Page 66 of Havoc

Sighing, I stepped back, slowly, and steadily, keeping my eyes on the snake the whole time. Once I was far enough away, the snake slithered through the long grass and away from us. I moved back up to Hendrix who couldn’t move.

“Come on, you need to get changed.”

“I thought I was going to die,” he squeaked. I hugged him, keeping my body far away from his pee-stained pants and rubbed his back to reassure him.

“So, did he,” I said. “It’s okay, he’s gone now.”

“They need to cut this grass,” he said, angrily.

“But it’s their home,” I protested.

“You know what, Presley, you’re so weird. Why can’t you just like normal animals like cats and dogs?”

Hendrix stormed inside, and I looked back at the longish grass near the driveway. I’d never seen it so long before, but that just meant I could explore for more animals in the morning.

I hated these memories of he and I. The very next day, I’d gone with a bucket to explore for more lizards, and the grass had been cut back. I knew it had been Hendrix and his goddamn fear of them, and I hated him for it. The memory did prove useful though, he was a coward, and not in the least able to run this business.

When Pierce pulled into the carpark, he told me he was going to check on Caelan so I headed upstairs alone. Rudie was sitting on the lounge, her phone in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Hendrix wants me to meet him.”

“He doesn’t know you know about him and Talia now?”

She shook her head. “No, I waited for him to check in with me which he’s now done. If I don’t respond soon, he’ll get angry.”

“This could be good for us, we need him to be relaxed,” I said. “Answer him back and ask him to meet up.”

Rudie nodded and like a good little girl she responded to him, showing me what she sent. I nodded and we waited.

Within seconds, a ding sounded from the little phone and Rudie looked up at me with a smile. “He’s just given me a place to meet him tonight.”

“Where?”

“It’s an old interrogation place, used by some corrupt cops. It’s built like a precinct but if we can get there first, he’ll be none the wiser.”

“Do you know how to get there?”

Rudie nodded. “But we need a plan, we can’t just lock him in a room.”

“What kind of torture did the corrupt cops do there?”

“I think they gassed some people once,” Rudie said. “But that’s just a rumour.”

“Get the boys,” I said. “We need to do some recon.”

Rudie jumped up and ran into the rooms to get them up and ready while I looked out at the landscape through the windows. Hendrix was about to get his comeuppance, and I couldn’t fucking wait.

~

We were all set. Rudie had shown us the compartment where there was the two-way mirror that we could hide and watch. When Rudie sat in the room, I could see she was nervous and I was worried she would turn on us, but Lennon seemed to think she would do the right thing and for some reason, I trusted his judgment.

The door opened, and I saw Hendrix walk in with that cocky grin and that swagger he never had as a kid. He looked like a douchebag and not at all like my cowardly brother.

“Rudie…”

“Hey Henny.”

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