Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 125140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I arrive on the bottom step and slowly peer around the corner to see there’s nobody around. The engine is loud and whirring. With my gun in my hand, I walk farther into the room.
What if he is already dead?
No, the call was only moments ago.
I hear someone coming down the stairs from where I just came from and I duck into a darkened hallway.
Shit. Who is that?
I stand flattened against the wall as I listen, and then I see Stucco walk past. Shit, it is really true.
This is it.
My heart begins to hammer and I see him stuff something in his back pocket.
Was that a knife? I frown. It wasn’t big enough to be a gun. I peer around the darkened corner and he calls out, “Mac, you here?”
I listen and I know that Stace is down here doing the exact same thing as me. Flattened against a wall somewhere listening to the fucker. I wonder how fast his heart is beating?
“Mac!” He calls again.
“What’s the problem?” Stace eventually replies as he appears around the back corner.
“The gasket in the rotator is gone.”
Stace’s knowing eyes hold his.
The tension between them is thick.
“No, they aren’t. That’s a blatant lie,” Stace replies calmly.
“But…”
“There are no buts. I just fucking checked them.” He sneers.
Stucco stares him down.
“A little birdie told me you plan on knocking me off?” Stace smiles sarcastically. “Good luck. I’m waiting pretty boy.”
“Fuck you,” Stucco hisses.
“I’m sick and tired of your fucking shit. You got something to say or do.” He pushes Stucco in the chest as a silent dare. “Do it now.”
Oh shit.
Stucco runs at him and Stace punches him hard in the face, but Stucco comes back and connects a hit to his jaw and Stace staggers back.
Oh no. What do I do? I grip the gun. What the hell do I do?
Stace runs at him and tackles him to the floor and then he is on him and they struggle for a while rolling around. Over and over they roll and Stace gets the upper hand and smashes him hard in the face repeatedly.
I step back to my hiding place around the corner. Holy fucking shit.
“What are you doing?” Mac screams in his face. I call him Mac because that’s who he is at the moment. There isn’t a trace of my beautiful Stace here.
He slams his head on the concrete. “What do you fucking want?” he screams again.
Stucco struggles and tries to punch up at him, but he doesn’t stand a chance against Mac’s strength.
As if losing control, he slams him continually until Stucco is out cold.
I stay hidden, disturbed by what I have just witnessed, and yet sickly proud.
He was right. He didn’t need me at all.
I watch as Stace rolls him over and checks his pocket and pulls out a syringe filled with something. He eyes it suspiciously.
I hear someone coming down the steps. Oh no. I flatten up against the wall in the darkness.
“What’s going on?” I hear a male voice ask. I peer around the corner to see one of Stace’s colleagues from the control tower.
“This fuckwit just jumped me and I found this on him.” Stace holds the syringe up and the guy takes it from him
Oh no, don’t trust him. Don’t trust him. Don’t give him the syringe.
“Fucking idiot.” He sighs. “We will put him in the lockup and deal with him tomorrow,” he replies dryly.
They grab an arm each and pick him up and half carry and half drag him up the stairs, no doubt to the lock up in the control tower.
I lean back against the wall and let out a deep breath. That was close.
* * *
An hour later I lie in the darkened room and I wonder who I am sleeping with.
He was cold and calculating tonight.
No remorse, no empathy.
No fear.
He smashed Stucco’s head on the floor until he was unconscious, I know how Stace’s story started out, but how does it end?
My mother told me that my father started out with petty crimes, and look what a monster he turned into. Is this how she felt about him when they first met? Did she know he was into some bad shit, but didn’t care anyway? Was she blinded by the percentage that was good and thought that he was going to leave this life behind? But then, what was Stace supposed to do? It was attack or get attacked and even I was prepared to shoot Stucco dead.
Maybe it’s me.
Maybe I am the one who is fucked up.
I don’t even know anymore.
My thoughts are interrupted by him coming back to the cabin. He walks into the bathroom and gets into the shower, not saying anything. Does he honestly think I’m asleep?
Ten minutes later he gets into bed beside me.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Nothing,” he replies quietly.