened in my pants, the anger I was feeling towards Will earlier still pulsing through me.

  “Get up,” I demanded. She looked up at me with weary eyes and shook her head.

  “I just got in, it’s still warm,” she said.

  “I don’t care. Go lay on the bed.”

  “Why?”

  I leaned down, reaching out and grabbing the hair knotted on her head. I pulled it back, squeezing gently.

  “Because I fucking said so.”

  She winced and pulled away, slapping my hand away.

  “Stop,” she said, her protests only fueling my anger.

  I walked out of the bathroom, leaving her there as I went to my closet. I pulled out a skinny, brown leather belt, the silver buckle engraved with my initials, and walked back into the bathroom.