**
Another thing I learned about myself was, I sucked at this super sleuth shit. Being undetectable was harder than it seemed on television. You had to think of the lighting, the area, if there were dogs around that would bark and if anyone was watching you.
The paranoia had set in. I was sure anyone looking at me could read my face and know I was in too deep. I gave off that ‘I had something to hide’ vibe. Getting myself under control was easier said than done for sure.
The thoughts ran crazy in my mind as I got closer to our home. I knew I couldn’t park at my house, but habits die hard so I had to remain focused on not pulling in and walking right up.
How did robbers or bad guys do this stuff? Of course the guys on Sons of Anarchy would just shoot up the place and take what they wanted. Wish one of them were here now to take out Jolin so I could keep my damn life. Where’s Jax when you need him?
Our home, or should I say now Royal’s home, wasn’t much, but it did butt up to a bunch of trees giving the illusion it was secluded on one side. It wasn’t and getting through the neighbor’s yard was tricky, but with only a few scrapes, I made it but still had to travel a distance to get to the yard.
With no phone or flashlight, the moon gave a soft glow and I located the duffle immediately.
The hair on the back of my neck rose. Looking around, nothing stood out. The trees were still, and the only sounds were cars and a dog off in the distance. I could see Royal’s tracks in the snow covering our backyard, but they weren’t really in a pattern that made attention go to where I was. I didn’t have time to cover my own tracks and that sucked. Fuck, this felt like the damn Hunger Games just waiting for someone to pop up and shoot me with a damn bow and arrow.
I wasn’t cut out for any of this.
Paranoia was never my thing, but this was making me certifiable. I was going to end up next to Gramma if my head didn’t get out of my ass and quick.
Sucking in a deep calming breath, I searched for the Zen my clients felt when massaging their faces. Since that didn’t work I mustered up my courage. My gramma taught me a lot of stuff over the years, and pulling up my big girl panties was one of them.
Peeking out of the trees, Royal did what she said and made sure all the lights were off. I knew what a challenge that was for her. There it sat off to the right in the darkest corner of the yard. She may have gotten me into this mess, but she was at least trying to help me out of it.
Looking once more around the yard and listening as hard as I could, my feet darted out of the trees staying close to the line. My boots crunched under the packed snow. My breaths came in fast and quick, and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.
See what I mean? Hunger Games. All I could think was I never would’ve stepped up and volunteered for that shit. Sister or not. Fuck.
Something moved off to the left just as I grabbed the bag and turned to head back into the trees. A squirrel bound down from one of the side yard trees and took off back to hiding.
I didn’t slow. I didn’t think. I didn’t do anything, but run as fast as my feet would carry me all the way to my car. Cracking her over, I took off like a shot not looking back and hoping like hell no one saw me.
What in the fuck had I gotten myself into?
All the money from all my accounts was in a bag the bank gave me on the floorboard of the passenger side. Whatever Royal packed was in the duffle was next to me.
Now to figure out where the hell to go next.
4
Dane
Aspen hadn’t returned.
I watched the place for twenty-four hours a day, and she was nowhere to be seen. The way the house stayed lit, I wondered if I wasn’t being set up. Really, who kept every light on; even the rooms they didn’t go into? Royal had every single light on as if she wanted the world to see inside their home. It didn’t sit well with me. My instincts said to check in with Jolin on the matter.
Picking up my burner phone, I dialed.
“Tell me the cunt is dead,” Jolin answered on the second ring. His voice even grated on my nerves, much less the crude way he greeted.
I wasn’t ashamed of killing people. The thing was I didn’t know Aspen, so I didn’t know whether she was a cunt who deserved this man’s wrath or simply an innocent woman caught up in something she couldn’t understand. It wasn’t my judgment call, but I also wasn’t going to talk shit about someone I didn’t know. The person I did know was Jolin Zook, and he was a scumbag if ever there had been one; knew it back then, know it now.
“Are you alone?” I asked, pissed as fuck that he was so nonchalant.
“Yeah,” he replied.
I didn’t fucking believe him, but what could I say? We were on phones, I couldn’t see who was around him. Questioning him would only cause more issues for me in the long run. This was about getting the job done as quickly as possible.
“Think you’re bein’ set up,” I told him frankly.
“Why would you say that?’
I sighed, “Royal has every light in the house on. It ain’t the Motel 6 and we leave the lights on for ya. This is the second night and every single light is on. It’s like she wants me to see inside. Every move she makes. Never turns them off, even to sleep.” She also had this strange habit of pacing around the backyard with not set path but just wandering in the snow. Normal people weren’t like her. I wasn’t here to learn Royal Tyng so I didn’t care what she did in the yard. Therefore, I didn’t bother asking why she was pacing it.
He laughed. “The bitch is scared of shadows. Never had a woman who had to be fucked with every light on. She hates the dark. Deathly afraid of it. She won’t sleep without the TV on and another side lamp or nightlight like a fuckin’ kid.” He gave a deep belly laugh obviously relishing in her pain.
Well, that explained the lights. “Good to know. Still, I think Aspen has taken off. How long do you want me watching here before I start tracking?”
“Stay put. She won’t go for long. She doesn’t know how to survive without Royal. Sit tight and she’ll come to you.”
His tone was cocky.
Arrogant.
Overconfidence was risky.
“What’d this chick do?” The words tumbled out. I knew better than to ask, but yet, here I fucking was doing it.
He laughed sinisterly. “She caught me with my pants down laying it to Royal. She didn’t like what she saw.”
I knew I would regret my next question before it left my lips, but sometimes our instincts overrode our smarts and this was one of those moments. “What’d she see that was so bad it warrants this?”
Proudly his voice came through the phone, “I was showing Royal who she belonged to since the bitch thought she could step out on me. My cock owns that pussy. I was laying my claim. Royal said she didn’t want it but the way her pussy gripped my dick, she was loving it. Aspen thought she had control. She didn’t. She made her move against me. Now she was gonna learn who controls everything.”
I shook my head.
Wrong place, wrong time. Defending a friend. Innocent.
That’s not a justification to end a life, but for Jolin Zook it was. Not because she was in the wrong, but because she dared to challenge him.
I crossed a line of my own making. I never asked questions, especially the ones I really wasn’t prepared for the answer to. This was an error in judgment on my part.
It was my job not to ask questions, but rather deliver the body even if I wanted to know the reasoning. No matter the why, I was hired to do a job, a job I would complete without hesitation. I shouldn’t have asked because now, those thoughts will be riding me. Fuck.
“Understood,” I muttered, not really seeing how this was worth Freeman’s final marker to me. The leader of a gang, motorcycle club, or mafia, that I could see. Someone who posed a threat to his business, that made sense. A woman who did nothing but see this asshole doing whatever to her roommate, no. Freeman Zook gave me my start. He taught me the art of
a clean kill with no traces left behind. He gave me the skills to get free from the hold of my past. Freeman never made a move that wasn’t one-hundred percent business.
The way Jolin spoke—the tones, the laughter—his issue with Aspen and this marker was personal.
The first lesson Freeman Zook taught me was never allow business to become personal. Business was business, my fee was my fee, my rules to a job were mine, and nothing was ever negotiated down on my end. I was to never waver and never give an inch for human nature called for someone to seek more. Freeman Zook was a man with one purpose: keep his ass at the very top. No matter what it took.
I had years under him as the enforcer to keep him securely in control of the Amish underworld.
“If anyone shows up at that house, I’m the first call you make.” Every order Jolin gave me only infuriated me further. He wasn’t at my level, and he certainly wasn’t worth the marker Freeman was using.
Jolin was a bottom feeder. He saw what his uncle had and thought the life was easy. Entitled fuck. That was how I saw Jolin Zook. Just because he was related to Freeman and thought he should be given the same respect. He was a mess. Out of control, unpredictable, and arrogant. It was a deadly combination, and one day Freeman would have to face that.
Frustration built rapidly inside me. “Jolin, not your fuckin’ watch dog. You want eyes on your woman, you got people for that. I’m here for the marker Freeman called in for you. Aspen Everly Kimmel is my target. Other than delivering Royal to you if necessary, she’s not my concern.”
He gave a haughty laugh, “You’ll do as I say. You won’t chase Aspen. You’ll wait her out. She’s gonna return to Royal. In the meantime, if you’re there and have eyes on Royal, you’ll report to me. If you need that order to come from Uncle Freeman, I’ll make the call.”
His arrogance pissed me off more and more by the second, but I didn’t argue.
“You should know, Dane, he’ll be pissed if I gotta drag him in just to get your ass in line.”
Freeman Zook couldn’t give two shits about his nephew’s woman. He wouldn’t want his marker wasted on watching his nephew’s piece of ass. Aspen witnessed something that put Jolin at risk to go to jail. Freeman wasn’t a stupid man. The marker was to protect Freeman from Jolin, not to do Jolin any favors. If Jolin landed his ass in any kind of lock-up, he would sing like a canary. We would all face charges with the shit Jolin knew.
I was clean-up for his nephew’s fuck up.
It made sense now.
I was Freeman Zook’s most valuable asset because in all things I protected Freeman’s ass, and this job would be no different.
My anger was at a fever pitch knowing that Jolin dragged an innocent woman into this shit all because he had a bruised ego and got caught doing some fucked up shit to a woman he claimed to love.
Behind the house, some trees shifted. I ended my call without another word and turned my focus to the movement.
Climbing from my car, I quietly closed the door. Every move I made was with purpose and done in a manner as to not draw attention to me in any way. With my body covered from top to toe in black, I blended in with the quiet night. Moving slowly, I made my way to the back. Following the yard line on the edge, I kept my steps hidden as much as I could with the snow. Keeping my distance, I followed the movements of the brush into the neighbor’s yard.
Interesting.
The house was accessible from a rear side. I should’ve investigated the brush.
I smirked as I watched Aspen’s long brown hair with these copper highlights that glistened under the lights flow behind her as she rushed to climb in her car. So she indeed didn’t leave Royal to her own accord. I hated that Jolin was right, but at least he was good for something.
Quickly, I made my way back to my Dodge, jumped in, started it, and took off. Except, when I got the car around to where she was parked she was ghost. Not even a taillight could be seen.
At least I knew where she was going to access the house from now. She’d be back. She was too loyal to leave Royal for long.
I just had to be patient.
5
Aspen
A train.
Lordy. Now I felt like I was in Harry Potter land going to be dropped off to a mysterious place never known to man and learn magic tricks. Hell, at this point that’d be better, maybe I could figure out how to get away from this mess. At least at Hogwarts I could learn a trick or two.
Where was platform nine and three-quarters? I would gladly walk into walls if it meant escape. In fact, I would eat chocolate-covered toads, booger-flavored jelly beans; anything to avoid my current situation.
Unfortunately for me, the platform nor the world existed so there was no escape to be found. Instead, it was time for me to board the big train and head to parts unknown to me. I had lived my entire life in Pennsylvania. I didn’t know life outside of the “Keystone State”. When Royal and I first became friends, she spoke of her life in California. While she never made Cali seem like a horrible place, she didn’t actually make it sound nice either. It simply was, and she preferred their new life in the north much more.
Oh Royal, I wished she was here. At least then we could call this an adventure and find our way through this mess together instead of apart.
I had used public transportation before, but never long distance. This was the safest bet, though. A plane put me at risk because my destination would be firm unless I hopped off during a layover, but my ticket wouldn’t be scanned. It concerned me for tracking reasons. The airport and flying seemed to be much easier to trace. With the new systems that featured electronic check-ins and the likes, scanning my driver’s license wasn’t an option. Needing to make smart, quick decisions, this had to be the best way to go. So a one-way ticket got me on board the train. At some point, I would hop off before my stop and grab a ticket to some other unknown destination. Or if I found a place that called to me, I could simply stay put. The only thing on my mind was getting out of Pennsylvania and away from Jolin Zook’s reach.
My car was ditched. It didn’t sit well with me. The Toyota Scion tC was a sporty, two-door ride with a great warranty. I loved to roll my windows down and just drive, letting my hair blow in the wind. I had worked hard for it. In fact, thinking of it left a very sour taste in my mouth since it wouldn’t be paid off for another three years. My credit would be ruined by this because I obviously couldn’t make the payment while trying to support my new life on the run. I wondered how long it would take the repo man to locate it.
It was currently in the parking lot of the Kroger in Philadelphia where I hitched a ride with an Uber using the new phone Royal gave me. Of course, I didn’t want the cameras in the parking lot to catch my Uber, so I had them pick me up at the end of Walnut Street.
Part of me wondered if I watched too much TV and was making shit harder than it had to be. Then, the part of me that wanted to live no matter what said I couldn’t be too careful.
Trying to avoid any way to be traced proved difficult. Every move I made had to be carefully thought out. Every plan needed to be flawlessly executed, and I wasn’t always a good planner. This secretive stuff, yeah, it wasn’t me either. Unfortunately, this was my new reality, and I had to remain focused.
All of this led me to here—sitting on a train going God knew how fast and thinking that my life sucked.
Going from having everything to nothing in the blink of an eye was unnerving. This would be the third time in my life this had happened. My parents death. Grampa’s death. And now this. Dropping every damn thing I had to run away from a crazy guy who wanted to kill me.
It wasn’t just walking away from my life, as in my things, but leaving my job, my family, the life I had built. My job may not have been the best, but I enjoyed what I did. There were too many people who worked to live; I could honestly say I lived to work because I really did wake up happy every day to do my job. Of course, there was also Gramma and Royal. I may not have had an overly active social life. My
phone may not have been filled with number after number in my contact list. The people in my life who mattered, really mattered and knew it. Now, though, I had to leave, and I didn’t even get an opportunity to give them a proper goodbye.
There were no misconceptions of what Jolin would do to me. I couldn’t allow myself to continue to dwell on what this cost me because time wasn’t my friend, so I had none to waste if I wanted to stay alive. Although death wasn’t what I feared. It was the time before he actually killed me that scared the absolute shit out of me. If he could do that to Royal, then he’d do worse to me for hitting him with a damn bat. He certainly had no loyalty to me, and we hadn’t built a relationship over the course of three years like he had with Royal.
All I thought of in the moment, though, was helping my friend. Now, I was on a train set forth across the country. There was no destination in mind. The ticket was for all the way to Washington state. Getting off somewhere before that was the goal.
I tried to stop thinking of Royal and everything I lost so I could focus on where to get off this machine.
Maybe Colorado. I could go to one of those towns I read about in the mountains where maybe I’d find my alpha male mate who would love me forever. We’d meet in a bar where I waitressed, and he’d take one look at me and know I was his forever.
Ha! That wouldn’t happen, but maybe finding a safe haven there would be a good idea.
This train had been going for hours. While I wanted to look out the window at the scenery, it gave me a terrible headache and I was pretty sure I’d eventually throw up from the way my stomach was still rolling.
I replayed everything that Royal said to me, going back and forth over the information and trying to recall some of the cop shows we watched.
First, get to the location. Second, find a place to sleep and food in my belly. Third, figure out how to get a new ID that didn’t have my name. Then find a job, make money, and start a life.
PowerLess_Anti-Hero Game Page 4
